International notice for Minnesota 1st CD race

From the Jerusalem Post, Nov. 6:

House Republicans who came in during '94 sweep in danger of being swept

A half-dozen Republican congressmen ushered into office in the 1994 Republican tidal wave that tossed Democrats from power may be swept out in Tuesday elections, casualties of a Democratic surge fueled by voter anger over the Iraq war.

On the eve of the congressional elections, Republicans are hoping their acclaimed get-out-the-vote operation will ensure majority control. But some say privately they have a slim chance of retaining the House after a grueling campaign centered on turmoil in Iraq, President George W. Bush's sagging approval numbers, political scandals and corruption investigations....

Back then, the party gained 52 seats to end four decades of Democratic control of the House, with promises of balancing the budget and enacting term limits. Hankering for a change in the status quo, voters that year elected Newt Gingrich's hard-charging followers who proposed the vaunted Contract with America....

Gingrich's disciples in the most competitive races this year include:

• Gil Gutknecht in Minnesota, who has an occasional independent streak. In the late 1990s, he concluded that Gingrich as speaker had been "a disappointment to everybody" and that the Republican revolution had been exaggerated. Democrat Tim Walz, a high school teacher, is challenging him.

(The article is here.)