Stakes get even higher in critical House race

10/24/2006

Hard-fought contest becomes a tossup with GOP liabilities

BY PATRICK SWEENEY
Pioneer Press

Michele Bachmann, an intensely conservative Republican state senator, and Patty Wetterling, a Democrat who earned a national reputation as an advocate for children after her son was abducted 17 years ago today, are vying in a race within a race.

The two women are competing in a $5 million-plus contest for the 6th District seat in Congress now held by Republican Mark Kennedy. They’re also part of a much bigger battle between the national Republican and Democratic parties for control of Congress.

Democrats need 15 seats to win a House majority for the first time since 1994. The 6th District is one of only about 50 contests nationwide — out of 435 — where national experts say the Democrats have a realistic chance of winning a Republican seat.

The district runs from Afton through the Twin Cities’ northern suburbs to St. Cloud. In other circumstances it would be safe Republican territory. President Bush beat John Kerry there by 15 percentage points. Kennedy, now running for the Senate, defeated Wetterling two years ago by 8 percentage points.

But because it’s an open seat in a year in which many voters are dissatisfied with Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq and suspicious that House Republican leaders didn’t act quickly enough on former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley’s sexual interest in teen pages, the district is a tossup.

The Foley scandal allowed Wetterling to become the Democrats’ national voice on an issue on which she has passion and expertise. That role almost certainly contributed to Wetterling overtaking Bachmann in two recent polls.

“If you were a consultant and you were designing a campaign, I don’t think you could have scripted it better,” said Larry Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political scientist. “Wetterling had her issue emerge as the national issue five weeks before the election. It was an act of nature, an act of God.”

But Jacobs and other experts question whether the Foley scandal gave Wetterling a long-term edge.

“I think it’s kind of a small impact,” said Josh Kraushaar, editor of House Race Hotline, a Washington-based electronic newsletter. “It’s a tough district for Democrats to pick up.”

The third candidate in the race, John Binkowski, who dropped out of college to run as the Independence Party’s nominee, has no public affairs experience, little name recognition, little cash and little chance of winning.

In candidate forums, Binkowski competes on an equal footing with Bachmann and Wetterling, often seeming more willing than either of them to candidly stake out positions on issues. Outside those joint appearances, he is at an overwhelming disadvantage to Bachmann and Wetterling.

WHO IS BACHMANN?

Bachmann, 50, grew up in Anoka in the heart of the 6th District. Tightly wound and focused, she nevertheless shows flashes of humor and plunges into campaign crowds with abandon. She seldom publicly mentions the issue that made her a hero to social conservatives during her last three years in the state Senate — a ban on gay marriage.

She graduated from Winona State University, where she met her husband, Marcus. Both campaigned for Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1980. Later, both were won over by Ronald Reagan’s conservative philosophy.

She earned a law degree at Oral Roberts University and worked for five years as a tax attorney for the U.S. Treasury Department, representing the Internal Revenue Service.

She and her husband live in Stillwater and operate a Christian counseling center. They raised five biological children and 23 foster children. In 1999, she ran for the Stillwater school board on a platform of opposing Minnesota’s Profile of Learning high school graduation standards.

Bachmann lost that race but a year later won election to the state Senate after defeating in a primary Gary Laidig, a moderate Republican and 28-year veteran of the Legislature. She accused him of being soft on abortion.

In a recent speech at Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park — a speech that sparked a complaint the pastor violated the church’s tax-free status by endorsing Bachmann — Bachmann said God personally called her to run for Congress.

In the Senate, Bachmann helped win repeal of the Profile of Learning. As sponsor of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, she became a polarizing figure, but she never succeeded in forcing a floor vote on the amendment.

She decisively defeated two legislators — state Reps. Phil Krinkie and Jim Knoblach — to win the Republican endorsement for Congress this year.

WHO IS BINKOWSKI?

Binkowski, 27, lives in St. Mary’s Point, in Washington County, in the home in which he grew up.

He graduated from Stillwater High School, attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison for five years and left college to work as a carpenter and construction supervisor in Madison. He later moved back to Minnesota and began pursuing a degree in construction management at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Since last spring, he has been campaigning full time.

Binkowski, who calls himself a “fiscal conservative and a small government advocate without the social conservative agenda,” says his politics are close to those of former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson.

WHO IS WETTERLING?

Wetterling is serious, seemingly less comfortable in debates than Bachmann or Binkowski. In a recent televised candidate’s forum, she gave essentially the same answer to questions about combating terrorism and financing health care: She would bring the parties together and encourage them to “chisel out” a strategy.

Wetterling grew up in St. Paul’s Macalester-Groveland neighborhood and graduated from Highland Park High School. She majored in math and psychology at Mankato State University.

Her husband, Jerry, was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, and she accompanied him to Maryland, where he performed alternative service and she taught eighth-grade math.

After moving back to Minnesota, Wetterling was a stay-at-home mom and worked in her husband’s chiropractic clinic.

On Oct. 22, 1989, the Wetterlings’ 11-year-old son, Jacob, was abducted at gunpoint near the family’s home in St. Joseph. He has never been found. They have three other children.

Wetterling became a nationally known advocate for laws protecting children and aiding families of missing children. She helped enact sex offender registration laws at the state and national level and helped pass Minnesota’s Amber Alert system that quickly notifies citizens and law officers when a child is missing.

“I learned, after Jacob’s disappearance, the amazing power of coalition building,” she said.

In 2004, Wetterling got into the 6th District race late, after Janet Robert dropped out, ran a campaign that some Democrats criticized as ineffective and lost to Kennedy, 54 percent to 46 percent.

Last year, Wetterling began campaigning for the U.S. Senate after telling Democrats that polling convinced her she could not win in the 6th District. In January, she abandoned the Senate race, concluding she could not defeat Amy Klobuchar for the DFL nomination. She quickly joined the 6th District campaign and defeated former state transportation commissioner Elwyn Tinklenberg in a DFL endorsing convention.

A COSTLY CAMPAIGN

The 6th District campaign has been an expensive one. Through Sept. 30, Wetterling and Bachmann reported raising $2.2 million and $1.6 million, respectively. Binkowski, who criticizes his opponents’ spending as exorbitant, raised $17,000.

In addition, the Republican National Congressional Committee reported spending $1.5 million either to promote Bachmann or attack Wetterling. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent about $330,000 on television ads.

Almost certainly, the race will be one of the most expensive congressional campaigns in Minnesota history.