Road to the White House

This is no mere trivial pursuit. It's a quiz to see if your knowledge of politics, now and then, is good enough to take you from Minnesota all the way to Washington, D.C. Elect to give these 10 questions a try, and see how your campaign ends.
1 In 1919, how did suffragists celebrate the Minnesota Legislature's overwhelming ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote?

2 What plaintive request made headlines in 1958 and led to the reelection defeat of Minnesota's first female member of Congress?

3 Who won the closest gubernatorial race in Minnesota?

4 What famous work of art did Jesse Ventura use in his 1998 campaign for governor?

5 What determines the number of electors in each state for the Electoral College, and what's Minnesota's tally?

6 Why is a chad called a chad?

7 Which president recorded the highest number of electoral votes?

9 What do Barack Obama and Sarah Palin have in common that's a first for any candidate on the presidential ticket?

10 What physical trait do John McCain and Barack Obama share?

1 They served a chicken dinner to the legislators.

2 "Coya Come Home" became the rallying cry for Rep. Coya Knutson's opponents after her husband, Andy, made the plea during the campaign.

3 In 1962, Karl Rolvaag (left) beat Elmer Andersen (right) by 91 of 1,267,502 votes cast, or by .007 percent. The recount took 4 1/2 months.

5 Each state is allocated as many electors as it has representatives and senators in Congress; Minnesota has 10.

6 Frankly, no one's sure. The term was used in the 1930s and 1940s in reference to telegraphy tape. One theory suggests that "chad" comes from the Scottish name for river gravel. After the fact, pundits suggested that it's an acronym for "card hole aggregate debris." Sorry to leave you hanging on this one.

7 In 1984, Ronald Reagan received 525 electoral votes, compared with 13 for Walter Mondale -- the total of Minnesota and Washington, D.C. A candidate must win 270, an absolute majority of the electoral votes.

8 In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon defeated Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman.

9 They are not products of the "lower 48." Much of Obama's childhood was spent in Hawaii, and Palin was brought up in Alaska.

How many did you get right?

1-2 Uff da! What a Homer.

3-4 Prepare to concede.

5-6 Demand a recount.

7-8 That's the ticket.