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7th District Race
One of the largest districts in the nation, the seventh is Minnesota's most rural and agriculture-dependent. Dotted with regional centers from Lake of the Woods in the north to the southwest, it lacks any true urban areas. Rep. Collin Peterson, serving his ninth term, is something of a renegade DFLer and a prominent Blue Dog (fiscally conservative) Democrat who rose to take the chairmanship of the House Agriculture Committee when his party took control of Congress in the 2006 election. That post gives him major clout in shaping agricultural legislation, which is vitally important to the district. He was a central player in the negotiations that led to passage of the new five-year farm act, which was adopted in May over President Bush's veto.
Glen Menze, an accountant and farmer from Starbuck, won the Republican endorsement
to challenge Peterson. Menze lost to Peterson in 2000.
7th District Race stories from Star Tribune
- Nov. 11: Pawlenty wounds buck, but hunting party fails to find itGov. Tim Pawlenty got a buck Saturday at the Minnesota Governor's Deer Opener, but still came up empty-handed.
- Health care: A blitz from both sides In TV ads, e-mail blasts and nightly door-knocking campaigns, from the grass roots to legislative circles, the ground war over a health care overhaul is raging in Minnesota.
- D.J. Tice: An abortion battle? Now that's the status quoThe rift in the House over health care reform shows that much remains as it ever was in politics.
- Health care bill clears the House
- Minn. delegation split on health care bill
- State pork producers request emergency federal aid
- Collin Peterson's Blue Dogs bark at 'public option'
- Readers Write for Sunday, Aug. 16
- Nick Coleman: Sometimes, America, you feel like a nut
- A kinder, gentler town hall meeting
The political players
Incumbent - Collin Peterson (D)
A centrist Democrat, Peterson is in his 9th term representing northwestern Minnesota, a politically mixed area where he has achieved solid support by helping to found the "Blue Dog" coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats while strongly backing programs to boost agriculture and sportsmen's interests. He has been elevated to the chair of the powerful Agriculture Committee in the Democrat controlled 110th Congress. Read more...
Glen Menze (R)
An accountant and business consultant from Starbuck who also has farmed with relatives for 30 years, Menze is making his second bid for the Seventh District seat. He once described himself as a "compassionate conservative Republican," but said he now thinks of himself as "more of a populist conservative." He enters the race pushing for comprehensive immigration reform to better control U.S. borders, permanent tax cuts and less government interference on small businesses. Read more...