Earlier this month, Perata destroyed his car tire driving through this pothole next to his campaign headquarters. He talked to neighbors and found out he wasn’t the only one who’d had this problem.

So Perata—a Sacramento powerbroker who represented Oakland and other East Bay cities in the Capitol for twelve years, including four as the top Senate Democrat—started calling city officials. Before long, he and his staff were speaking with the Public Works Department. Perata learned that the city had paved over the pothole six times in the past year, but not addressed the root of the problem: overflowing water from the sewer system beneath the street.

“That’s a management problem,” an exasperated Perata told a campaign audience last week in East Oakland, a district he represented in both state and county government. “Don’t blame the workers—it’s not their fault for filling a work order dutifully. But who’s the clown that hasn’t figured it out after six times? That’s a management problem.”

With a booming voice that doesn’t require a microphone at campaign events, Perata frequently describes himself as a “results guy, not a process guy.” In a blue suit and black mock turtleneck, Perata, 65, shook hands among old friends and new acquaintances in a mostly African-American audience at Youth Uprising, an leadership and job training center for teens and young adults near Castlemont High School in East Oakland. He’s quick to remember a constituent who came to him with a problem in county government many years ago or church ministers he’s worked with on social programs.

On the campaign trail, the invocation of the pothole problem is a standard Perata theme: What might seem like minor issues on Oakland streets reflect more serious deficiencies at City Hall. He told campaign audiences at both Youth Uprising and West Oakland’s Acorn apartments that the city has “no excuse” for not addressing garbage on the streets of these neighborhoods.

While not mentioning incumbent mayor Ron Dellums by name, Perata is suggesting that the city needs a firmer hand in City Hall and that he’s the one to provide it. “Good mayors in active cities go around and manage by driving and walking around,” Perata said, citing Chicago Mayor Richard Daley as an example. “They see things, write stuff down, and call the department people. The next morning, the mayor goes back out to see if the people did their jobs.”

Part of Perata’s pitch to voters is the idea he would bring a Chicago-like discipline to City Hall. But could he turn Oakland city government, a hodgepodge of 40 boards and commissions, into a well-oiled political machine? Like Perata, Dellums and former mayor Jerry Brown returned to Oakland from political positions outside the city with visions of changing the culture of Oakland government. Both mayors struggled to bend the bureaucracy in their direction. Perata acknowledges it’s hard to shift from Washington D.C. or Sacramento to Bay Area government, but sees former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, who had previously served as California Assembly speaker, as someone who made the transition. “Willie Brown has his detractors, but the city worked when he was mayor,” Perata said.

In addition to citing Willie Brown, Perata takes a page from the New York mayor Rudy Giuliani playbook—talking about clean streets and top-down accountability. He also has some positive things to say about how current New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has managed New York City.

Dellums has not said whether he intends to seek re-election, while city councilmember Jean Quan has declared herself a candidate and city councilmember Rebecca Kaplan is exploring a run. Perata has the longest record in elected office among the declared candidates in Oakland mayor’s race, dating back to his days as a county supervisor in the 1980s. He can call in favors from business and labor leaders he’s helped during his days in Sacramento, and can also point to legislative accomplishments he brokered in Sacramento on gun control, environmental regulations and health care that have benefited Oakland residents. Perata says he always found a way to align the broader interests of the California Democratic Party with his constituents’ needs in the East Bay.

“For the last 20 years, I’ve been as involved and aggressive on the fundamental issues in Oakland as anybody,” Perata said last week during an interview in Rockridge. “Almost everything I wanted to do in Sacramento that was beneficial to the state—whether it was on gun control or infant mortality—was twice as beneficial to my district.”

In campaign appearances, Perata presents himself as an agent of active government and accountability. People supporting Perata—including U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and the Oakland police union—point to his record of surviving state budget negotiations with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and a carjacking on Piedmont Avenue as signs of a decisive leader who’s cool under pressure.

