Gutknecht challenger among vets seeking office
Aaron Blake
Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent
Published October 2, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Tim Walz insists his military experience is simply "one part of my character," but he figures it can't hurt in his uphill battle to win a seat in Congress.
"It gives us a higher profile and separates me from people," said Walz, a Democrat and teacher at Mankato West High School who is hoping to deny Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht a seventh term in 2006.
Walz, who served in Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, is gaining more attention than your typical first-time political candidate: He's part of a growing national trend in which a new class of veterans is coming home and hoping to make a mark on Capitol Hill. While the number of veterans in Congress has dropped dramatically in the past three decades, at least eight Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are running for 2006 U.S. House seats as Democrats, and two are vying as Republicans for the same seat in Texas.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says it's not recruiting veterans. But Walz said he thinks veterans running as Democrats draw more attention because of the myth that Democrats aren't in the military -- to the point, he said, "where this is like an anomaly."
Democrats rejoiced and cited growing public opposition to the war in Iraq. Hackett is now being talked up as a challenger to Republican Sen. Mike DeWine in 2006.
But Republicans say that Hackett's strong showing was an aberration and that special elections often have lower turnout and closer results than general elections.
Walz, who has a master's degree in educational leadership and is working toward a doctorate, spent 24 years in the Army National Guard before retiring in the spring as a command sergeant major. He taught in China from 1989 to 1990 and established a business to organize student travel there when he returned.
The Nebraska native made news in August 2004 when he said he was initially refused entrance to a rally for President Bush in Mankato because he wasn't a supporter. He calls the event a catalyst: "It definitely galvanized me to say, 'I'm not backing down from this.' "
A week later, he signed on to become Blue Earth County manager for Kerry's presidential campaign.
Walz said Gutknecht has lacked "authentic leadership" and, most recently, should have tried to talk junior Minnesota Republican Reps. John Kline and Mark Kennedy into voting against the Central American Free Trade Agreement in July.
Gutknecht campaign manager Nels Pierson said the congressman would rather run a positive campaign and not talk about potential opponents, including Walz.
"Whether it's Tim Walz or anyone else -- no matter who he runs against, it's not going to change who he represents," Pierson said.
Walz and all veterans running for office face the same long odds every challenger does -- the incumbent reelection rate in the House is typically in the high 90s -- and Walz said he's by no means just trying to make a statement. But, he said, "there's also value in the dialogue, and that's what political races are supposed to do."
For Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Operation Truth, a nonprofit and nonpartisan advocacy group for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, that dialogue is a positive step for veterans, no matter which party is behind them.
"Now I think the public opinion is starting to change, and people are understanding that the guys who've been in Washington don't seem to have a good handle on it," Rieckhoff said. "And [people] are responsive to guys like this guy Walz, like Hackett.
"People should be paying attention to it, because I think it really could be the tip of the iceberg."