Mike Obermueller raises $250K in first two months

Former legislator Mike Obermueller promised to raise $1.2 million in his bid to oust Rep. John Kline (R-MN). Mike reported that in the first two months as the endorsed DFL candidate, he's raised over $250,000.

Former DFL state Rep. Mike Obermueller, a U.S. House candidate in Minnesota's Second Congressional District, raised $252,976 in the second quarter of this year in his bid to unseat Republican John Kline.

Kline raised $428K during the second quarter and has $1.3M to spend on his reelection bid.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has promised to support Mike and this is welcome news. Past candidates had trouble raising this much for the entire campaign and consequently, the DCCC never paid attention to MN-02.

The reason Mike is succeeding at fundraising and the reason that the DCCC is helping is redistricting made this district winnable. This district was rated as R+4 before redistricting. When redistricting removed conservative western precincts and added liberal West St. Paul, this seat became winnable.

My best guess is that Kline lost around 10,000 votes via redistricting but I'm very probably counting too conservatively.

Kline has never faced a organized and vigorous campaign. Kline has never campaigned very hard since first winning the seat in 2002.

Maybe Kline will realize how much more money he'll make as a lobbyist once he's lost reelection ...