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Home | Politically Connected | State Politics | The I-35W bridge collapse
Old hands, newcomers take stage
With members of Congress making a case against the GOP and predicting victory in November, it also was a chance for challengers to get face time with party activists.
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Minnesota bridges rated: An interactive map of bridges that are "structurally deficient," "functionally obsolete" or have gusset plates like those on the I-35W bridge.
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ROCHESTER - The Minnesota DFL's newest member of Congress joined its most experienced congressional hand Saturday in taking shots at the Bush administration, particularly concerning Iraq, and predicted sweeping Democratic victories in congressional races in November.
U.S. Reps. Jim Oberstar and Tim Walz also criticized Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty concerning transportation and other infrastructure issues, calling Pawlenty "Governor No," for the pride he has taken in vetoing legislation.
Alluding to the veto pen Pawlenty often boasts of, Walz, who is up for reelection in the First Congressional District, said he, too, has a pen: a 19-cent Papermate. Walz said he uses it to "write down the hopes, dreams and visions of people of this country."
Walz said Pawlenty's and President Bush's use of vetoes "has made America less secure, less fair, less economically viable and less of a country that we know it can be." Oberstar, of the Eighth District and chairman of the House Transportation Committee, pointed to the speed with which $250 million was appropriated from Congress after the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge.
"By midnight a bill was introduced in the House and within the next 48 hours, more than a quarter of a billion dollars was available to rebuild that bridge," Oberstar said.
First elected in his northeastern Minnesota district in 1974, Oberstar is the dean of the Minnesota congressional delegation. Walz, a first-termer, won a surprise victory in Minnesota's southern regions and is considered by party activists as a poster child for the potential for change in other once-conservative districts.
The convention is also an opportunity for congressional challengers to get their faces in front of party activists. On Friday, Iraq war veteran and former Watertown Mayor Steve Sarvi spoke. Sarvi is challenging third-term Republican Rep. John Kline in the state's Second District, which includes some southern Twin Cities suburbs.
Kline is a retired Marine colonel, and Sarvi is hoping to use his veteran credentials with the Minnesota National Guard to counter what is considered Kline's strength concerning military affairs.
Paraphrasing former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's contention that a country must go to war with the military it has rather than the one it would like to have, Sarvi said, "Neglect soldiers at war and abandon veterans at home, then, by God, you've got to go on the battle with that record. They'll get the election day they deserve."
Mark Brunswick • 651-222-1636
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Governor: Tim Pawlenty
One of only a few prominent Republicans to win a competitive re-election contest in the Democratic sweep of 2006, Tim Pawlenty is widely seen as politically shrewd and naturally likable.
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