But while Perata’s long history in office comes with its share of accomplishments, it also comes with its share of controversies. In a Bay Area that prides itself on its progressive politics and a play-nice ethos, Perata is often the bête noire of the blogosphere. Commenters on the San Francisco Chronicle or East Bay Express bristle at what they perceive as Perata’s heavy-handed style and penchant for wheeling and dealing. One East Bay group has set up an “Anyone But Don Perata for Mayor” website.

One deal Perata helped broker has already come under scrutiny in this mayoral campaign. During his tenure on the county Board of Supervisors, Perata backed the agreement between the city, the county, local developer Ed De Silva and Raiders owner Al Davis to renovate the Oakland Coliseum to entice the football team to return to the city in 1998. The city and county voted to guarantee $197 million in loans for the stadium renovations, and both Oakland and Alameda County are still servicing those debts.

“We don’t need a mayor whose funding for the developers left this city with a Raiders deal that will leave us paying $24 million a year until 2025,” Perata opponent Jean Quan said at a March campaign event. “If it weren’t for the Raiders deal, we’d have twice as many people working in our parks and working with our kids.”

At the height of his power in Sacramento, Perata faced a five-year FBI investigation into charges that Oakland lobbyist Lilly Hu funneled money into his campaigns. The FBI raided Perata’s house in 2004 as part of its investigation, but he was not charged when the investigation ended last year. He characterizes this episode as a politically motivated vendetta by the Bush administration when he was the most powerful Democrat in California state politics. He says the bottom line now is that he’s now the most vetted candidate in the mayor’s race, and that he’s proud to run on his record. He also doesn’t seem to mind that he’s acquired a reputation as something of a political tough guy, and a small picture of “The Godfather” Don Corleone sits on a shelf in Perata’s campaign office, next to pictures from community centers and social welfare programs he’s helped to establish.

“[The FBI] couldn’t even find the slimmest of a nail to hang their coat on, and they went through everything,” Perata said. “If all the other stuff I have done in my career—including a very good job as president pro tem under that pressure—is not a sufficient counterweight to an allegation never proved, then a person is not going to vote first, second or third anyway.”

The reference to “first, second or third” reflects a new wrinkle in Oakland politics. This year, the city’s elections will take place under instant runoff voting, eliminating the traditional June primary and moving all voting for city offices to November. Under the new system, voters will rank their choices for mayor, meaning Perata won’t have the opportunity to go one-on-one with any opponent. In this environment, blocs of voters who might otherwise split their votes could coalesce around the “Anyone but Perata” campaign.

In early campaigning, Perata has returned to Oakland districts he represented in state and county government

“Don Perata is someone who has high positive ratings and high negative ratings with voters, so he’s not going to get lots of second-preference votes,” said UC Berkeley political science professor Bruce Cain. “If it turns out to be a close race, those subtleties could matter.”

Even though the votes will be tallied in a new way under IRV, Oakland’s 2010 mayoral contest hinges on the traditional urban politics triumvirate of crime, education and economic development. Crime often takes center stage in Oakland—a city of 400,000 that has averaged 120 annual homicides over the last three years—and Perata is quick to point out that he likes the direction new police chief Anthony Batts has taken the department.

“I’ve told Batts that if I’m elected mayor, I’m backing his hand for the entire time he has a contract [through 2012],” Perata said. “He’s gone out and been in the community—heard from you and decided what needs to be done. I will support this chief and won’t second guess him.”

On public education, Perata—who was a schoolteacher in Alameda for 15 years before entering politics—has said that Oakland public schools can no longer operate on the “old model.” He has said he thinks that Proposition 98—the 1988 California law that determines public school funding under a strict formula—has harmed public education in California. He says the federal and state budget shortfalls mean Oakland will not be able to look to Sacramento or Washington D.C. for more funds, even though the Oakland Unified School District is operating at an $80 million deficit in 2010 and facing teacher strikes. Perata says that OUSD needs to be “smaller and more diverse in its program offerings” as the number of students has declined from 55,000 to 37,000 in the last decade. Despite this exodus of students out of the system, Perata says OUSD superintendent Tony Smith has the right ideas about partnership between the city government and the school district.

“I think this new superintendent is the right man for the job at the right time,” Perata said. “The city and the school district should be partners. We should be sharing afterschool programs, facilities, libraries—all these things should be done in common.”

