It's been 28 years since Cheeseland was a red state on the presidential map. But Mitt Romney is optimistic Republicans can carry Wisconsin in November, particularly with U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan on the ticket. Wisconsin joins eight other battlegrounds where Romney is running state-specific ads.

Since April 2011, President Barack Obama has raised $2.2 million from donors in the state – less than 1 percent of the $255 million Obama's campaign has raised throughout the nation, according to recently filed reports. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney raised $401,000 in Minnesota during the same period of time. Romney has raised $120 million total nationally.

A television ad paid for by the "Red, White, and Blue" PAC tries to link Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich with President Obama, saying they've all backed big government and bailouts. The hero of the ad, Rick Santorum, is coming to Minnesota this weekend with campaign stops in Eden Prairie and Bemidji.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released its first ad in Minnesota Saturday that targets Republican Rep. Chip Cravaack in the 8th District race for Congress -- a day after the National Republican Congressional Committee started running ads against Cravaack's opponent, former U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan.

Minnesota is getting a big dose of advertising tied to the presidential race with a conservative group's new spot criticizing President Barack Obama's health care law. The 60-second ad to begin airing Wednesday is from a group called Concerned Women for America.

Republican Mitt Romney will begin running TV ads in Minnesota this weekend, with just over a week to go before the election, the Associated Press reports. Recent polls showed President Barack Obama with a solid lead in the state that has not voted for a Republican president since Richard Nixon in 1972.

A new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll among 800 likely Minnesota voters shows the presidential race for the state's 10 electoral votes is getting closer, with President Barack Obama drawing 47 percent to Romney's 44 percent. With just over a week before the election, the president's 3-point lead is within the poll's margin of error. In September, Obama held an 8-percentage point lead over his Republican challenger in the Minnesota Poll.

The former president has been scheduled to appear Tuesday at campaign rallies for President Barack Obama, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and other DFL candidates, MPR reports. But no other details of the visit were immediately released. A recent poll suggests Mitt Romney is closing the gap in Minnesota.