Elections: 2006 Candidate Profiles

Minnesota - House (4)

District Geography | Summary | History | Outlook | Polls

Betty McCollum (DFL, 3-term incumbent)

Website: www.mccollumforcongress.com

Obi Sium (Republican)

Website: www.siumforcongress.com

District Geography:

Minnesota's 4th Congressional District comprises Ramsey County, the eastern (St. Paul) region of Hennepin County, a western tip of Washington County, and the northern rim of Dakota County.

Summary:

Three-term DFL incumbent Betty McCollum - a former teacher and member of North St. Paul City Council - is the second woman elected to serve in Washington since 1858 when Minnesota achieved statehood. McCollum serves on the committees on Education and the Workforce and International Relations. The Congresswoman is campaigning to improve health care access and make prescription drugs more affordable, responsible environmental stewardship, making higher education more affordable, fighting the AIDS/HIV epidemic worldwide, and advocating more U.S. involvement in the Sudan humanitarian crisis.

Obi Sium, a Hydrologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, was born in Adengoda, Eritrea, in the Horn of Africa - emigrating to the USA in 1973. Sium is campaigning to limit the size and spending of government, lowering taxes, improving the quality of K-12 education, making health care more affordable, and more green energy production.

History:

Betty McCollum entered Congress by winning the open seat left by 12-term DFL congressman Bruce Vento in 2000. McCollum did not win a majority of the vote in that race, but still beat her Republican opponent Linda Runbeck by 17.1 points - Independence candidate Tom Foley won an impressive 20.6% of the vote. In 2002 McCollum handily won a second term with a 28.3-point victory margin (third party candidates only totaled 3.9% of the vote in that race). In 2004 McCollum beat GOP Dakota County Commissioner Patrice Bataglia by 24 points (Independence Party candidate Peter Vento received 9 percent).

Outlook:

Minnesota's 4th Congressional District has elected the DFL nominee in every race since 1948. The Independence Party does not have a candidate on the ballot in the district this year, after averaging 11 percent of the vote in the past three elections. While McCollum does not have a war chest (less than $200,000 cash on hand according to the FEC), Sium has just a fraction of that amount in campaign contributions to get his message out ($12,000).

Polls:

None.