I have learned from a reliable source that former Lieutenant Governor candidate for the Independence Party, Maureen Reed will be speaking tonight at a DFL meeting in the 6th Congressional District. While this may not be the official announcement, I am told that Reed is set to announce soon that she will take on Michele Bachmann for the 6th District seat. Obviously, this puts her in direct competition with Elwyn Tinklenberg who is expected to announce by the end of the summer.Reed chaired the University of Minnesota Board of Regents and served as the interim Executive Director on the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota. For more information, check out the Lt. Governor debate from the '06 Governor's race.
I will have more information as it becomes available...
UPDATE: It has been confirmed by Noah Kunin from the Uptake that Reed was in fact at the CD6 meeting this evening. As I was writing this story I received word that it was an official announcement. Here is what this anonymous source had to say:
Yes she announced officially.
I talked to her quite a bit and she is really a good 'people person', listener and has a good handle on health care, job creation and the mortgage crisis.
She calls herself a 'blue dog' which turned some off, but I'm willing to give her a chance.
She understands the need to gain both the DFL and Indepence party endorsements and understands that other IP candidates need to be out of the mix. However knows legally she can't really do anything about it. But she has been a big part of the IP party so her influence may mean something.
On a side note, over at Minnesota Progressive Project, Populista has a post up examining just what it might take to defeat Bachmann. It's a good read...
If we want to Dump Bachmann Democrats, IP members, independents and sane Republicans are going to need to join together. Dr. Reed would be well positioned to do just that. It will be interesting to see how her campaign plays out.
I couldn't agree more. If there truly is a majority desire to defeat Bachmann, then it is going to take more than the DFL alone can muster. I said as much recently:
Given that Bachmann received less than 50% in the '08 election she is beatable. However, it can only happen when members of the DFL and Independence Parties work in unison. That means more than an empty cross endorsement. It means an all out diplomatic effort from the leadership in both parties to run a unity candidate. DFLers may need to realize that this unity candidate might mean stepping aside to allow this person to run as an Independence candidate. The reason I say this is because there remains a large enough group of people in this district who do not like Bachmann but will NEVER vote for a DFL candidate that it makes winning nearly impossible.
I will bring you more as information becomes available...
5 responses to "BREAKING: Reed v. Bachmann? Updated"
Veeery interesting. I think a lot of people will pressure El to stay out of the race if this is true.
It still does not really address the problem that has prevented us from winning before though. Even if she wins the endorsement of the IP as El did someone like Bob Anderson can enter the race, spend no money and still win 10 percent.
Their are a few options.
1. Pass into law and get IRV implemented before the 2010 elections.
2. Pass into law and get fusion voting implemented before the 2010 elections.
3. Have Reed run as a DFL endorsed candidate and hope no one files as the IP candidate or someone weak enough files so that they don't get enough votes to tip the race. Potentially someone (maybe you?) could run as a front candidate pledging to drop out as soon as you won the IP primary thus leaving the IP line blank and ensuring victory for the actual IP endorsed candidate (I presume Reed would get that honor if Tink did)
4. Do the same but switch it around. Have her run as the IP candidate and hope that the DFL Party does a no endorsement / support resolution like they've done with Cam Gordon in Minneapolis and have someone file as a front candidate for Reed who would publicly pledge to drop out post-primary to keep the ballot at two candidates.
Of those 3 seems the most realistic to me. Pawlenty would veto the first two and we don't have enough votes to overide and it would be hard getting no DFLer to run. Having the IP endorse Reed ala Tink in 08 and then have someone run, secure endorsement and drop out to keep the line blank would be easier then doing that in a DFL primary and could very realistically be done.
Of course, that all relies on Reed running and winning the DFL endorsement. She'd be a very strong candidate and a good congresswomen.
"If we want to Dump Bachmann Democrats, IP members, independents and sane Republicans are going to need to join together. Dr. Reed would be well positioned to do just that."
Maureen said the same thing....!
This may be less about Party endorsement than one-on-one voter contact.
You will not have to persuade many whether to vote For or Against Bachmann, but you must convince the 10,000 other voters that voting for the IP candidate is a vote for Bachmann. That will require 1-on-1 outreach.
Question : Will anyone seriously challenge Bachmann in a Republican primary ? Primaries are for the party faithful, but if she gets a creditable challenger it could force her to make sure her minions show-up ... and expose how the Sixth District Republicans really feel about her.
1 The 1st thing the Dems have to do is quit blaming every loss on the Independent candidate. Bachman ‘s margin of victory was 3 points less than in 06 against a much better funded candidate in 06. Tink gained 2 plus points over the 2nd Wetterling race. Anderson gained 3 plus points over Benkowski.
The only person who lost points to the IP candidate was Bachman and trust me, most of those people will NEVER vote for a democrat.
You would have to assume that 71% of the people who voted IP would have voted for Tink in order to be correct that the IP had something to do with the Bachman victory.
2 If you are going to Ignore the central part of the district and settle for less than 40% of the vote in Wright, Sherburne and Benton counties then you are going to have to get Mlps type of numbers out of the rest of the district. You simply have to put more boots on the ground in these areas. If you are going to put offices in St. Cloud , Stillwater, Blaine then you also need headquarters in Buffalo, Big Lake, Ham Lake etc..
3 Here we go again. Letting Bachman jump out to enormous fund raising leads is just plain silly. If Tink wants to wait until summer to announce and Reed is still weeks away that gives Bachman a hell of a lead. There are only a handful (6 in 06)of big ($4,000) donors in the 6th and for sure the 3rd district will be in play.
Bachman has dozens of news stories and blogs written about her every day both local and national.
She leads the nation in small individual contributions under $200 last quarter and raised 3 times as much money as any other congressperson in this state and much of the nation.
By waiting weeks and months all this free media is wasted. We and the rest of the Nation may be appalled by what Bachman says but until someone gets into the race there is little action that the country can take to remove her.
Last Thursday (a typical day)I received over 36 different Google hits on Bachman. These included stories in The New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington, Politico, and many, many small blogs. It’s a perfect opportunity for a savvy candidate to raise national recognition which will be critical in fund raising. In fact it is the Key to fund raising as Tink proved last election raising by raising so little before Bachman’s gaff.
If we learned nothing else from the last election it’s that the key to raising money is these blogs. And yet we are still waiting.
4- Reed’s entrance into the race should it ever come to pass, sets up another scenario like we had in 06.
Reed will need to apply a Wetterling type endorsement strategy pitting progressive activists against the union muscle that Tink is sure to have.
Reed wants to run in the center if not the center right and Tink already has that territory firmly staked out.
In 2004, Bachmann told the Stillwater Gazette the secret to her success was that she avoided the “mushy middle.” Voters, she said, respect someone who tells you what they think without fear of the consequences. She right!
The Democrats in the last two elections have yet to field a candidate who is fearless in expressing themselves.
I hope the candidate who wins the DFL endorsement will give us a reason to vote for them other than the fact that they aren’t Bachman.
As an IP Member I would vote against cross endorsement. It would do no good for the IP. The last time we did the candidate didn't have any information that the IP did this. As for someone getting the IP line. That would be rude and would get out and hurt the candidate that person is trying to help. Maybe an IP person should do the same to the DFL? There is a good way of stealing votes. Typical other party. Afraid of a little competition? Afraid that someone with better ideas might do a better job than your candidate? I will pass this on to the IP and make sure they keep an eye on what you do and exploit what you did if you do this. This will hurt MN politics for years to come.