Tim Walz vs. Scott Jensen, smears vs. substance edition

John Hinderaker's post over at Powerline properly captures Minnesota's gubernatorial race. That's especially true when John states if "money were the key in factor in politics, Scott Jensen’s issue-based campaign wouldn’t have the chance of a snowball in Hell. But facts matter, and buying votes isn’t as easy as the Democrats think." John then notes that "Still, our best candidates need and deserve our financial support. You can contribute to a solid conservative campaign, run by a hard-working candidate who eminently deserves to win, here."

Tim Walz is counting on his money advantage (he'll likely outspend Scott Jensen by a 10:1 margin) to help him win. Tim Walz's record on crime, education (school choice) and COVID is terrible, though. One thing featured at the Jensen booth are lots of charts on tons of different subjects. In this picture, Dr. Jensen stands in front of this chart, which highlights Tim Walz’s record on crime:

If this race turns into a fight over the issues, then Walz will have a definite fight on his hands. Thus far, the DFL campaign has been all-abortion-all-the-time. I don't doubt that's enough to activate the DFL faithful. I don't doubt, though, that it isn't the issue that'll activate apolitical voters.

A campaign that's likely to ignite Republicans and independents is the #WalzFailed campaign. It's already catching on at the State Fair:

That's political advertising at its finest: honest, pithy and drives a strong point home with humor. This article represents one of the reasons why Tim Walz should be worried:

A St. Paul, Minnesota brewery owner said Monday he was forced to close his brewery at 9 p.m. each night, four hours early, due to repeated robberies.

Brian Ingram told "Fox & Friends" the increase in crime over the past year and a half in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, coupled with liberal policies, drove his decision.

The earlier closing time was implemented at The Gnome Craft Pub almost one year ago. Ingram said "bad things start to happen" when it gets late, and he can’t afford to stay open.

"It started getting bad about a year and a half ago," he told host Brian Kilmeade. "We've gone through multiple robberies at all of our restaurants, even our corporate office, which is a few blocks here from The Gnome."

The biggest problem for the restaurant is repeat offenders.

"A guy robbed us here, was out of jail within 24 hours. He came back and robbed us again a few weeks later and was released again," Ingram said, noting that the suspect had multiple previous convictions.

Tim Walz and Keith Ellison, Minnesota's DFL Governor and DFL Attorney General respectively, haven't gotten crime under control. Melvin Carter and Jacob Frey, St. Paul's and Minneapolis's DFL mayors respectively, haven't fixed their cities' crime problems, either. There's little hope they'll fix their cities' and states' crime problems anytime soon.

Ingram said he’s considered new security measures, like an armed guard or guard dogs. But with 20 cameras already in the building, he said catching the criminals isn’t the problem.

"They always can catch these criminals. Most of the time, the police even know who they are," Ingram said.

"That’s the really bad part about all of this: these criminals that just keep getting out again and again and again."

The DFL is pretty weak on crime, starting with Tim Walz and Keith Ellison. Scott Jensen and Jim Schultz, Minnesota Republicans' picks for being governor and attorney general, will take this seriously. Walz and Ellison, the DFL's governor and attorney general, haven't taken this seriously. Ellison even tweeted with pride about growing the civil fraud division under his watch.