In making his play as the candidate best positioned to jumpstart Oakland’s economy, Perata has already started soliciting ideas from local business leaders. “For business to thrive in Oakland, the city needs political leadership that understands how to make the government machine work and breakdown barriers to economic growth,” says Carlos Plazola, president of the Oakland Builders’ Association, an organization that has not yet endorsed a mayoral candidate.

“I’m impressed with Don’s record of getting bureaucracies to move forward and his ability to deliver on commitments,” Plazola adds.

At many of these discussions with local business leaders, Perata has vowed to bring new energy and personnel into the City Economic Development Agency and says he sees great potential for economic development in health care.

“The one thing that Oakland has that no other city in the Bay Area has are four medical centers, with 15,000 people employed in those centers,” Perata said. “Those are major assets. As mayor, I would put together a hospital district. They’ve done in it Birmingham, they’ve done it in Cleveland, they’re doing it in Pittsburgh. Health care is going to be the big-ticket item in the future.”

On the campaign trail, Perata believes he can win votes across the city—including among Oakland’s African-Americans, who make up around 33 percent of the city’s population. “I’m the only announced candidate that can campaign everywhere equally and be held accountable for it,” Perata said. “I’ve represented the African-American community—which is the largest single constituency in Oakland—and I’ve always had very strong support there. I’ve run against black candidates in these districts and beaten them.”

Perata’s supporters among the city’s African-American leaders include Nate Miley, an Oakland representative on the County Board of Supervisors. Miley was on the City Council that supported Oakland’s “strong mayor” initiative in 1998, and he said that Perata was ideally suited to lead city government under this system.

“Don Perata will be the first person as mayor to exercise that office the way it should be exercised. He’ll roll up his sleeves and concentrate on the welfare and well-being of the city,” Miley said at a Perata campaign event. “Some good things have happened in the administrations of Jerry Brown and Ron Dellums, but I think Don will drive the ball home. He’ll bring the city forward.”

Without a major African-American candidate in the race at this point, Perata won’t be the only one vying for support among one of the city’s largest and most active political constituencies. Jean Quan has already received the endorsement of Oakland’s State Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, a former Dellums colleague who is now Quan’s campaign co-chair. And Geoffrey Pete, vice chairman of the Oakland Black Caucus that recruited Dellums to run for mayor, told the Oakland Tribune he’d be inclined to support Kaplan if Dellums doesn’t run. “I think Kaplan can be solid enough on the African-American issues to win a sizable portion of the African-American constituency,” Pete said. “I think she is the candidate for the future of the city of Oakland.”

Oakland’s transition to IRV could intersect with the city’s diverse electorate in unpredictable ways. Under instant runoff voting—where individuals don’t have to put all their electoral eggs in one basket—candidates may “microtarget” Oakland voters as never before. For instance, women voters make up more than 53 percent of Oakland’s electorate, and Oakland has never had a woman mayor. Jean Quan—and Rebecca Kaplan, if she runs—may make that appeal to voters.

Back in front of Perata headquarters on Oakland Avenue in mid-April, East Bay Municipal Utility District and Oakland Public Works trucks descended on the pothole. They’d removed manhole covers and tested sewage pipes. It’s not clear that the Oakland city government can come running every time Perata calls—even if he wins the mayor’s office next year—but he’s taking it as an encouraging first step.

“I believe my political skill set is ideally suited to solve problems—so much of this is about persuasion,” he said. “You sweat the small stuff and when it comes to the big stuff, you’ll get it right. People will follow you.”

Kerry Seed hard at work

Our election night webcast was produced by the Political Reporting program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, in association with the News 21 Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.  Listen to the archive of the webcast, view images from the evening and the show schedule here.

Ian Sherr traveled to Selma, Alabama, to revisit its civil rights legacy and to find out exactly what Barack Obama’s presidency means to the people who struggled all those years ago.

MONTGOMERY, AL—Since Bobby Bright was asking for his vote, Roger Gaither thought this would be the perfect opportunity to ask the Democratic congressional candidate what might be the most important question of the campaign.

