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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.

Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Mike Kaszuba, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Brad Schrade and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about 6th District

Democrats' bitter election calculus over Bachmann

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: November 7, 2012 - 10:16 AM

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On the way to raising $23 million, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has long pleaded for help from donors by portraying herself as one of Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s top targets in Congress.
 
Democrats in Washington now must be saying, “If only.”
 
The Minnesota Republican suffered a razor-thin re-election scare late Tuesday night, but emerged victorious Wednesday morning by a 4,207-vote margin over DFL challenger Jim Graves. That’s a difference of slightly more than 1 percentage point, putting her safely out of automatic recount range (The Minnesota threshold is 0.5 percent).
 
Graves called Bachmann around 10 a.m. Wednesday to concede the race.
 
Democrats have got to be feeling good about the 2012 election in general. But when it comes to Bachmann, this might have been a missed opportunity for the national party, which touted Graves for months but hardly spent a dime to help him.
 
A look at outside expenditures in the race shows a total of $163,496, according to the Sunlight Foundation. That’s a pretty modest sum considering Bachmann’s stature as a national Tea Party figure. The biggest players were the National Republican Trust PAC, on the right ($72K), and the CREDO Super-PAC on the left ($37K).
 
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the campaign arm of the House Democrats, apparently passed on this battle, at least money-wise. Perhaps they felt twice-burned in previous Bachmann reelection efforts.
 
But considering Bachmann’s ten-to-one fundraising advantage over Graves, who turned out to be the best candidate Bachmann has faced to date, the Pelosi forces must be wondering if they missed their best chance ever.

Bachmann win could be headed for a recount

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: November 7, 2012 - 4:26 AM

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GOP firebrand Rep. Michele Bachmann and DFL businessman Jim Graves were headed for a potential recount early Wednesday in what could be the nation's most expensive and high-profile U.S. House race.
 
With less than 1,000 votes separating them shortly after midnight, a trailing Graves told supporters in St. Cloud, “It looks very much like it'll be a recount.”
 
But as votes were tallied later in the night and early morning, Bachmann appeared to opening a wider lead that could prove insurmountable even with a recount.
 
With nearly 98 percent of precincts reporting, Bachmann had a nearly 4,000 vote lead, enough to avoid an automatic recount under Minnesota law. But a losing candidate in a tight race can still seek and pay for a recount.
 
While the Associated Press called the race for Bachmann, both campaigns planned to monitor continuing election results through the early morning hours and make public statements later in the day.
 
Regardless of the outcome, few expected the race to be this close.
 
Graves, a longtime Democratic fundraiser but first-time candidate, got a late boost from former President Bill Clinton, who headlined a rally with him in St. Cloud on Sunday.
 
But the DFLer still faced an uphill challenge overcoming Bachmann's record $23 million war chest in an outer suburban district that skewed even more Republican after redistricting last year.
 
Despite Bachmann's overwhelming cash advantage and national reputation, some recent polls showed Graves in a surprisingly competitive contest that is being followed intently by partisans on both sides. While Bachmann was favored, nobody was predicting such a small gap.
 
"To me, the toughness makes a candidate sharper," said Bachmann supporter Suzi Blumberg, who gathered with friends at a state GOP election night party at the Hilton Minneapolis Bloomington. "If you always win by a landslide, you might get lazy."
 
After watching close Bach-mann re-election races in years past, St. Cloud State University Prof. Julie Andrzejewski and her husband attended the Graves election night party at a hotel in St. Cloud, hoping to see a Bachmann upset. They said many of their Republican friends voted for Graves this year.
 
"They're really embarrassed and tired of being represented by someone like Michele Bachmann," said Andrzejewski.
Democrats were banking on a significant number of voters, particularly independents, who might have misgivings about Bachmann's history of provocative and factually contested statements, a number of which got attention last year during her short-lived bid for the presidency.
 
With no independent candidate on the ballot, unlike in Bachmann's previous congressional races, Democrats were hoping to make the election a hard referendum on Bachmann's image as a national Tea Party leader.
 
