Michele Bachmann: claims she's victim of "liberal" Judges

by: Bill Prendergast

Wed Feb 22, 2012 at 14:00:00 PM CST

Since 2002, the voting demographics of the Sixth Congressional District of Minnesota have favored conservative Republican candidacies. (The Cook Report had rated the Sixth District as "plus 7 Republican.")

The theory was that the 2012 redistricting of the Sixth might include more Democratic or liberal communities in the voting. This would have represented a serious challenge to Bachmann because of her controversial nature and failure to deliver any tangible benefits to her constituents.

It didn't happen. Bachmann's chances of being re-elected actually improve as a result of the court ordered changes to her district.

In spite of that fact, she's claiming to be the victim. This is from an email she circulated yesterday, after the court's redistricting map was released:

The courts in Minnesota just ruled on the new Congressional districts and, as one of my most loyal supporters, I wanted you to be the first to know.

Just as we suspected, the liberal courts have changed the makeup of Minnesota's Congressional districts. The courts' liberal bias was evident by cherrypicking the districts and going so far as to draw my home - where I have raised my family and represented in Congress for the past six years - outside the new sixth district.

I refuse to allow the courts to arbitrarily determine who my friends, neighbors, and constituents are, and I will take every necessary step to correct this injustice. I have therefore decided to campaign for re-election in the new sixth district, where a majority of my constituents remain.

The judges who did the redistricting were not, as Michele maintains, "liberal." According to Jacob Grippen, one of my colleagues here at MPP, the partisan make-up of the court panel involved is as follows:

"Pawlenty, Carlson, Ventura X 2 and Perpich."

He's right. Here is the MPR article announcing the composition of the redistricting panel and reporting the party affiliations of the Minnesota governors who originally appointed the judges.

http://minnesota.publicradio.o...

It was not a redistricting panel of composed of "liberals" operating with a "liberal bias."

So Michele is lying to the people who support her--again.

The new map does not disadvantage Bachmann in the upcoming race. In fact the courts she calls "liberal" did her a favor, and improved her chances of being re-elected in the new Sixth District.

But she's not about telling the truth--even to her supporters.