“People around here talk about how when you were asked if you support Obama, you raised your hand and said ‘yes.’  Is that true?”

Gaither, the owner of the Gallery antique shop in Wetumpka, about 20 miles north of here, had recently seen a television ad designed to portray Bright as out of step with Alabamans because of his support for Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

Now, here was the Mayor—campaigning right at Gaither’s counter.

“They manipulated that clip,” Bright said. “I originally said I would support whoever won, but then they asked again and I said ‘yes, I support Barack Obama and John McCain.’  But they cut the clip.”

Politics in Alabama are changing, but for Mayor Bright, they can’t change soon enough.  The conservative mayor who is liberal by Montgomery’s standards is fighting for a congressional seat that has been in Republican hands for 40 years.

Once considered unattainable for a Democrat, the seat being vacated by Republican Terry Everett seems to be within Bright’s reach this year.  That’s partly because of the economy, partly because of people’s disenchantment with President Bush, and partly because of Bright’s support in Montgomery’s large black community after restoring bus routes that had been discontinued by his predecessor.

Republican Senator Jay love is also vying to replace Everett, and as is often the case with an open congressional seat, the race is highly contentious.

Love, a former Subway sandwich shop owner and two-term State Senator, has relied heavily on his business background to influence his legislative decisions—such as tax cuts to make healthcare more affordable for small business leaders.  In response, Bright points to Montgomery’s nationally-recognized prescription drug plan for city employees and retirees.

Still, with a constituency that will vote overwhelmingly for Republican Senator John McCain as president—there isn’t an official Obama office anywhere in the district—Mayor Bright’s biggest challenge is the “D” next to his name.

And so, his campaign is covering as much ground as it can, starting early and ending late, visiting all 16 counties in Alabama’s 2nd congressional district in the last 16 days of the race to have the Mayor meet as many people as possible.

“It would be easier socially if we were Republican,” Lynn—the mayor’s wife and a retired judge—explained as she rode in the SUV trailing behind the Mayor’s truck on their way to the next small town.  “But he couldn’t do that because of his history—he defeated a sitting Republican to become mayor of Montgomery.”

Recent polls commissioned by Democratic groups are showing the Bright-Love race essentially tied—a success that the Mayor’s staff attribute largely to his conservative values mixed with his inclusive message.

He is hoping to convince voters to split their tickets.

One of those who might is Darrell Westmoreland, who was still undecided after seeing Bright and Love debate at Huntingdon College on Oct. 24.

“There’s a lot of frustration with the parties,” the 46 year old lawyer from Montgomery said.  “I usually always split tickets—I vote for the person I think is most qualified.”

What’s tough for many voters is that with the exception of issues raised in the negative campaign ads, the candidates essentially agree.  They agree on the economy, they agree on defense spending, and they agree on agricultural issues.

In fact, their views are so similar that both of them independently sought promises from their parties that they would be assigned to the same committees—Armed Services and Agriculture.

“I guess that’s part of the Alabama upbringing, the state is largely conservative,” said 31 year old Todd Adams, a student at Huntingdon College who is voting in Montgomery for the first time.  “It’s going to come down to the letter at the end of their name: R or D.”

Which is partially why there are so many negative ads in this campaign.  The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has outspent its Republican counterparts two to one, spending $1.2 million to place ads on behalf of Mayor Bright—attacking Senator Love for his ties to a casino tycoon who is expanding into “Communist China.”

Mayor Bright’s campaign insists it has not run a single negative ad, conveniently ignoring those produced on its behalf by the DCCC.

“Rep. (Nancy) Boyda in Kansas said publicly that she wanted the Democratic Congressional Campaign committee out of her race and they did,” Love said at the end of a day campaigning at a fall festival in Greenville.  “Bright could have done the same thing.”

“We knew this was going to be a tough race—we were prepared for a year long battle,” he continued, noting that Rep. Everett wont he previous open-seat race in 1992 by only two percentage points, 49/47.  “We knew it would be a competitive primary and we knew the Democrats were going to spend as much as they could. We’re just gonna keep at it.”

