"Made in Minnesota moderate" DFLer Maureen Reed says she'll bring Democrats, Republicans and independents together to topple U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and that may be true, but she probably won't be doing it with the backing of the Independence Party -- a notion she had floated earlier in her campaign.
At its state convention today in Brooklyn Park, the IP voted to do away with cross-endorsements after a number of activists expressed disappointment over the way things played out in 2008 with Elwyn Tinklenberg, who won the IP endorsement a couple months after earning the DFL's backing in the 6th Congressional District.
"I'd much rather have an Independence Party candidate who will work with me rather than a Democrat who won't," Stephen Williams, the IP's endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate, said last summer. Today his message was along the lines of "I told you so," as he noted the next day's media coverage was all about Tinklenberg getting the cross-endorsement rather than Williams' own victory.
(Trivia: Williams lost the IP primary last September to former U.S. Sen. Dean Barkley. Extra credit to those who remember I worked for the senator.)
Speaking of the 6th District, Bob Anderson was at North View Junior High School this morning basking in the glow of the 40,643 votes he received last time around as the IP's non-endorsed candidate. As you may remember, Anderson lost the IP endorsement to Tinklenberg, but claimed the party's ballot line anyway because state law allows candidates to file under one party only and Tinklenberg was officially the DFL's candidate. Despite an under-the-radar campaign, Anderson claimed 10 percent of the vote while Bachmann eeked out a three-point win over Tinklenberg.
I didn't get a chance to speak with Anderson, but I heard him mention to several people that he'll have a vast "middle" to shoot for against ultra-conservative Republican Bachmann and liberal DFL State Sen. Tarryl Clark. Apparently Anderson isn't the only one writing off Reed's long-shot effort.
If I was advising Reed (and I'm not), I'd say "take your money and file as an IP candidate." Clark's going to win the endorsement on the first ballot and should cruise in the primary, too. But with some money in the bank, Reed, who ran for lieutenant governor on the IP ticket three years ago, could present a ton of problems for Clark and possibly Bachmann as a third-party candidate in the topsy-turvy 6th District.
Sen. Tarryl Clark (DFL-St. Cloud) announced officially last week that she was running for the DFL endorsement to face Rep. Michele Bachmann in the MN-06 race. Yesterday, her path became much simpler; Elwyn Tinklenberg shuttered his campaign leaving her and Maureen Reed vying for the endorsement. This development makes Tarryl the frontrunner for the endorsement.
DFL activists throughout Minnesota know Tarryl as a rising star in the party. She's worked with at-risk teens and for the Girl Scouts. She helped start Habitat for Humanity in the St. Cloud area. She attended an accredited law school, William Mitchell in St. Paul, and worked for Legal Aid for seniors focusing on their healthcare issues.
The legislators I've spoken to all speak highly of her, she was appointed Assistant Majority Leader in the Senate and probably most importantly, she claims that she already has a decent volunteer base that's been growing rapidly since her announcement.
For DFL activists and delegates out there, she's good on all the issues we think are important. Don't take my word for it, check for yourselves. I'll go more into details on this in another post.
"Several police officer approached me at national night out parties," she related. "One said 'I've never done any volunteering, but I want to help you out' and I've been emailing with a soldier in Iraq who can't wait to get back and help beat Bachmann."
"This campaign is less about me and more about working for the people of the district," she continued. "Rep. Bachmann has been absent or pursuing her partisan agenda." Like appearing on Fox News and Republican talk radio. Like fomenting conspiracies and far right wing agendas. Like not doing the hard work for her district.
"The key to this race are the swing voters," she explained. "I think that plenty of people voted against Bachmann in 2008, but the important thing is being a positive alternative, giving people reasons to vote for me."
Today, Elwyn Tinklenberg ended his campaign to win DFL endorsement and face Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) in November 2010. Tinklenberg cited the probability of a hard fought 13 month campaign against another DFLer and the disadvantages the winner would face as the prime reasons.
