Maureen Reed. Photo: Reed for Congress, Flickr

Dr. Maureen Reed announced Sunday that she’s suspending her campaign for the DFL primary in August. Sen. Tarryl Clark will be the DFL challenger to Rep. Michele Bachmann along with Independence Party candidate Bob Anderson and independent Aubrey Immelman. In a statement, she said she bowed out when it became clear that Clark had more resources.

“It is with a heavy heart that I am suspending operations in my campaign for Congress in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District,” Reed said. “During the past few days, I have come to the conclusion that a prolonged primary fight only assists Michele Bachmann. The other DFL challenger, Tarryl Clark, has amassed more resources, and I feel that it is time for the DFL to unify behind one candidate in this race.”

Clark issued her own statement on Sunday thanking Reed.

“[I]t is because we possessed the common goal of restoring real representation and getting the people’s work done, that I am honored by and thankful for Maureen Reed’s endorsement,” Clark said. “Dr. Reed’s supporters and volunteers did a tremendous amount of work to help defeat Michele Bachmann in November, and I invite and encourage them to continue those efforts with our team.”

“I managed to reach about 20 of the approximately 30 delegates and alternates on the phone Thursday and Friday night ahead of Saturday’s Independence Party nominating convention, but it was clear that most of those planning to attend already had their minds made up,” Immelman said in a comment at the Minnesota Independent. “Not one of the individuals on the delegate list offered me a pledge of support.”

Anderson won 10 percent of the vote in the 2008 election as an unendorsed independent.

“I will represent my constituents free from the partisan politics of the Democratic and Republican Parties,” Anderson posted on his website following the endorsement. “I ask if you truly want change, try something different. You have the control.This is a two year position, if you are not satisfied with my job performance you can vote me out!”

Immelman told the Minnesota Independent on Friday that he’ll submit his name for consideration at the Independence Party convention on Saturday.

“I’ll have a clearer picture about my options to help defeat Bachmann after tomorrow’s 6th District Independence Party nominating convention, where I’ll be offering delegates a choice between myself and Bob Anderson.”

Immelman says he has a better shot at drawing votes from independents who lean toward Bachmann.

“My efforts are presently directed to achieving that objective by targeting my messaging to the large independent constituency in the 6th District, the majority of which currently leans Bachmann.”

In a short note on his site, the Sartell resident said he’ll run “on a platform of national security, law and order, fiscal responsibility, and uncompromising opposition to political extremism.”

But, in an interview with the St. Cloud Times, he narrowed down that plank considerably: “I am a single-issue candidate. That is to defeat Michele Bachmann.”

In 2008, Immelman lost to Bachmann in the GOP primary. He then ran as an independent write-in candidate in the general election, getting few votes. He’s unsure if he’ll run as a Republican or an independent, but he’s sure he won’t run as a Democrat.

The field in the Sixth Congressional District is getting crowded: DFL-endorsed state Sen. Tarryl Clark will face Dr. Maureen Reed in the Democratic primary, and Bob Anderson, who also ran in 2008 and won 10 percent of the general-election votes, is again seeking the Independence Party nomination. Troy Freihammer of Sartell is running as an independent, according to the Times.

(Images: NationalAtlas.gov, Bob Anderson)

Things are heating up in the race to unseat 6th District Rep. Michele Bachmann: Democrat Maureen Reed raised $230,000 in the two months following her announcement to run; past Bachmann challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg says he’ll be in the Democratic primary whether he gets the DFL nod or not; and state Sen. Tarryl Clark is expected to announce her candidacy soon. A new twist: Third-party candidate Bob Anderson — who garnered 10 percent of the vote in the 2008 election — is seriously considering running again.

Last time Anderson ran as an unendorsed Independence Party (IP) candidate; Tinklenberg was cross-endorsed by the DFL and the IP. This time, Anderson says he wants just one endorsement — the IP’s. Coinciding with the IP’s executive committee meeting last weekend, he sent a letter to the party indicating his interest in running. He wouldn’t share the letter, but said his first post on his new campaign blog, launched Sunday, sums it up. He writes that candidates should focus on just one party: “I feel if you need the endorsement of two parties you are not the strongest candidate.”

In an interview with the Minnesota Independent on Thursday, Anderson said he learned a lot during the last campaign and will leverage that experience this time around. But it all hinges on whether the IP will cross-endorse.

“I don’t want to get involved in that again,” he said. “I want the party’s support — I don’t want ‘anti’ support.” Later he said he doesn’t think cross-endorsement helped “anybody,” adding with a chuckle, “It’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. ”

The endorsement question

Don’t expect a definitive decision from Anderson soon. He’s waiting for the results of the Independence Party’s October 10 Central Committee Meeting, when the body will vote on whether to continue cross-endorsing.

Party chair Jack Uldrich was hesitant to guess about the outcome of that meeting, but he says he’s heard strong opinions on both sides.

“My personal feeling is it’s going to be a very close vote,” he told the Minnesota Independent. “A lot of people in ’08 were disappointed with how cross-endorsement worked.”

He said there are pros and cons to the practice: On one hand, cross-endorsement improves the odds of a candidate with a platform similar to the IP’s getting elected (although Minnesota law prohibits more than one party affiliation being listed on ballots). On the other, cross-endorsement dilutes the party brand, as Uldrich puts it. “The public might say, ‘Well, what does this party stand for?’”

Uldrich implied that Anderson’s chances of getting the endorsement are much better this time around. “The fact that he’s reaching out earlier will work in his favor,” Uldrich said. “Against him is that El Tinklenberg or Maureen Reed will seek the party’s cross-endorsement, too.”