But the public perception has not gone entirely in Love’s favor.  At a fall festival in the tiny south western town of Opp, Gordon Gilmore made a point of rebuking the state senator about campaign conduct.

“There’s too much mud slinging, and you’ve done most of it,” the 72 year old retired paint contractor said.

Senator Love thought for a moment—looking Gilmore in the eye, before loosening his shoulders and putting on a smile.  “I stand behind what I said, and we can just disagree.”

Jay Love (left) campaigning in the town of Opp.

Bobby Bright (right) campaigning at a local burger joint in Coosada.

Republican congressman Jon Porter is fighting a race of his life in Nevada’s 3rd district.

Democratic candidate Dina Titus is looking to turn the district blue, and an influx of new residents, rising unemployment and one of the highest home foreclosure rates in the country could tip the race in her favor.

FORT COLLINS—Marilyn Musgrave should be a shoo-in for reelection based on the overwhelmingly Republican electorate here in Colorado’s 4th congressional district. Instead, the three-term incumbent who went to Washington pushing a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage is fighting for her political life. This staunch conservative spends her time on the stump talking about her bi-partisan work in the House, while ads attacking her Democratic opponent flood the airwaves.

In case the message wasn’t getting through, she stressed the point to reporters after the candidates’ first debate.

“I’m the one on the stage that has demonstrated that I can work in a bi-partisan way,” she said. “I have voted to override the President’s veto three times. I’ve stood up to the leadership in my own party.”

Musgrave’s effort to distance herself from the social conservative agenda that first  got her elected  (not to mention an unpopular President) was actually underway before the 2008 campaign.  Since her margin of victory narrowed—she won less than 50 percent of the vote in a three-way race in 2006—the Congresswoman has struggled to retool herself as a lawmaker responsive to the needs of a district dominated by agriculture and small business. She helped secure subsidies to the district’s farmers through the passage of the 2007 Farm Bill and has been an outspoken opponent of the Army’s attempt to expand a base in Southeastern Colorado into ranching territory.

Her efforts may not be enough.

The perfect storm of a collapsing economy, unhappiness with Republicans both nationally and in the Colorado legislature and Musgrave’s earlier role as an outspoken  champion of the conservative right social agenda has put her behind in the polls.

Democratic challenger Betsy Markey is now positioned to join the list of Democrats riding a wave of blue into public office in the state. The race has received national attention and drawn millions of dollars in advertising money from the congressional campaign committees and independent groups. Markey, a former aide to Sen. Ken Salazar, is on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s list of “Red to Blues,” which highlights candidates to donors across the country.

State Senator Steve Johnson, a local Republican, said that while Musgrave has succeeded somewhat in refashioning her image, forces beyond her control could doom the race.

“There’s a real tide against Republicans,” he said. “It’s hard for an individual candidate to swim against that.”

On top of the national disenchantment with the Republican Party, there is an acute unhappiness here in Northeastern Colorado. Ideological fights on state issues, particularly the one over the so called Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, have pushed many moderate Republicans and independent voters away from the GOP. Musgrave’s stand on gay marriage has become a flashpoint for these moderates.

“I’m sick and tired of talking about god, guns, gays and abortion,” said Bill Kaufman, a former state representative and three-time Republican Party Chair in Larimer County, the district’s most populous. Kaufman, who plans to vote a nearly straight Democratic ticket in November, said the concentration on the conservative social agenda has cost Republicans their status as the pro-business party.

“The Democrats better represent me,” he said.

Colorado’s 4th Congressional District is shaped like a giant “L,” stretching the state’s entire eastern border before wrapping around in the north more than halfway to Utah. It’s more than 300 miles from corner to corner, reaching from Rocky Mountain peaks to the high plains. While politically diverse, the district’s voters trend to the right in the Western spirit of fiscal conservatism and wariness of federal government. But party loyalty does not run deep here—some can barely remember which party they are registered with—and Democrats and independents are gaining. In Weld and Larimer counties, home to most of the district’s people, Democratic and independent rolls have increased by more than 16,000 each since 2004, while Republicans have added less than 4,000. As of October 29, there were 109,679 Republicans, 84,698 Democrats and 99,372 unaffiliated active voters in the two counties.

