Lori Sturdevant: The place to take the pulse of Minnesota

The media bigs tell Minnesotans regularly that U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman's reelection bid is in trouble because he has mostly supported President Bush's policies in Iraq.

Maybe so. But for my $11 price of admission, the best measure of Minnesota political reality can be had at the State Fair. On Thursday, I listened as Coleman fielded questions about bridges, ethanol, bridges, transit, bridges, floods, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, the federal deficit, and -- did I mention bridges?

"I want to tell you just one thing," said a stern-faced Ray Martin of Stillwater when he caught up with his senator in the middle of Underwood Avenue.

If Coleman braced himself for a barrage on Iraq, he needn't have. Martin continued: "We don't need a new bridge in Stillwater! Just get the trucks off the lift bridge, and we won't need a new one!"

The senator said he respectfully disagreed, that the bridge with the lowest safety rating in the state ought to be replaced.

Kim Cooper, a homemaker from Elk River, caught Coleman's arm next, to question the wisdom of building a commuter-rail line from her hometown to Minneapolis. "How will that alleviate the problems caused by the bridge collapse?" she pressed. "Shouldn't that money go into increasing road space?"

Northstar rail isn't the answer to post-collapse congestion, Coleman replied. "But if we can move more traffic to transit, it'll be a net benefit to the whole system."

Cooper and Martin may not have walked away satisfied. But my guess is that the senator did. They'd just provided him with more of the evidence he'd been collecting at the fair that Minnesotans' minds are on matters Republicans seeking reelection find congenial -- that is, matters other than Iraq.

That includes the calamities Minnesotans will forever associate with August 2007, the Interstate 35W bridge collapse and the flash floods in southeastern Minnesota. The federal response to both of those disasters is getting mostly high marks -- and for that, Coleman can take a bow.

He allied himself with DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar ("That's what Minnesotans expect of us," he said) and helped engineer quick Senate authorization of bridge replacement funds. He turned the president's attention to the needs of flood-ravaged Minnesota towns when, serendipitously, Bush came to the state two days after the flood to raise money for Coleman. Coleman's pleas, and those of GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty, cut through the red tape associated with federal disaster declarations and got FEMA and the Small Business Administration on the ground with a speed that has to astound survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

As a result, Coleman is not on the defensive when the dual disasters come up. For him, they even may be a political tonic.

"When I go to Rushford and I say, 'I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help,' they believe it, because it's true," he said.

Coleman may have been spared barbs about Iraq because, as he claimed, "most Minnesotans support my position that we simply can't cut off funding for the war" and abruptly withdraw troops. On the other hand, the State Fair chapter of Minnesota Nice may have precluded the kind of conversation -- or confrontation -- the topic begets.

Fairgoers weren't shy about mentioning the war down Underwood Avenue a piece, where DFL challengers Mike Ciresi and Al Franken had set up shop. "It's Iraq, Iraq, Iraq," said Ciresi, who rolled up his lawyerly shirtsleeves for hours of retail campaigning each day last week. He'd just finished a spirited conversation with a man who faulted Democrats in Congress for not doing more to end the war.

If ribbons were awarded for crowd-drawing capacity by politicians, Franken would take purple. Every time the former "Saturday Night Live" comedian, author and radio talker showed up -- which happened daily, for long hours -- a queue formed for photos and autographs. Old political hands likened his appeal to that of 1998 fair phenom Jesse Ventura -- a portentous comparison.

But while Franken exhibited more State Fair star power, Coleman's reception was not that of a politician on the skids. He was greeted better-than-politely at every turn Thursday morning. Repeatedly, he heard someone say, "Thank you for what you are doing."

Those words undoubtedly buoyed his spirits that evening as he boarded an airplane bound for Baghdad. Minnesotans may have given him a pass on the war at the State Fair -- but he has to wonder whether it was only a respite, as fleeting as the fair itself.

Lori Sturdevant is a Star Tribune editorial writer and columnist. She is at lsturdevant@startribune.com.