But of Anderson, who addressed the 2008 IP convention, he added, “He’ll be received warmly by the party. Whether that’s enough to garner the endorsement is impossible for me to say.”

The Democratic Party likely wouldn’t welcome an Anderson candidacy, given his take of the vote last time around. But when asked about Anderson’s potential run or the party’s thoughts about cross-endorsement or whether Anderson was a “spoiler” in 2008, Gabby Adler, Midwestern press secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), dodged the question.

“Minnesotans are looking for a Representative who reflects their values and will fight to protect jobs, reduce home foreclosures, and promote local economic growth,” she wrote in an email. “We are excited to work with whoever emerges as the DFL nominee next year as they reach out to Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike to build a winning base of support.”

Spoiler?

Anderson calls himself a “right leaning centrist” running in the “most conservative district in the state.” But some call him “spoiler.”

He took 10 percent of the vote in a 2008 election that was decided by a mere 3-percent margin of victory.

“I know I created a lot of stir. I know a lot of the bloggers have been against me, because they think I cost the election,” he said. But he believes he took more votes from Bachmann than Tinklenberg, since he runs as a conservative.

Anderson sees himself as a legitimate alternative to Bachmann and didn’t hesitate to criticize her over, among other issues, the congresswoman’s failure to support the Mental Health Parity bill and her practice of holding mid-day teleconference calls that she bills as town hall meetings. Plus, he calls out media appearances where Bachmann suggested President Obama had “anti-American views” and announced her refusal to fill out the full U.S. Census.

“I think she’d be much better off concentrating on the district,” he said. “She’s got the ability to draw all that news coverage. Why doesn’t she do something less divisive?”

He added, “She’s kind of embarrasing the district. She’s a smart gal and attractive, but she’s got a lot of negatives. She’s got a really strong base, but believe me I hear more people talking negative about her than positive.”

Aubrey Immelman

Aubrey Immelman, a St. John’s University political science professor who ran as a Republican against Bachmann in the 2008 primary, wrote in an email that it’s “empirically unverifiable” whether Anderson lost the election for the Democratic candidate.

He cites numbers he crunched on his website in May that he believes show the primary election results “predicted the outcome” of the general election. In the primary, Tinklenberg won 43.1 percent of the vote, a fraction of a percent less than he got on election day (43.4 percent). Bachmann went from a 47.2 percent share in the primary to 46.4 percent on Nov. 4, whereas Anderson went from a 2 percent share in the primary to 10 percent on election day.

Whether Immelman will join Anderson in the race and challenge Bachmann for the GOP nomination is also up in the air.

“I have not yet decided,” he said. “I’m encountering significant hostility to my open primary strategy — not from Republicans, but from partisan Democrats.”

He cites commenters on liberal blogs, as well as a post by Dave Mindeman at mnpACT, who called Immelman’s primary bid “election trickery” and “foolishness”: “Really, Mr. Immelman — if all you have to recommend you for the 6th District is that you are not Michele Bachmann, then spare us the typeface.”

Whether a vote for Anderson constitutes supporting a “spoiler,” the IP’s Uldrich gave his solution, then his opinion. The Independent Party supports instant-runoff voting (IRV), which allows voters to rank their voting preferences. (Democrats support IRV in their plank, he said, while Republicans oppose it).

“Whenever a voter votes his or her conscience it’s never a wasted vote,” Uldrich said. “That says quite a bit about the caliber of candidates the Republicans and Democrats are putting up.”

“I want this to be a referendum within the Republican party on the kind of leadership or, more pertinently, the lack of leadership that Rep. Michele Bachmann has shown,” he told Fox’s Ellen Galles.

In an email, he wrote, “It’s been hectic for a small, insurgent, one-man campaign such as mine — but nothing like what’s happening at Tinklenberg HQ, I’m sure.” (Tinklenberg has surpassed $810,000 in donations since Friday afternoon.)

On his website, Immelman writes that he’s been “inundated with messages and phone calls of support.” More importantly, donations — something he didn’t accept for the primary — started coming. “[S]tarting Friday night, small contributions began trickling in, typically in amounts of $10 and $20, but with a couple of $50 contributions mixed in,” he told me. He says he’s seen a trickle but not a flood, adding up to “four digits” of funds. Suffice it to say, “it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what Tinklenberg has received.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s comments that she believes Barack Obama “may have anti-American views” and that the media should investigate whether members of Congress are “pro-America or anti-America” has done more than fill the coffers of her Democratic challenger, El Tinklenberg: it’s prompted a challenge for her congressional seat from within the GOP. The St. Cloud Times reports that Aubrey Immelman, Ph.D., a professor of political psychology at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict, registered yesterday as a write-in candidate. On his campaign site, Immelman references Bachmann’s words to Chris Matthews:

And, as if incumbent Rep. Michele Bachmann’s enthusiastic support for these policies is not damaging enough, she now appears to be calling for a witch hunt to “find out [which members of Congress] are pro-America or anti-America.” We cannot tolerate this festering brand of neo-McCarthyism in our midst.

He sees himself as an “alternative for disillusioned Republicans.”

“The Republican Party needs to rebuild its image, and this cannot be done when its elected representatives say these kinds of things,” he told the St. Cloud Times’ Larry Schumacher.

While Immelman garnered only 14 percent of the vote in the Republican primary, his entry may shave off support from Bachmann, who last week lead DFLer Tinklenberg by just four points, according to a Democratic party poll.