But there is still a core of conservative voters, and Musgrave is still the incumbent. Her base lies more to the east, where the mountains flatten into the plains and agriculture drives the economy. At a Weld County Republicans breakfast at Harvest restaurant in Greeley, preacher Sam Grant spoke about some of those social issues that have alienated Kaufman.

Musgrave grew up in the east and people know her here, a detail that goes a long way with voters. Steve Ivie, a contractor at Lowe’s who had come to the breakfast that October morning, said morals are his number one issue. He knows Musgrave’s husband and is more comfortable voting for someone he has dealt with.

“Marilyn Musgrave is going to represent the little guy,” he said.

Musgrave’s opposition to the $700 billion rescue package was well received here, though whether it will help her stand apart from Markey, who also opposed the measure, is unclear.

Professor  John Straayer, who teaches political science at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, says demographic shifts in the region are helping Democrats.

“People have been moving in from the East Coast, Midwest, West Coast and I think that’s provided a little different mix than what we’ve had traditionally,” he said. The Latino vote is growing too, he said, and tends to lean Democratic. Latino’s make up almost 30 percent of the population in Weld County.

The key for Markey is winning independents, who now make up about a third of the district’s voters. The problem is, they don’t really know who she is.  Bob Boswell, who owns a Western Sizzlin restaurant outside Greeley and is registered Republican, said he is not voting for Musgrave but has not committed to Markey either because he doesn’t know enough about her. The Markey campaign is well aware of the large undecided vote in Weld and is focusing its resources to make sure these voters get to know her.

“That’s where our field program is important. We’re walking neighborhoods, we’re making phone calls every night,” she said. “Our universe is the undecided voters.”

Markey said they are targeting Latino voters and young Republican women in particular.

The image battle has taken an ugly turn in a series of negative ads targeting both candidates. Outside groups have targeted Musgrave—an ad by Defenders of Wildlife calls her one of the most corrupt members of Congress. Musgrave ran her own attack ads accusing Markey of abusing her position as an aide to Sen. Salazar to gain government contracts. A swirl of criminal complaints from both sides included a letter to the US Justice Department from a local Republican chairman requesting an investigation in Markey’s time with Salazar. The mere filing of that request allowed Musgrave to run a  subsequent ad stating that Markey “could spend” five years in prison.

Turn-out could be the deciding factor in the election, and Markey could benefit from the Barack Obama campaign’s unprecedented ground operation in the area. The campaign has five field offices in the district, compared to only two for Senator John McCain, and has been registering a lot of voters, said Scott Doyle, county clerk in Larimer.

“The Obama campaign has been in here doing a really good job,” he said.

Democrats have not held the seat for more than 30 years, and Markey said she has learned from past mistakes—previous candidates have not raised enough money or had support from the national party. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi headed a fundraiser for Markey in Denver in early October and later put out a plea to DCCC supporters to contribute to the candidate.

Markey out-raised Musgrave in the third quarter, with almost $720,000 coming in compared to about $600,000, though Musgrave still had more cash on hand on October 15, when third quarter reports were filed.

Many votes are being cast ahead of November 4th—Doyle said Larimer is pushing 100,000 mail-in ballots, or more than half of registered voters—and the winner may come down to who suffers less from the wrath of voters.  Washington is a long way from here, and one thing pretty much everyone agrees on is that Congress and the White House, and both parties, have totally bungled the economy. Senator Johnson said voters in the area look for someone who can get the job done, regardless of party, and this explains why “bi-partisan” is one of the most frequent words out of Musgrave’s mouth these days and why party label likely won’t help any candidate here. The question, Johnson said, will be who can stand for something else.

It is this energy that Colorado Democrats up and down the ticket are counting on come Election Day to push them over the edge and complete this state’s political makeover, sending its nine electoral votes to a Democrat for the first time since 1992.

“There’s only one choice,” said C.B. Lorson, who is registered as unaffiliated. The Fort Collins resident said it was clear who won the debate. “If I were undecided and had an I.Q. above 70, I’d choose Obama.”

