As someone who has been politically active in Minnesota's 6th district I have witnessed with horror the rise of Michele Bachmann from allegedly reluctant school board candidate to Congressperson and Fox news shill. As El Tinklenberg and Bill Prendergast have before me I want to thank everyone who has generously contributed to El's campaign from the bottom of my heart.
Your outpouring of sensibility, outrage, and good old fashioned pro-America, do the right thing even if it hurts, love has not only warmed our hearts here in the 6th but inspired us to work even harder to elect a caring, honest and fair man to Congress. At a pre-door knock rally in St. Cloud, MN., Saturday, volunteers sat in awe as the figures mounted up by the minute while we monitored El's ActBlue page. Staffers and volunteers doorknocking on the ground here in the gateway to Lake Wobegon have been noticing a distinct trend away from Bachmann over the last several weeks and on the heels of her seditious commentary on Friday's Hardball indications are that her frightening words have only strengthened her already substantial negatives in the district. Let me give you a little background on this race and why your hard earned, patriotically given money will help El in unimaginable ways.
In 2006 Bachmann was running against noted child advocate Patty Wetterling. Patty is a dear soul and would have made an excellent Congresswoman. However, she was a political novice and was unable to master effective campaigning, neither in 2004, when she ran against incumbent Mark Kennedy, nor in 2006 when Kennedy ran for Senate against Amy Klobuchar and the seat was vacant. How Bachmann got the Republican endorsement to replace Kennedy on the ballot is a story of just what a self-serving political opportunist Bachmann truly is. Bachmann rallied a cadre of her Christian neocon supporters to run for seats as delegates to the district convention, with the single purpose of nominating her. At the 2006 6th district Republican convention even though one of her opponents, moderate Republican state representative Jim Knoblauch, warned them about the dangers of Bachmann's extremism, she was nominated on the second ballot. After the nominating election Bachmann's theocrat supporters promptly left the hall, satisfied that they had done their godly duty, rudely unconcerned about doing any other of her party's important business.
Astute activists here in her district have long known that she is motivated only by a burning desire to forward her narrow theocratic agenda politically and has no inclinations toward actual governance. She is an energetic and tenacious campaigner who is very cautious in maintaining a mainstream image of standard Republicanism to the public eye, anti-tax, fiscal conservative, limited government. The local MSM has helped in this effort by never exposing her more radical true nature, which she has done often and ridiculously, as you have seen in other accounts of her extreme behavior. In talking with El Tinklenberg many months ago, as he formed his campaign strategy, he stated more than once, "If we can only get her off topic, off script, she will reveal her true self and we can beat her". His words could be prophetic.
Regarding the great amounts of money El has received over the weekend he needed every single cent. As of last reporting Bachmann had @ 1.4 million in cash on hand while El had only around 357 thousand. This district is well known as a conservative, albeit independent, area. It has been very difficult to raise any considerable funds against a conventional wisdom that states that no Democrat can win here. Bachmann's campaign strategy in 2006 was based on constant appearances in the district and a blizzard on TV ads in the final 2 weeks of the campaign. Wetterling had the money to run enough ads of her own but was unable to dent Michele's finely crafted image. This cycle Bachmann apparently thought she was safe and spent most of her time trying to establish herself as a national figure with appearances on Larry King and Fox. She has spent very little time in the district and up until several weeks ago did not seem to consider Tinklenberg a legitimate challenger. It is surmised that the party has been grooming her to run against Klobuchar in 2010, thus the attempt's to establish her as a national political figure. As a Republican woman she was also been prominently selected to Sarah Palin's truth squad, back when they thought that Palin might make hay with Clinton supporters. But as we hoped all along Bachmann, when given enough rope, revealed her true colors and if all our hard work pays off her political future will be dim.
The essence of what I am conveying here is that Bachmann now realizes what a fight she is in and she will respond strongly. She has the resources to flood the local airwaves with deceptive ads showing her smiling face claiming she will lower your taxes and fight to keep America strong. In the past this has worked with independent voters enough so that together with her strong district base she has been able to win. One of our greatest concerns here was that El did not have the resources to counter this coming barrage. He had a good strategic plan to offer a modicum of ID style ads to at least keep his name before the public but he did not have the funds to run any sort of persuasive ads or counter any attacks she might have made. The only broadcast media market that serves this district is the expensive Minneapolis-St. Paul market. The money you have all so wonderfully , selflessly given will be used to take advantage of her own words, of Colin Powell's scathing indictment with TV ads, to run numerous radio ads in the district, perhaps put out a final GOTV, district wide mailer and augment the already impressive field organization which El has built in the absence of real resources.
To address some concerns about El raised by progressives I am considered a visible local progressive (toot own horn) and as such I have had several meaningful sessions with El discussing the very concerns you raise. On the matter of choice it is clear to me that El Tinklenberg is a principled man of faith whose personal Christian morality does make it impossible for him to be what most people consider "pro-choice". However, I believe him when he has stated on numerous occasions that he has no intentions of challenging Roe. Rather his concern is that we work together to dramatically reduce unwanted pregnancy, especially by strengthening existing and creating new programs which help mothers who choose to have their babies, in the areas of pre and post natal care, economic viability, child care etc., so that these women have, at the very least, a fighting chance in today's difficult world. Regarding gay marriage once again El's personal morals do not allow him to favor same sex marriage. However, he strongly feels that it is not in the government's purview to prevent committed partners of any kind from enjoying the benefits given heterosexuals through marriage. He feels that marriage is a religious institution and as such various denominations should make their own decisions about whether or not to allow same sex marriage in their churches. As these are important issues for me I grilled El hard about them and I understand and accept his views, even though they are different than mine. The fact is a pro-choice Democrat has a snowball's chance of being elected in this strongly socially conservative district and Elwyn is a man with a good heart who really cares about people and, if elected, will work hard for them. All of them, not just the Pro-America ones.
Once again, I want to thanks everyone for their remarkable support. Americans from everywhere have spoken from deep in their hearts and souls to uphold that which is truly American and which has made us a great nation. We will continue to work our fingers to the bone to elect El Tinklenberg, a man who will help make this nation an even greater beacon of freedom in an dark world.