CSPG: Elections - 2006 Candidate Profiles - Minnesota

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Elections: 2006 Candidate Profiles

Minnesota - House (6)

District Geography | Summary | History | Outlook | Polls

Patty Wetterling (DFL)

Website: pattywetterling.com

Michele M. Bachmann (Republican)

Website: www.michelebachmann.com

John Paul Binkowski (Independence)

Website: www.jpbinkowski.com

District Geography:

Minnesota's 6th Congressional District comprises the state's central counties of Benton, Sherburne, Wright, the eastern half of Stearns County, and most of Anoka and Washington counties.

Summary:

Three-term Republican Mark Kennedy stepped down from his US House seat to run for US Senator, giving his 2004 opponent, children's rights advocate Patty Wetterling, another shot at victory. Wetterling's work for missing and abducted children received national attention in recent years; a year ago she also called for U.S. troops to come home from Iraq by November 2006.

Michele Bachmann, a 2-term State Senator and former federal tax litigation attorney is campaigning for securing U.S. borders, supporting traditional marriage and a pro-life agenda, and making President Bush's tax cuts permanent.

John Paul Binkowski - a college student studying construction management - is running on the Independence Party's fiscally conservative and socially progressive platform. Binkowski is seeking to build on the 7.5% Dan Becker received in 2002 when the Independence Party last fielded a candidate in this district.

History:

Kennedy unseated 4-term DFL incumbent David Minge in the 2nd Congressional District in 2000. The race was extremely competitive, decided by 155 votes (0.1 points). After redistricting, Kennedy ran in 2002 in the new 6th District that had a bigger Republican base, and beat DFL nominee Janet Robert by 22.2 points. In 2004 Kennedy beat Wetterling by 8 points - the most competitive US House race in Minnesota that year.

Outlook:

This race is one of the most interesting to watch in the nation, let alone the Upper Midwest, pitting a 'celebrity' DFL political outsider against a well-funded GOP nominee. Wetterling too has made impressive strides in fund raising and in drawing state and national attention to her campaign - particularly with her "ethics" television ads that appeared in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal. To date Wetterling has raised more than $2.2 million and has nearly $1 million cash on hand. Bachmann has raised $1.6 million and has $700,000 cash on hand.

Polls:

Poll	Date	Wetterling	Bachmann	Binkowski	Other / No opinion	Sample	MoE
SurveyUSA¹	November 1-3, 2006	42%	49%	7%	2%	698 LV	± 3.8
Reuters / Zogby	October 24-29, 2006	42%	52%	N/A	6%	500 LV	± 4.5
Constituent Dymanics²	October 24-26, 2006	46%	47%	N/A	8%	1056	± 3.0
SurveyUSA¹	October 22-24, 2006	43%	49%	5%	3%	738 LV	± 3.7
Minnesota Poll³	October 6-12, 2006	48%	40%	4%	8%	506 LV	± 4.5
Constituent Dymanics²	October 8-10, 2006	47%	43%	N/A	10%	995	± 3.1
SurveyUSA¹	October 6-8, 2006	44%	47%	7%	2%	669 LV	± 3.9
Reuters / Zogby	September 25 – October 2, 2006	43%	46%	N/A	N/A	500 LV	± 4.5
SurveyUSA¹	September 15-17, 2006	41%	50%	5%	4%	641 LV	± 3.9

1 "If the election for U.S. House of Representatives were today, and you were standing in the voting booth right now, who would you vote for? Republican Michele Bachmann? DFL candidate Patty Wetterling? Or Independence Party candidate John Binkowski?"

2 "I would like you to think about the race for Congress. If the election were today, who would you vote for: Republican Michele Bachmann or Democrat Patty Wetterling?"

3 "If the election for the U.S. House of Representatives were held today, would you vote for Republican Michele Bachmann, DFL candidate Patty Wetterling, or Independence Party candidate John Binkowski?"