Posts by Dr. Eric Ostermeier
Klobuchar’s Approval Rebounds While Senators Grassley, Harkin, Kohl, and Feingold’s Sink to Historic Lows
The latest round of SurveyUSA polling finds Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar rebounding back into familiar territory, while many of her Upper Midwestern colleagues see their job performance marks sink to record lows and struggle to reach even a positive…
Read MoreA Profile of Minnesota’s Swing and Stronghold State Senate Districts
During the past three days Smart Politics has issued reports analyzing party strength in the state’s 134 House districts – including analyses on the state’s 40 swing districts, the 94 DFL and GOP stronghold districts, and the barriers the Republican…
Read MoreHow Many Minnesota House ‘Swing Districts’ Will Return to the GOP in 2010?
This week Smart Politics has issued two reports profiling the battle for the Minnesota House in 2010, first by documenting the barriers the GOP faces to cut into the the DFL’s 40-seat advantage, and then by highlighting the 94 ‘stronghold’…
Read MoreA Profile of Minnesota’s 94 DFL and GOP ‘Stronghold’ House Districts
In Monday’s first part in a series of reports looking ahead to the battle for the Minnesota House in 2010, Smart Politics outlined several significant hurdles the Republican Party faces to not simply make a long-shot run at taking back…
Read MoreObama Approval Rating Holds in Minnesota, Plummets in Iowa and Wisconsin
Although Barack Obama’s approval rating has taken an (expected) hit in Minnesota since the beginning of his term, a hit all presidents endure, a new SurveyUSA poll finds Gopher State residents much more patient with the new Democratic president than…
Read MoreWhat Are the Odds of a GOP Takeover of the Minnesota House in 2010?
While few Minnesota political pundits – or officeholders – are projecting a GOP takeover of the House of Representatives in November 2010, the Republican party leadership is very optimistic they are going to make gains into the DFL’s current 40-seat…
Read MoreWhich Lawmaker (and Political Party) Leaves the Biggest Twitter Footprint in Minnesota Politics?
Last month Smart Politics conducted a case study as to how one Minnesota lawmaker, Republican Representative Laura Brod, utilized the social networking site Twitter during the last legislative session. That study found the plurality of Rep. Brod’s tweets were about…
Read MoreMinnesota Has 3rd Lowest Increase in Unemployment Nationwide Since Enactment of Federal Stimulus Bill
As it turns out, the three-tenths of a percent decrease in jobless claims announced last week by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development is the backdrop to an even larger story of (relatively) good economic news for Minnesotans….
Read MoreCan the DFL Win a 6th U.S. House Seat in 2010?
As Minnesota faces the real prospect of losing its 8th U.S. House seat in the 2012 reapportionment, the DFL looks to close the current census period with a bang, by returning to its glory days of the 1990s when it…
Read MoreUnemployment Down in Minnesota and South Dakota, Flat in Wisconsin
New unemployment data released this week for the month of July in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin provides largely good news on the labor force front in the Upper Midwest. In Minnesota, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 8.4…
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