Emmer, Perske and Denney in race to replace Bachmann

Joe Perske returned a call late one recent evening, sounding almost out of breath: "I'll tell ya what: This is the campaign of my life!"

The DFL's long-shot candidate in the conservative Sixth Congressional District sounded like he'd either had too much coffee or was feeling the effects of a runner's high. Either could be true: The accomplished marathoner estimates he's run 90,000 miles in his life, and black coffee is always at the ready.

Despite Perske's caffeinated campaign — "I shook buttery hands at the Corn Carnival in Cokato!" — the race to replace conservative firebrand Rep. Michele Bachmann in the Sixth District is a sleepier affair than Bachmann's hotly contested re-election campaigns that attracted national money and attention.

Republican Tom Emmer, who narrowly lost the 2010 governor's race, is the odds-on favorite, with advantages in fundraising and the state's most Republican-leaning district, which extends north and west of the Twin Cities along Interstate 94.

Emmer, an attorney and former state representative who ran in 2010 on the energies of Tea Party anti-government fervor, this time is stressing constituent service, local priorities and a workhorse as opposed to showhorse approach.

In the campaign's final days, Perske is trying to overcome his disadvantages with energetic retail campaigning and negative attacks on Emmer — many recycled from the 2010 governor's race — sometimes delivered in rough language probably unwelcome at Perske's Celebration Lutheran Church.

Perske's campaign to be the not-Tom Emmer has been complicated by the Independence Party's John Denney, a William Mitchell College of Law student who said he's pulling DFL votes because he's the only candidate in favor of abortion rights while also running hard on issues dear to liberals, such as college debt, drug law reform and a Congress less beholden to moneyed interests.

Driving through Sartell, where Perske is mayor of the town of 16,000, he points out new housing developments, a park, and a new manufacturing site that will provide 30 jobs at $25 per hour. A library is finally on the way.

The news isn't all good, as Perske drives past the city's most famous landmark, the half-demolished remains of the Verso paper mill, destroyed in a 2012 Memorial Day explosion and fire.

In his home garage, Perske shows off his running trophies and antlers claimed during cherished bow hunting trips. Warding off the fiscally irresponsible label, Perske points out some tools, "Look! I change my own oil!"

He opens a door to the outside and a woodpile and says excitedly: "I chop my own wood."

Now he is holding a thick notebook, the DFL's opposition research on Emmer. Presumably it's filled with Emmer's two long-ago drunken driving related offenses; his litigious conflicts with a tree farmer, a law partner and an office manager; and Emmer positions considered radical by some, including support for a state constitutional amendment that would allow Minnesota to nullify federal laws, as Southern states claimed the right to do before the Civil War.

"I've been going to every family I can possibly touch," Emmer said. "Every business, elected official, public safety employee, every faith group, with the idea that I want to work for them. I want to be their representative in Congress. It's about building relationships and then it's about doing the work, serving the constituents."

Emmer said he would focus on three areas of interest to the district: transportation, energy and agriculture. He wants construction of oil pipelines, which would free rail lines to carry agriculture products. And he favors a transportation plan that would use transportation trust fund money solely for roads and bridges, leaving mass transit modes to find their own funding source.

Perske said he would focus on transportation, jobs and education. Like Emmer, he said he would mostly aim to be an advocate for the district.

For all his breathy bravado, Perske seems to know what's coming. During a stop at Sartell Middle School — where he taught physical education for 25 years before leaving to campaign full time — Perske receives lots of hugs from colleagues and well-wishers.

But he has also come to see the principal. There is, he confides, the small matter of getting his job back after Election Day.