I am annoucning that as of today I am terminating my campaign for Congress. This is obviously not an easy decision for me, but I have come to the conclusion that it's the right one. While the image of the next campaign against Michele Bachmann is certainly energizing, the path to that campaign is becoming increasingly improbable. I'm proud of our last campaign. We did better than almost anyone outside the campaign expected. We built a national support base and proved that a strong Democrat with enough time and resources could win the Sixth District.
Now, however, we are faced with the prospect of the next thirteen months being a battle among Democrats. In a difficult district during tough financial times we will be spending large amounts of time and money trying to defeat each other rather than defeating Michele Bachmann. That is not a campaign I want to wage nor is it the kind of campaign that strengthens our chances of electing a Democrat next fall.
(tinklengberg2010.com)
Tinklenberg hints at this, but I'll say this explicitly: after a grueling, 3-way DFL battle that would have been certain to go to the primary, the winner would only have 7 weeks to campaign against Bachmann.
This comes as a shock to me as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) had hooked Tinklenberg up with one of their best campaign managers, Dana Houle. Maybe I should have seen this coming, though.
I had a telephone interview with Tinklenberg scheduled for Friday. He never called. Due to my heavy workload (you know that J.O.B. thing), I just never got around to following up with Dana, but was planning to today. The reality is that Tinklenberg may have been wrestling with this painful decision since at least Friday of last week.
How about a little Dante's Inferno for a slow, summer Tuesday?
This is really sad in so many ways. Republicans treat our soldiers so poorly. They deny to help the many, many soldiers who get PTSD and then turn the military bureacracy against them so they can't get the care they need when they get home. Thank God for the sake of our vets that the Republicans are out of power.
Elwyn Tinklenberg came frustratingly close to beating Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) in 2008. Bachmann nearly contributed to her own demise by attacking liberal members of Congress as anti-American on MSNBC's Chris Matthews Show. The video went viral and Tinklenberg raised several million dollars in a couple of days. Unfortunately, it seemed he didn't make the best use of it. Some of it may have been Bachmann's meltdown was mere days before the election and some of it may have been his campaign.
Tinklenberg is running again and this worries many. While he seems like a perfect fit for the district, something seemed to be missing in his last campaign. Instead of repeating the same mistakes he and Patty Wetterling both made and hoping for the best, he's hired a campaign manager with an outstanding reputation. Dana Houle is originally from Michigan and some of you may know him as DHinMI from Daily Kos. Dana has been a frontpager for several years now. What this means is 8 to10 million people see his posts every day.
He's also got some serious campaign chops, too. In 2006 he ran Paul Hodes' House race in New Hampshire. Hodes had lost by 20% in '04, but beat the same incumbent in '06 with 53% of the vote. In 2008 he ran Jim Himes campaign in Connecticut and defeated another Republican incumbent.
I talked to Dana yesterday about Tinklenberg, Bachmann, the district and his campaign philosophy.
Sen. Ben Nelson (D?-NE) flip flops on healthcare. He'll now consider a public option. This could be huge as he's been repeating Republican talking points on healthcare issues for years.
The DOJ is dropping charges against a Republican accused of phone jamming Democratic phone banks in NH 2002. But Democrat Don Siegelman has not been exonerated for his questionable conviction?
In a phone interview today, Dr. Maureen Reed gave her reasons for challenging Michele Bachmann in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District. She explains "Saint Cloud has the highest unemployment rate in Minnesota." That people in the Sixth are "losing homes, losing businesses, and losing jobs." "The cost of healthcare is wrecking havoc with people's dreams," and that she "can't stand by" any longer while the remedy for what ails the district slips away.
Dr. Reed also brands herself as a "listener" and "well-equipped" for the campaign trail and endorsement fight before facing Representative Bachmann. "My experience is what prepares me" said Reed. She explains her years as a physician tackling serious problems and often times delivering very bad news to everyday people as one distinction. She also believes that her work as an elected regent at the University of Minnesota prepared her to fight for Minnesotans.
