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Is Tarryl Clark planning to challenge U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann? That’s been the persistent buzz in recent days, but Clark’s not talking about her plans. Calls to the Senate Majority Leader’s office and cell phone in recent days were not returned.
Clark has been rumored to be eyeing either the governor’s race or a congressional challenge for months, but she has remained cagey about her ambitions. What’s known is that Clark has been testing the waters with party activists in the district.
“She is actively considering getting into the Sixth Congressional District race,” says Nancy Schumaker, chair of the DFL in the district. “I don’t know what her timetable is to make a final decision.”
But Schumaker doesn’t rule out a gubernatorial bid by Clark either.
“My best answer is she is looking at both and trying to make up her mind and getting advice from others in the party,” she says.
While Clark would undoubtedly be a formidable challenger to Bachmann, she’d have to fight for the DFL endorsement. Both Elwyn Tinklenberg, who narrowly lost to Bachmann in 2008, and Maureen Reed, a former Independence Party candidate for lieutenant governor, are seeking the party’s backing. The latter announced today that she’s raised more than $230,000 in just the two months since announcing her campaign.
The Sixth Congressional District has not been friendly to Democrats. Along with being the most conservative district in the state, it’s also proven fertile ground for third-party candidates. In 2008 Bob Anderson won 10 percent of the vote running as an Independence Party candidate — even though he wasn’t the party-backed challenger and didn’t mount much of a campaign. (Tinklenberg was endorsed by both the DFL and the Independence Party, but only one party affiliation can be listed on the ballot.)
“The bottom line is there are a lot of voters who don’t pay attention,” says Jack Uldrich, chairman of the Independence Party, noting widespread disaffection with the two dominant parties. “When they saw that there was a third option they just went with Bob Anderson.”
Uldrich says the party hasn’t spent much time thinking about the Sixth Congressional District contest yet. Reed has indicated she will seek cross-endorsement — a prospect that Uldrich believes would be “met warmly” by many Independence Party members.
“I’m not actively recruiting candidates up there,” Uldrich says.
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5 Comments »
Comment posted July 9, 2009 @ 2:35 pm
I hope the citizens of Minnesota’s 6th decide to elect someone more competent and more tuned in to reality and major issues than their current representative, who seems to fabricate false issues and beliefs out of thin air (e.g., investigating members Congress for patriotism; accusing ACORN of all sorts of stuff)
Comment posted July 9, 2009 @ 3:46 pm
Let the chips fall where they may. I’m of the belief that Clark would be the perfect DFL candidate for the 6th, assuming the DNC and the DCCC decide to actually support a 6th District Democrat for a change. Of course, the GOP would do all they can to try and protect Bachmann so it would be in the DFL’s interest to endorse the strongest and most viable candidate in the hopes of winning the District as well as the war of attrition in the finance battle. For every extra dollar that the GOP uses to defend Bachmann, that’s one extra dollar that can’t be used to support Kline or Paulsen. Tinklenberg, like Wetterling before him lack any real charisma and is soft on policy that would change voter’s minds away from Bachmann’s loony ways. Tarryl Clark is charismatic as well as a policy wonk and would give the 6th the type of representation it sorely needs and deserves after several cycles of Republican misrepresentation.
Comment posted July 9, 2009 @ 9:00 pm
All three Democrats named in the article have unique strengths: Elwyn Tinklenberg acquired a national profile after Bachmann’s Oct. 2009 anti-American rant on “Hardball”; Maureen Reed has strong credentials and a no-nonsense, “can-do” attitude; and Tarryl Clark has a strong political resume and lots of personal charisma.
Whoever advances to the general election ballot will have a difficult row to hoe. The 6th is Minnesota’s most Republican district, meaning that on paper it would be tougher for a Democrat to defeat Bachmann than it would be to defeat Kline or Paulsen.
The truth of the matter is that 96-97% of incumbents are reelected and as a second-term incumbent Bachmann will be even less vulnerable than she was in 2008. In addition, Democrats won’t have Obama at the top of the ticket to get out the vote.
I remain convinced that the most viable strategy to defeat Bachmann is to knock her out of contention in the open Republican primary. More detail at link below:
http://www.immelman.us/news/how-to-beat-bachmann/
Comment posted July 10, 2009 @ 6:29 am
Mr. Immelman: While I agree that Bachmann being primaried would be the most practical way to remove her from the equation, I have my doubts that the State and National GOP would allow for a viable primary (2008 redux). Playing the spoiler may be something you look forward to, but you gained only 7% of the primary vote last cycle – Do you have a different strategy this go around or are you suggesting an alternative Republican candidate?
After reading your linked article, I noticed that there’s one factor you didn’t address: The 6th, while being the most Republican of all on MN’s Congressional Districts, also has the lowest voter turnout of all of MN’s Congressional Districts. Unless turnout is somehow increased, I wonder how the voters who wish to be rid of Bachmann will have any success. As long as there’s voter apathy, Bachmann will manage to maintain a plurality simply due to the strength of her nearly unlimited Theocon support structure.
Comment posted July 11, 2009 @ 2:55 pm
Northeaster: Thanks for your input.
On the strategy issue, I have some new ideas (my 2008 campaign was just 57 days long, which severely constrained my options), but I’m delaying the decision to run until it becomes clear whether there will be Democratic primary challenges in the 6th District and gubernatorial races.
It will be practically impossible to defeat Bachmann in the Republican primary if there are contested races on the Democratic side of the ballot. If she advances to the general election next year, her odds of winning reelection are about 20 to 1, in my opinion.
Improving the primary turnout would have obvious advantages against Bachmann, because she has a hard-core base of only about 20,000 of the more than 400,000 registered voters in the district; less then 10 percent of registered voters voted in the 2008 primary.
Small correction: I received 7 percent of the total primary vote in 2008. Against Bachmann, I received 14% of the vote in the Republican primary.
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