A new KSTP/SurveyUSA poll shows a dead heat in the race for the Eighth Congressional District, with 18-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim Oberstar leading Republican challenger Chip Cravaack only 47 to 46.

As returns come in, here are some of the key factors campaign vets will be watching in the governor's race.

National political pundit Larry Sabato has released his final "crystal ball" predictions for the 2010 elections. The director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics anticipates Republicans picking up 55 seats and taking control of the House. Sabato sees the three Minnesota incumbents considered to be in some peril -- DFLers Jim Oberstar and Tim Walz, and Republican Michele Bachmann -- retaining their seats.

Duluth daily's editorial board praises Cravaack as a political novice and fiscal conservative. Oberstar slams paper's absentee ownership.

In the 2002 election that followed Minnesota's last round of redistricting, the three seats that comprise Minnesota legislative District 4 - which includes the city of Bemidji, Cass County and parts of Itasca, Beltrami, Hubbard and Crow Wing counties - were swept by Republicans. Some believed the results were a harbinger of reliable GOP dominance in the area.

A delegation of local officials who met with congressional leaders late last month to talk up the I-94 Gateway Corridor returned home feeling good about the project's prospects.

U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar raised $232,000 in the third quarter of 2010, bringing his total haul for the election cycle to $1.5 million. The eighteen-term DFL incumbent had nearly $600,000 in the bank at the end of September.

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.

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.