First-term Rep. Michele Bachmann is getting a financial helping hand in her reelection bid from a national Republican Party fund that tries to assist candidates who are seen as vulnerable and in the Democrats' cross hairs.
Bachmann is one of 10 Republicans who will get assistance from the party's Regain Our Majority Program 2008 (ROMP), which is overseen by House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Also in line for ROMP assistance is state Rep. Erik Paulsen, the only Republican running for the open Third District seat being vacated by longtime Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad. Ramstad's seat is widely considered to be up for grabs because the district is less reliably Republican than it has been in the past. But Bachmann's inclusion on the ROMP assistance list shows how aggressively Democrats have already gone after her.
And the help, which based on past ROMP spending patterns could reach $100,000, according to a party spokesman, follows the Democrats' decision to target her.
The cash from the ROMP program may be more symbolic than substantive, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Through the end of last year, Bachmann already had raised nearly $1.2 million for her reelection bid, triple the amount raised by her two DFL challengers combined.
By comparison, the GOP's ROMP program had raised just over $1.4 million by the end of 2007 for the current election cycle.
The program was the brainchild of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and originally was called Retain Our Majority Program before that majority was wiped out by Democratic gains in 2006.
