Democrats in the 6th prepare for 2010

Posted at 12:56 PM on May 6, 2009 by Tom Scheck (4 Comments)

Two DFLers in Minnesota's 6th Congressional District say they intend to challenge GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann in 2010. Maureen Reed, who ran for Lt. Gov. as an Independence Party member in 2006, said she intends to run as a DFLer. Elwyn Tinklenberg, who Bachmann defeated in 2008, said he's also making another run. You can read my story here.

If you're interested, I also recorded brief interviews with Reed, Tinklenberg and Bachmann's campaign manager Michelle Marston.

Here's Reed's interview:
Listen

Here's Tinklenberg's interview:
Listen

Here's Marston's interview:
Listen

By the way, Bachmann is scheduled to appear on Fox News with Neil Cavuto this afternoon at 3:30. I'm told the focus will be on taxpayer funding for ACORN.

Comments (4)

Bachmann is in for another tough campaign in '10. Even some of her own are beggining to gang up on her . . . apparently Dave Thompson a candidate for the GOP Chairmanship called her dumb in an interview and suggested the GOP stop focusing on social issues - should be interesting in the 6th CD, again! If anyone can pull off a victory while being beseiged by both sides, it's Bachmann!

Posted by Objectivist | May 6, 2009 4:58 PM

Tom, thanks for posting your conversation with Marston.

A couple of things that you might consider asking the Bachmann campaign about:

1) Marston's talking point in your conversation was that Bachmann was going to "stay focused on meeting the needs of her constituents." The next time you run into that talking point, you might ask her or a spokesman why her district has the highest rate of home foreclosures in Minnesota--if she's on the House Committee that regulates lending and is really concerned about "meeting the needs of her constituents."

2) Marston mentioned Bachmann's telephone town hall meetings and touted them as sign of great support for Bachmann. You might ask her if questions for the Congresswoman have to go through screeners before they get to the Congresswoman, and where interested parties can go to hear the answers that the Congresswoman gives to the questions. You might also ask her why she no longer holds "real" town hall meetings--in person appearances in the district, where she takes unscreened questions from an audience of constituents.

3) The Ron Paul thing. As you may know, there was a kind of coup in the Sixth District GOP last weekend: a Ron Paul supporter won a key leadership position and Paul supporters seem to have taken much of the control away from the old guard Republicans in the district. Bachmann has been meeting with Ron Paul lately, attending his seminars in DC. Since Paul is an acknowledged admirer of the John Birch Society you might ask Bachmann or her spokesperson whether they agree with Paul's 1998 assessment of the JBS: that "the beneficial educational impact of the John Birch Society over the past four decades would be hard to overestimate."

Posted by Bill Prendergast | May 6, 2009 7:06 PM

Bill -- instead of your suggestion of asking Bachmann if she agrees with Ron Paul's assessment of the JBS, it might be more productive to inquire if she agrees with the assessement made by J. Edgar Hoover and senior officials within the Bureau's Domestic Intelligence Division. They routinely characterized the JBS in FBI memos as: "extremist", "irrational", "irresponsible", "fanatics" and "lunatic fringe".

See my 70-page report on the JBS which is based, primarily, upon first-time-released FBI files and documents:
http://ernie1241.googlepages.com/jbs-1

More info: ernie1241@aol.com

Posted by Ernie | May 7, 2009 8:28 AM

You're actually basing opinion of an organization on memos from 1960?? In case you hadn't noticed, that was 50 years ago.

My suggestion -- It's way past time to move on.

Posted by Lou | May 10, 2009 9:34 PM

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