Oct 29, 2008 5:50 pm US/Central
On Campaign Trail With 6th District Candidates
(WCCO)
The race for the Congressional seat in Minnesota's 6th District is really starting to heat up. It gained national attention about two weeks ago when incumbent Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann was interviewed on MSNBC.
That's when she first made her now famous comments about Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama possibly being "Anti-American." Those comments by Bachmann spurred the campaign for Democratic challenger El Tinklenberg.
In the 24 hours after that interview, Tinklenberg took in more than $450,000 in donations -- many from out of state.
In all, Tinklenberg has raised $1.8 million since Bachmann's interview on
Hardball.
At a St. Cloud rally on Wednesday, Bachmann greeted supporters. She was appearing at the rally in support of Sen. Norm Coleman whose been campaigning with Gov. Tim Pawlenty. But afterwards she was surrounded by supporters, taking credit for falling gas prices.
"Gas was $2.04 a gallon today and that was my goal when I started out earlier this year. My goal was to have us get to $2 ... today in the district it's $2.04 so we're almost there," she told one voter.
And she is optimistic about victory.
"I think its going really well. I'm getting a really positive response," Bachmann said.
Bachmann is now running an ad trying to distance herself from her
Hardball comments. In the ad she said, "I may not always get my words right but I know that my heart is right."
However, Tinklenberg now has the money to run his own ads and he said he is he candidate that can bring people together.
"We have talked about building unity and hope and she has exploited division and fear. And we have seen that in stark relief in her comments of the last couple of weeks," Tinklenberg said.
Tinklenberg spokesman John Wodele said Bachmann's claim of taking credit for falling gas prices is " totally ridiculous. What credibility does she have left? Clearly the reason that gas prices are down is people are using less, it has nothing to do with drill baby drill."
Earlier this summer Bachmann has said that the threat of drilling would lead to lower prices.
The latest political polls show this race is a statistical dead heat.
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