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Bob Collins

Minnesota is the state of political hockey ads

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Politics might make Minnesotans scratch their heads but hockey they get.

One of these days we're going to have to calculate the impact -- if any -- a hockey ad makes in Minnesota elections. Is it, for example, as big a boost as a Scandanavian name?

Gov. Mark Dayton his re-election ad today. Its theme is... you can probably guess.

Earlier this year, Mike McFadden, who's running against Al Franken, produced a hockey-themed ad.

The hockey-ad record is spotty. The Senate race in 2008 between Norm Coleman and Franken was close as it gets. The experts didn't think Coleman's hockey ad hurt. But it was set in a bowling alley. Who knows? Maybe that was the difference.

Tim Pawlenty actually played hockey. So when he ran for president in 2012, he went for the hockey ad.

And he got smoked. Hockey is a regional game.