Capitol View: June 4, 2012 Archive

Oberstar backs Nolan for Congress

Posted at 1:07 PM on June 4, 2012 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2012, Campaign 2012: U.S. MN CD8

From MPR's Dan Kraker...

Longtime DFL Congressman Jim Oberstar endorsed Rick Nolan today in his bid to unseat GOP freshman incumbent Chip Cravaack. Cravaack beat Oberstar two years ago by fewer than five thousand votes. In accepting the endorsement today at the Minnesota Mining Museum in Chisholm, Nolan said Oberstar's endorsement matters even though he lost the last election.

"He lost it because Democrats got complacent," Nolan said. "94,000 of them didn't show up for the election and having traveled throughout this district, a number of things become clear. One is the enormity of respect that people in this district have for Jim Oberstar."

Nolan served in Congress representing a different Minnesota district from 1975 to 1981. He won the DFL endorsement last month. But he has two challengers in September's Democratic primary: former state senator Tarryl Clark, and former Duluth city councilor Jeff Anderson.

As Bills helps Walker in Wisconsin, Klobuchar courts female voters

Posted at 5:45 PM on June 4, 2012 by Tom Scheck (4 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2012, Campaign 2012: U.S. Senate

The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Minnesota Kurt Bills spent some time today campaigning in Wisconsin.. Bills was in Hudson making get out the vote calls for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Bills said he's from Wisconsin and believes Walker's efforts to change government are important.

But Bills sent a mixed message by saying he supports both collective bargaining rights and Walker's efforts to roll back union protections for public employees in state and local governments.

"Can you collectively bargain? Yes, you absolutely can," Bills said. "But I think people have to be very careful especially with the public union side that sometimes you can drive costs up too much and at that point, these districts are going to get into rough shape."

When pressed for a clarification, Bills said he would need to study up on the changes made under Walker. Wisconsin residents choose tomorrow between Walker and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in a recall election.

Bills also said his fundraising is going very well suggesting the campaign has raised more than $100,000 since he entered the race.

He also repeated his criticism that Klobuchar and Senate Democrats have failed to pass a budget resolution in three years.

Klobuchar spent Monday morning speaking to Women Winning, a group that supports legal abortion. Klobuchar said the group's support will be critical to help Democrats win in November.

She encouraged the group of 1,200 people in attendance to work harder to elect female candidates.

"We have been through tough times in this country but we are going to make it and we will win but to do it, we need to deploy a secret weapon," Klobuchar said. "We need women to win." (Full speech here: Listen )

Klobuchar declined to answer questions after her speech because she said she was late for her flight to Washington D.C.