http://www.mncampaignreport.com. You know what to do.

It’s not really news, but it’s worth some more analysis - Mike Erlandson has confirmed that he will face Keith Ellison in the September primary in CD5. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see at least one or two of the other non-endorsed candidates drop at this point - Rep. Ellison will get the lion’s share of DFL loyalist votes, and if the rest are split four ways, Ellison will win walking away.

As some other folks have noted, however, I don’t think it’s altogether a terrible thing that a competitive primary take place in Minneapolis and its first ring suburbs. Congressman Sabo did announce his retirement after precinct caucuses, giving potential candidates an extremely short period of time to organize within an already-determined universe of DFL delegates. Very tough position to be in for all involved. That the Republican candidate can’t seem to hit the broad side of a barn with a complete Political sentence only confirms that this race should and will be decided in September, with plenty of time after that for the nominee to get on the campaign trail with other DFL candidates across the state.

All in all, CD5 represents an opportunity for the DFL to show Minnesota our quality as a political organization and as individuals. If the political sniping can be kept to a bare minimum and on a professional level, it will demonstrate that we, as Democrats, are unafraid of honest debate of the issues. It will provide a stark contrast with the endorsement-battle shenanigans conducted by a certain GOP-endorsed congressional candidate just to the north of CD5.