Unaffiliated voters like Lorson will be key in Colorado and in Larimer County, which encompasses Fort Collins. Independents outnumber Democrats both here and statewide and are nearly as numerous as those registered Republican.

Final registration numbers for 2008 aren’t available yet, but as of August, the Democratic Party had gained nearly 4,000 active voters in Larimer County since the 2004 election. The Republican rolls had decreased  by about 5,000 active voters during the same period.

Larimer  stretches from the Front Range of the Rockies to the western edge of the plainsand is the most populous county in the state’s hotly contested 4th Congressional District. The district traditionally has been solidly Republican, and the party’s voters still outnumber Democrats by a safe margin, but GOP incumbent Marilyn Musgrave nearly lost in 2006 and is in trouble again this year.

Her opponent, Democrat Betsy Markey, was leading by 7 points, according to an August poll commissioned by the Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call.  The same poll, the most recent independent survey of the district, showed Markey with a 30-point lead among independents. That poll gave McCain 48 percent of the vote within the district, compared to 46 percent for Obama, with a 4-point margin of error.  A statewide poll released by the Denver Post last week found McCain and Obama tied at 44 percent.

Nathaniel Volckening, a student at Front Range Community College in Fort Collins is one of Larimer County’s new voters. The 19-year-old said the Democratic candidates in all the debates had spoken more directly to the questions while the Republicans seemed to talk around any challenges. Volckening went to a Democratic caucus in February and now thinks being in a swing town in a swing state is exactly the right place to be.

“You can have a positive impact on Obama’s campaign,” he said.

Minnesotans of all political stripes congregated at house parties, restaurants and community centers throughout suburban Minneapolis to watch Senators McCain and Obama squabble over foreign policy issues and offer solutions to the financial crisis looming over this year’s election.

“It’s still a draw for me,” said Mark Johnson, who described himself as a Libertarian who has decided to vote for a major candidate this year because Minnesota is a battleground state. “It was useful and informative, but there were no big surprises,, ” he said of the debate, the first of three the presidential candidates will hold between now and October 15.

In recent weeks, polls have shown Obama pulling ahead in Minnesota, which went Democratic in 2000 and 2004. But the toss-up race for an open seat here in the state’s 3rd Congressional District offers a window on the battle both campaigns are waging for the votes of moderates and independents like Johnson.

The seat in this affluent suburb of Minneapolis has been held by the GOP since 1961, and Rep. Jim Ramstad, a moderate Republican, is vacating it after 18 years in Congress. Erik Paulsen, a former majority leader for the GOP in the Minnesota House of Representatives, and Democratic newcomer and Iraq war veteran, Ashwin Madia are vying to replace him.

Some of Madia’s supporters were among the 250 people who joined the Veterans for Obama at the Hopkins VFW, 10 miles east of downtown Minneapolis, to cheer on the Democratic candidate and hiss at his Republican foe.

Bill Cochrane, who was awarded a Purple Heart for his heroics in the Vietnam War, said his support for Obama was shored up in the debate.

“I was skeptical of Obama and I still don’t know him,” said the veteran once a  faithful Republican, who voted twice for George H.W. Bush. “In this debate he appeared to be the real deal. I am leaving here with a higher confidence that he can lead our country.”

Across town in Brooklyn Park, Tom and Kelly Gildow watched the debate with some close friends and family. Their middle income neighborhood launched former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura’s political career by electing the one time wrestler mayor in 1990.

Kelly Gildow, a Republican, said she will vote for McCain in November because he is “no nonsense” on national security and won’t raise taxes.

“He slam dunked the foreign policy issues. It’s hard to believe anything Obama said because of the lack of experience,” she said. “When Obama was talking about attacking Pakistan, I thought, wow, he showed how frightening it would be to have our national security in his hands.”

Supporters of both candidates claimed their man best addressed the nation’s economic concerns, but tended to agree that no one delivered a knock-out punch.

“It was like a fight when a guy is constantly jabbing you, he isn’t hit with a big blow, but he is making you feel uncomfortable,” said Republican Bill Ferguson, handing McCain the victory by decision.