Liberal in the Land of Conservative

Dr. Maureen Reed, candidate for both the DFL and Independence Party endorsements for Congress in the 6th District, will not say whether she will abide by the endorsement process, says that on abortion it would be inaccurate to characterize her as either pro-life or pro-choice, and is unwilling to express a preference among the various ways to get to universal health care.

Reed says Clark's electoral success is limited to one of the most liberal pockets of the district. Clark won her St. Cloud Senate seat in a 2005 special election. She won re-election in 2006, and is currently the assistant Senate majority leader.

“I am terminating my campaign for Congress,” he said in a statement. “This is obviously not an easy decision for me, but I have come to the conclusion that it’s the right one.”

“First and foremost, I want to thank El Tinklenberg for his dedication to public service. He has worked hard on behalf of the citizens of the sixth district and this state as Mayor of Blaine, State Transportation Commissioner and as a Congressional Candidate. El is a tremendous public servant. I wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

"From day one, El and I have shared the common goal of changing the 6th District's representation in Congress. El knows first-hand from his work just how much is at stake for the working families and small businesses across Minnesota. I thank El for his dedication and public service, and know he will continue to be a leader in our community."

1. With Maureen Reed, every indication I am hearing is that apart from her large fund raising numbers she is dead in the water. Don't get me wrong, I like Dr. Reed and would have no trouble supporting her but for one reason or another the people I have contacts with have already counted her out of the endorsement. Does this mean that Reed is really gunning for the IP candidacy? Will she abide by the DFL endorsement? If she were to lose that endorsement, then will she run as an IP candidate or put her name on the DFL primary ballot?

2. Elwyn Tinklenberg appears to have two hurdles to overcome: First, to convince people throughout the district who recall that big blue paw print on his '08 campaign site touting the endorsement by the Blue Dog Coalition that he is NO LONGER a Blue Dog Democrat. Second, much like Reed, there are increasingly loud questions about why he has chosen to ignore the DFL endorsement and take this race to a primary. All of my sources who might have supported him before are abandoning ship because of this decision. Why would Mr. Tinklenberg tell the entire DFL establishment in the district that he will ignore their decision? Could I support Tinklenberg? Sure, but right now his answers to these questions concern me.

3. Tarryl Clark, from EVERYTHING I am hearing, is the early leader in the initial endorsement process. Her one disadvantage might be her initial fund raising which will have to catch up with her competitors. As she has not been very public yet I do not know what her stance is on honoring the endorsement process but given the questions surrounding Reed and Tinklenberg it would interesting to hear what she intends.

UPDATE: h/t to Blue Man on this one...

The Clark website is up with a youtube video message:



Clark makes it clear in the video that she WILL abide by the DFL endorsement which could be an indication that she has called around the district and all but locked up the delegates she needs to win.

Congressional Candidate Maureen Reed announced today that she raised over $230,000 in the first eight weeks of her campaign. Reed’s announcement sets a sizzling pace for DFL fundraising in the Sixth District Congressional race.

“When I talk to residents in the sixth district, it’s clear they are ready for a change and want a candidate who has the energy, commitment and dedication to improve their lives,” said Reed. “When folks see a way they can change things for the better, they are generous with their time, energy and money. I am grateful that so many people believe I am the person who will change things for the better.”

Reed added that after traveling the district and talking to numerous people from all walks of life, she found that people “…want business expansion, job growth, increased home ownership and lower health care costs, and that’s exactly why I’m running for Congress.”

Maureen and her husband, Dr. Jim Hart, have lived near Stillwater for almost 30 years. They have volunteered with the Washington County Medical Reserve Corps for several years. As a member of the Medical Reserve Corps, Maureen was part of a team that provided medical care to victims in the aftermath of the I35W bridge collapse.

In addition to practicing medicine in the Twin Cities, Maureen served as President of Aspen Medical Group and Medical Director of HealthPartners, and chaired the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. Dr. Reed was born in southern Minnesota and attended the University of Minnesota undergraduate and medical schools.

Reed is challenging incumbent Michele Bachmann and seeking the endorsement of the DFL and the Independence Party. The campaign will file its official results with the Federal Election Commission by July 15.

It was a fact-finding mission for Sixth District Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, R-Woodbury, on Thursday as she spent an hour at Birchwood Health Care Center in Forest Lake. Health care professionals from as far away as Waite Park were in Forest Lake to express their concerns to the congresswoman.

Upon graduating from the University's Medical School, she practiced general internal medicine in the Twin Cities for more than two decades, became the president of Aspen Medical Group, and later served as vice-president and medical director of HealthPartners health plan. Because of her deep concern about health care costs, coverage and quality, she ran for lieutenant governor in 2006 for the Independence Party and subsequently participated on Gov. Pawlenty's Health Care Transformation Task Force.

“We are living through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with staggering numbers of people unemployed, health care out of the reach of many folks, and thousands of Minnesotans losing their businesses and homes,” said Dr. Reed. “While these problems are tough, I’m running for Congress because I know two things are true. First, Americans can solve tough problems. Second, a bright future is not accidental. We create a bright future when we put rhetoric aside, focus on the real problems, and work hard together. This is exactly what I’ve done all my life. The future I see is one of business expansion, job growth, home ownership and lower health care costs.”

1. The 1st thing the Dems have to do is quit blaming every loss on the Independent candidate. Bachmann‘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 Binkowski. The only person who lost points to the IP candidate was Bachmann 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 Mpls 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..

So here's an idea...perhaps even a bold one.

So instead of posting photo shopped pictures and edited You Tube videos putting orgy and government wads together, why don't we actually work in a grassroots effort to organize our communities.

Seriously, I'm I the only one who looked at the Bachmann tax day video and noticed that orgy/government wad portion of said video was spliced together like a 3 year old playing Operation?

Mocking Michele Bachmann gets us nowhere.

Running an "anyone but Bachmann campaign" gets us nowhere.

Attacking the "soccer mom" gets us nowhere.

It only gets us 2 more years of Bachmann.

Bachmann will continue to do damage to herself in the mainstream media.

While we should ensure that her insane comments are disseminated, we have no need to doctor them to make them even more "juicy". She does that well enough.

We should talk about Bachmann's voting record and how her values are not congruent with her rhetoric.

Last but not least, leadership needs to get off its ass. I caught this wonderful quote earlier in the week.

The district is the most Republican in the state and will be an extremely difficult race for any Democrat. But Schumaker believes Tinklenberg would have won in 2008 if not for the presence of another (non-endorsed) IP candidate on the ballot, Bob Anderson, who garnered 10 percent of the vote. “For whatever reason the information was not put out there that El Tinklenberg was endorsed by both parties,” she says.

"For whatever reason..."

Really? WTF?

Tinklenberg was endorsed by the IP on June 22, 2009. You mean to tell me that neither Tinklenberg nor the 6th CD DFL took the time over the remaining 4 1/2 months from the IP endorsement to stress the endorsement.

"For whatever reason...?"

Maybe if...now this is a big maybe...they hadn't spent the waning weeks of the campaign still introducing Tinklenberg to voters, they would have known he was endorsed by BOTH the DFL and the IP.

Going back through the Blueman history of Tinklenberg campaign ads, none of the ads I found had any mention of Tinklenberg's cross endorsement of the DFL and IP.

So, stop blaming the IP for Tinklenberg losing in 2008.

We lost because we gambled and lost. We ran shitty campaigns in Wright and Sherburne Counties and could not capitalize on the cash cow caused by the pandemic known as the Bachmann 2008 virus.

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.

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.

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.