When asked about the endorsement process she repeated her claim that she is seeking both the DFL and IP Party endorsements. When asked if she would concede if she failed to win both endorsements she stated "I cannot fathom such a thing." "I fully intend to win both endorsements." Leaving room for a potential three-way matchup in the fall of 2010. This may cause concern among loyal activists as many already, rightly or wrongly, feel that the three-way race in 2008 cost Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg the race.
It's unclear why they made this move or where that money is going (paying off the loan the NRCC already took out so it could compete with the Dems?), but it probably signals one of two things -- either they're confident that Bachmann can hold off El Tinklenberg on her own, or their internal polling numbers took a digger after Bachmann made her now-infamous comments.
Just when we thought it couldn't get worse for Bachmann, however, it does -- she went on conservative talk radio and repeated with minor modifications the same comments that got her in trouble in the first place, after having called them "a misstatement."
BACHMANN: All I did on Chris Matthews is I questioned Chris Matthews and said, "look, if John McCain had friends like Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers and Father Pfleger, you'd be all over him Chris, but you've laid off of Barack Obama." And so, he was using the word "Anti-American" and I told Chris, what I question are Barack Obama's views. Because Barack Obama's views are against America. They won't be good for our country.
Holy cow! The dream could actually come true, folks. A new poll for the DCCC shows El Tinklenberg within striking distance of Michele Bachmann, with a ton of undecided voters:
With all those undecided voters, this one could be Tinklenberg's for the taking. Bachmann's in so much trouble that the NRCC has dumped Erik Paulsen to try to save her. With her war chest and help from the NRCC, she's got a lot more money than Tinklenberg, but she'll have to account for her absenteeism.
(I don't agree with Chris's toxicity assertion re: Franken, but wholeheartedly I agree with the sad state of affairs when the D.C. AP reporter thinks this is what really matters. - promoted by Joe Bodell)
Because the Associated Press in Washington still has me listed as Ashwin Madia's media contact, though I left that post a month ago, I received an interesting voice mail message this morning.
A D.C.-based reporter wants to know whether Madia "supports Al Franken" for Senate. I've confirmed that he's also calling other DFL campaigns here in Minnesota.
Politics isn't a game. It's about improving people's lives and helping them live the American dream. In case this reporter hasn't noticed, that's becoming more and more difficult nowadays.
We have 47 million Americans going without health insurance today.
Right now, 37 million Americans are living in poverty.
Another 7.6 million Americans are looking for work.
Tonight, 200,000 veterans will go homeless.
And the list could go on. Four-dollar gas. Crumbling infrastructure. Iraq. There's plenty more where that came from.
How about a story on where Madia, Steve Sarvi, Elwyn Tinklenberg and their respective opponents stand on real issues, rather than whether they laughed at Stuart Smalley in the 1980s?
Doesn't the ever-dwindling newspaper reading public deserve better?
(Although I don't make it my business to promote diaries consisting entirely of press releases (they're still welcome for discussion and for publication, I just can't promote them ALL to the frontpage), personal statements on why members of the community are supporting one candidate or the other are not just allowed, they're desired. By me. - promoted by Joe Bodell)
I support Bob Olson for Congress because:
I'm a Veteran and cannot stand political leaders who waver on the war in Iraq.
I'm a college student and want a leader who understands Congress' role in helping keep college affordable for working and middle class Minnesotans.
I'm a tax payer and support a real tax attorney, not a IRS Enforcement Agent posing as a tax attorney.
I'm a former candidate who will run again soon! Most campaigns swoop in with their outsiders and rob local races of much needed volunteer support and money. Olson's grassroots efforts build our party, not dismantle it every election cycle.
I'm pro-union.
I support the family farmer and sustainable energy.
I am a strong Democrat, as verified by the VAN :)
I am pro-choice.
I support same sex marriage. This is a human rights issue!
Lastly, and the most important reason I support Bob Olson...
I want to win in the 6th and Bob Olson gives us the best shot at unseating Michele Bachmann.
Sen. Tarryl Clark (DFL-St. Cloud) 
