U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann raised $5.4 million in the third quarter of 2010, adding to her already massive campaign war chest. The Republican incumbent has now taken in roughly $10 million to defend her seat -- nearly three times what she raised during the entire 2008 election cycle.

The MCCL endorsement is likely to fuel claims that Oberstar is vulnerable in a year when many Republicans are trying to tie incumbent members of Congress to unpopular congressional leaders.

The National Republican Congressional Committee bumped Chip Cravaack to "On the Radar" it its "Young Guns" program on Thursday after a several day media blitz for the Eighth Congressional District candidate.

It looks like state GOP Rep. Randy Demmer's recent promotion to the National Republican Campaign Committee's (NRCC) "Young Guns" program will start to pay off. The NRCC plans to air more than $100,000 worth of attack ads against Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, who Demmer is vying to unseat in the First Congressional District.

U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar will host a Capitol Hill fundraiser on Thursday morning at Johnny's Half Shell. The sixteen-term DFLer will be joined by California Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is locked in a tough re-election battle with former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.

Few people give Chip Cravaack much of a chance to take out 18-term DFL Rep. Jim Oberstar. The closest any challenger has come to threatening the Eighth Congressional District incumbent was in 1992 -- when Phil Herwig lost by a mere 29 percentage points.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has elevated the race for Minnesota's seventh district, where many election analysts have said the seat is all but set for 10-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Collin Peterson.

The Wall Street Journal has a lengthy piece today profiling House Minority Leader John Boehner and his potentially troubling business ties. In particular, the piece suggests that if Republicans re-take the House -- as many pundits now believe likely to happen -- the Ohio Republican could encounter resistance from within his own party in seeking to become the next Speaker of the House.

The Minnesota Farm Bureau's political action committee and its federal PAC declined to endorse a candidate in the race for Minnesota's First Congressional District while endorsing a slate of conservatives in other state and federal races.

Political nonprofit groups, labor unions and party committees have spent $57 million so far this year seeking to influence the mid-term congressional elections -- a 61 percent increase over 2006, according to a new report by the Sunlight Foundation. None of Minnesota's eight U.S. House contests, however, have attracted dollars from independent expenditure groups, according to a database created by the watchdog organization.