Graves, a millionaire hotelier running as a fiscally conservative Democrat, largely avoided engaging Bachmann on social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, issues that propelled her into politics and made her a hero among Christian conservatives.
 
Instead, he tried to focus on her celebrity and national political aspirations, calling into question her focus on the district, which has been hard-hit by the recession and the accompanying wave of housing foreclosures.
 
Bachmann used Graves' wealth and his ability to partially finance his own campaign as a regular feature of fundraising pitches that were e-mailed daily to a national network of Tea Party and religious conservatives, supporters who reliably respond in large numbers of small-dollar donations.
 
Bachmann also campaigned as a leading critic of President Obama's health care overhaul, which she made her signature issue in Congress as she founded the House Tea Party Caucus.
 
Late in the campaign, she also made a virtue of her outspoken opposition to the Bush era Wall Street bailout and Obama's 2011 debt ceiling compromise, both of which averted fiscal crises and passed with bipartisan majorities in Congress. Her television ads described her as an "independent voice."

While Graves attacked Bachmann as "the most polarizing, most partisan person in Congress," she sought to cultivate a nonpartisan image with voters by pointing to the singular achievement of her three terms in the U.S. House: spearheading legislation to approve a new freeway-style bridge over the St. Croix River near Stillwater.

Graves opposed the project, which divided labor and environment-focused Democrats even as it was championed by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Gov. Mark Dayton and other prominent DFLers.
 
One rare area of agreement between Bachmann and Graves was on the Obama administration's 2009 stimulus package, which Democrats in Washington credit with averting an economic depression and creating millions of new jobs. Graves argued that it was excessively "politicized" in Congress, devoted too little to infrastructure projects and would not have gotten his vote.
 
Bachmann said "the only thing that got stimulated were more government jobs."
 
Fending off criticism that her presidential campaign caused her to miss months of votes and cut into her district work, Bachmann has been running ads highlighting her efforts to win funding for a veterans facility and to expand the St. Cloud airport.
 
Graves was able to raise some $2 million, which would be a respectable showing in most other congressional races. But he has not been able to keep up with Bachmann's heavy barrage of radio and television ads portraying him as "Big Spending Jim," a politician who would vote for Democratic spending priorities in Washington.
 
At the DFL rally in St. Cloud, Clinton thanked Graves for taking on the "heavy, important battle" of challenging Bachmann.
 
It was sometimes a testy battle.
 
In the last of their three debates, a faceoff Sunday on KSTP-TV, Channel 5, the station's commercial breaks afforded Bachmann a chance to amplify on her debate points with paid advertisements Graves could not match.
 
But as the Democrats' latest hope of unseating Bachmann, Graves also enjoyed a national network of support, particularly among Bachmann critics -- some of them Republicans -- who recoiled at her recent allegations of Muslim Brotherhood "influence operations" inside the U.S. government.
 
During their last debate, Graves called the charges "inflammatory." Bachmann said she made no accusations, but merely "asked questions."
 
Staff writers Kelly Smith and Jenna Ross contributed to this report. Kevin Diaz is a correspondent in the Star Tribune Washington Bureau.
 

Bachmann: Only abortion exception should be the life of the mother

Posted by: Jennifer Brooks Updated: November 1, 2012 - 1:42 PM

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U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann declined to say whether she agrees with an Indiana candidate's claim that pregnancies that result from rape are God's will.

During a debate with her Sixth Congressional District challenger Jim Graves Thursday morning, Bachmann repeated her conviction that abortion should be banned. The only exception, she said, should be should be if the life of the mother is at stake.

“I’m 100 percent pro-life,” Bachmann said during Thursday morning’s Sixth District Congressional debate on Minnesota Public Radio. “I believe that life is precious from conception until natural death. I believe it should be protected, and I believe that there needs to be an exception for the life of the mother, but other than that--”

“But not of rape?” asked NPR reporter Kerri Miller, who was moderating the debate between Bachmann and her Democratic challenger Jim Graves.

“I stand by the position I’ve held for 40 years, which is the position of the Catholic Church,” Bachmann said.

Miller asked whether Bachmann agreed with Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock’s claim that "even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen.”

