There’s so much to dive into on the Cravaack vs. Oberstar race. First, Cravaack did exactly what I expected he would do in the southern Eighth, clean up. But notably he pulled off a surprise in the north, for instance carrying Balsam Township where I live and holding Jim Oberstar under 60 percent in Hibbing and in Tom Rukavina’s east Range District 5A (both places where Oberstar generally does much better). Like I said last night this was the first time I ever saw Range legislators outpacing Oberstar’s totals, at least here in the West. I think Rukavina has done it before on the Eastern Mesabi.

I’ll have some thoughts on Oberstar and Cravaack later this morning. This race has a lot of personal overtones for me.