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6th District Race
Arcing from the St. Croix River valley to the farm country west of St. Cloud, the Sixth has evolved from a competitive district to one that has been solidly Republican this decade. First-term Rep. Michele Bachmann, a social conservative who is Minnesotas first female GOP representative in Congress, won by a comfortable margin in 2006. The suburbanization of the district is creeping northwestward along the I-94 corridor, making it the fastest-growing in the state. Among the biggest employers in the district are Xcel Energy, Andersen Windows and Goldn Plump Chicken. In April, the DFL Party endorsed Elwyn Tinklenberg, a former state transportation commissioner and Blaine mayor, to challenge Bachmann.
6th District Race stories from Star Tribune
- How to have minor parties that are more than spoilersReintroduce the concept of fusion, and add a dash or two of instant-runoff voting.
- Editorial: A test case for church vs. stateLiving Word and Hammond win Round 1 in IRS dispute.
- Netlets for Thursday, Nov. 20Hasn't Michele Bachmann embarrassed our state long enough? Appearing again on a cable news show, Minnesota's Sixth District congresswoman still wants us to believe that when she shot her mouth off on "Hardball," someone else pulled the trigger. Now she is going off on the Senate recount in Minnesota.
- Bachmann offers new explanation on 'anti-American' comments: 'Urban legend'
- Editorial: Our endorsements
- What about Bob? In the Fighting Sixth, a name goes a long way
- Letters to the editor for Friday, Nov. 7
- Tough talk helped Bachmann
- Bachmann declares victory in Sixth
- Tussle in Minnesota's 6th District is topsy-turvy
The political players
Incumbent - Michele Bachmann (R)
Bachmann is an outspoken conservative Republican from Stillwater. She came into the Minnesota Senate in 2001 vowing to kill the "Profile of Learning" high school graduation standards, which conservatives considered weak and unbalanced. That crusade succeeded, and Bachmann took the lead on another, to put an amendment into the Minnesota Constitution banning same-sex marriage and civil unions. That controversial effort had not borne fruit when Bachmann won a bruising 2006 campaign against child-safety advocate Patty Wetterling for the open Sixth District U.S. House seat. Read more...
Elwin Tinklenberg (D)
Tinklenberg has been endorsed by his party and the Independence Party. A former United Methodist minister, he developed an interest in transportation issues as mayor of Blaine. Jesse Ventura appointed Tinklenberg transportation commissioner. In that role Tinklenberg worked with the Legislature to win funds for the Hiawatha light-rail commuter line, the first of its kind in the state. Read more...
Bob Anderson (I)
Anderson works for a dental lab in Woodbury and hosts a local access cable T.V. show, Inside Mental Health Issues. He is a longtime advocate for requiring insurance companies to cover mental health problems on par with other illnesses, and a supporter of the Mental Health Parity Bill. He filed for office as an Independence Party candidate, but Elwyn Tinklenberg won the party’s endorsement, as well as the DFL Party’s. Read more...