“That isn’t what’s at issue,” Bachmann replied. “The issue is, what is the position on this issue of abortion. It’s not a small issue. It’s a big issue. Because in the last 40 years, 52 million Americans that aren’t here today because of abortions. … It isn’t just these really rare cases that we deal with, it’s the big overall issue of abortion and the legality of abortion.”

Miller asked again whether Bachmann agrees with Mourdock.

“What I agree with is that I’m 100 percent pro-life and I agree with the position of the Catholic Church on this issue,” Bachmann replied.

Bachmann also repeated her support for a constitutional “personhood” amendment that would ban abortion. Asked how such an amendment would affect couples seeking in-vitro fertilization – a process that can destroy or risk human embryos -- Bachmann said she might consider “waivers.”

Her challenger, hotel magnate Jim Graves, said abortion is an issue between a woman, her doctor and her God.

“I have a granddaughter, and God forbid anything ever happen like that,” he said. “I don’t want the government to be involved in that process. I’m a strong believer that we need to come together as a country, and when a woman is in a very difficult situation, that’s between her family and her God. I’m not going to get involved in that. Not while I’m involved in that.”

Asked about Mourdock, Graves said, “I don’t share his thoughts whatsoever.”

 

Bachmann, Graves tangle in debate

Posted by: Updated: October 30, 2012 - 6:12 PM

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By Eric Roper

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann went head-to-head Tuesday with her DFL opponent Jim Graves in a conversation that frequently turned testy over Obamacare, entitlements, a bridge and the best routes to job creation.

Graves, a hotel owner and business man, sought to portray himself as a pragmatic moderate who understands first-hand how business works. Bachmann railed against the dangers of larger government and repeatedly noted that she has her finger on the pulse of the district.

About 500 people turned out at the River’s Edge Convention Center in St. Cloud. The pro-Graves forces in the crowd frequently became vocal, particularly at one moment when Bachmann said she was not merely speaking in talking points.

The first dustup came over Bachmann's sponsorship of the St. Croix bridge, a project she said proves she can work across the aisle to serve the district.

"I was able to get Nancy Pelosi to even vote for this bill," Bachmann said of the House minority leader, perhaps her greatest enemy in Congress. "This is a major achievement. This was a signature issue and I’m grateful to do it. And it's because I am here. I am one of you. I have been in this district since I was in elementary school.”

Graves countered that the estimated that $700 million project -- construction likely will begin next year -- could be built for a fraction of the cost.

“I don’t think we should be building Rolls Royces, when we can get the job done and serve those people …in western Wisconsin with a Chevrolet," Graves said.

Bachmann attributed the high cost to government red tape and lawsuits from "radical environmental groups." 

A fierce opponent of the 2010 health reform law, Bachmann and her campaign have tried to hammer home in advertisements that Graves supports the deal.

“Jim was on television on a liberal TV channel speaking with Ed Schultz. He was asked would you campaign in favor of Obamacare and do you support Obamacare? And he said he did," Bachmann said.

Graves said Tuesday that her ads cut him off, and that he actually said the bill doesn’t cure the central problem of curbing overall health care costs.

"Michele, can you read my lips, please?" Graves said. "I said there are some good things in the bill. But the heavy lifting hasn't begun.” 

Bachmann, Graves face off in spirited 6th District debate

Posted by: Jim Ragsdale Updated: October 30, 2012 - 2:07 PM

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By Eric Roper
 
In her first debate since a failed bid for the presidency, U.S. Rep.  Michele Bachmann went head-to-head Tuesday with her DFL opponent Jim Graves in a conversation that frequently turned testy over Obamacare, entitlements, a bridge and the best routes to job creation.
 
Graves, a hotel owner and business man, sought to portray himself as a pragmatic moderate who understands first-hand how business works. Bachmann railed against the dangers of larger government and repeatedly noted that she has her finger on the pulse of the district.
 
About 500 people turned out at the River’s Edge Convention Center in St. Cloud. The pro-Graves forces in the crowd frequently became vocal, particularly at one moment when Bachmann said she was not merely speaking in talking points.
 
 

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