CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
May 6, 2009 – 9:56 p.m.
Rematch Possible for Bachmann in Minnesota
By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff
Two Democrats are ready to vie to take on Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in a race that is almost sure to be one of 2010’s most expensive.
The Democrats’ 2008 nominee, Elwyn Tinklenberg, confirmed Wednesday that he will take another shot at the 6th District seat after losing to Bachmann, a Republican, by three percentage points. Physician Maureen Reed, the Independent Party’s 2006 candidate for lieutenant governor, also filed paperwork Wednesday to run for the Democratic nomination.
Tinklenberg, former mayor of Blaine, Minn., is hoping to revive the late surge of support his 2008 campaign received because of Bachmann’s call just before the election for an investigation into anti-American sentiment in Congress. Tinklenberg raised more than $1 million in the four days that followed, as liberals across the country rallied around him.
“If we’d had that kind of support just a little bit earlier I think we would have won,” he said.
For the next race, he said, “We’re starting at a whole different level this time,” with more name recognition and a donor base.
The district encompasses the northern suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul and is one of the most Republican-leaning in the state. Republican presidential candidate John McCain topped President Obama in the district with 53 percent of the vote.
Tinklenberg’s near-upset has also encouraged other Democrats to take a look at the race. Reed, for example, says she is not deterred by a contested primary nor the need to raise large amounts of money.
“When you jump into a race you just have to be ready to see it through,” she said.
Reed and Tinklenberg are bracing for an expensive campaign, particularly given Bachmann’s growing national profile — she’s become a favorite on conservative talk shows.
Bachmann and Tinklenberg spent a combined $6 million on the 2008 contest. Tinklenberg raised so much money in the final days that he ended the year with $450,000 left over. In March, he transferred $250,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) — an unusually high sum from an unsuccessful challenger — ending the first quarter of 2009 with $183,000 in the bank.
Asked why he opted to give money to the national organization rather than save for his own race, Tinklenberg said he wanted to help in the contested primary in New York’s 20th District, which Democrat Scott Murphy won, and wanted to show the DCCC that he is a team player.
Bachmann reported having $224,000 in the bank the end of the first 2009 quarter. Reed, meanwhile, is just beginning to raise money.
Despite Tinklenberg’s strong showing in 2008, Lawrence Jacobs, who heads political studies at the University of Minnesota, said there is an opening for Reed or another Democratic candidate. “There was a sense among Democrats that Tinklenberg under-performed,” he said.
Jacobs said that no matter who wins the Democratic nomination, the key to winning general election will be gaining the support of the state’s Independence Party. In the past, Republicans have won in Minnesota because the Democrat and Independence Party candidates ended up “splitting the non-Republican, non-conservative vote.”
Bachmann won with 46 percent of the vote in 2008 to Tinlenberg’s 43 percent.
Independence candidate Bob Anderson drew 10 percent of the vote.
Comments
Tinklenberg UNDERperformed? With 43% of the votes to Tinfoil-Hat Lady Bachmann's 46%? Well, perhaps. Let's see if Bachmann manages to alienate the rest of the electorate soon. In fact, let's hope, pray, and work for it. It's time that lunatic left the political scene to "spend more time with her family." She has the IQ of a root vegetable. If she was fat, dumpy, and wrinkly, she wouldn't get a tenth of the vote she got.
Backmann is unamerican and needs to be rejected. she needs to be recaslled if possible
Doug Grow reports in the MinnPost that "Bachmann never has lost the devotion of her base, the social conservatives from fundamentalist churches" -- posing a major obstacle for Democratic challengers. My rationale for challenging Bachmann in the Republican primary last year was to probe the numerical strength of that constituency -- true believers willing to turn out at the polls to protect Bachmann from a challenge by a non-base Republican. The answer: fewer than 20,000 of the more than 430,000 registered voters in Minnesota's 6th Congressional District. The correct strategy to defeat Bachmann flows logically from that determination: mobilize 20,000 voters from across the political spectrum, including moderate, non-base, Republicans; independents; and Democrats to prevent Bachmann from getting out of the gate in Minnesota's Sept. 14, 2010 open primary. If Bachmann makes it through the September primary onto the November general election ballot, she'll draw support from a much broader constituency: the Republican and Republican-leaning 6th District majority that simply won't vote for a Democrat. If Bachmann makes it through the gate on Sept. 14, 2010, her constituency jumps tenfold from fewer than 20,000 hardcore primary supporters to nearly 200,000 -- mostly soft support, but nonetheless an insurmountable obstacle for Democrats, who make up less than 40% of the Sixth District constituency. If Bachmann advances beyond the Sept. 14, 2010 Republican primary, she is virtually assured of being returned to Congress for two more years in the November 2010 general election. MinnPost quotes declared candidate Maureen Reed as saying, "I want to concentrate on the things that matter most to people day in and day out ... the economy, health care, jobs." When the widely respected Patty Wetterling -- who enjoys near-universal name recognition in Minnesota -- campaigned on exactly those Democratic issues against a non-incumbent Bachmann in 2006, it garnered her 42% of the vote. For those who want to see Bachmann disappear from the political landscape, it's important to understand that the issues championed by Democratic candidates will not receive a rational hearing in Minnesota's 6th District as long as the debate is framed by Bachmann and her fundamentalist base. As long as Bachmann is the incumbent Republican candidate, 6th District politics will be framed by identity politics, social conservatism, and the culture wars. To use a medical metaphor (a nod to Dr. Reed), Bachmann must be surgically removed by invasive, radical intervention before we can even begin to consider the treatment regimen implicit in the policy options proposed by Democratic candidates. As long as Bachmann is on the Republican ticket, the political fortunes of the 6th District will be governed by human irrationality, not the give-and-take of reasoned political discourse. As reported in the St. Cloud Times on May 7, 2009, "Aubrey Immelman ... who challenged Bachmann in the Republican primary and later as a write-in candidate ... said [Bachmann] is vulnerable but not to a Democrat. 'I think Rep. Bachmann can be defeated,' Immelman said, 'but only in a Republican primary.'" Yes, we can sit down and have a rational, meaningful discussion about what's best for Minnesota's 6th District, but only when Bachmann's seat at the table is empty.
Bachmann is not the type of politician that MN needs or even the U.S. Her behavior and inflamatory statements are not even close to the civility and respect we need to work through the political process. She can be lumped with the likes of Cheney, and Limbaugh. I sense that by far the majority voters in either party have had it with those who polarize. I'm for Reed. I personally know of her competence and work ethic which leads to productive results for "people" get it all of the people.
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