Jim Graves in front of the hotel bearing his name (jimgraves.com).
Tony Petrangelo
by Tony Petrangelo
Jun 1, 2013, 12:00 PM

The Weekly Wrap 6-1

♣ The big news this week involved our not soon enough to be former Sixth Congressional District Representative Michele Bachmann.

A thing about that with which I’ve still been thinking; why did she recently run television ads touting her Obamacare repeal bill passing the house? That ad buy seemed a little curious at the time and only more so now.

When her campaign made the ad buy, either she knew she was going to announce her retirement, or she didn’t. If she didn’t know, then the question arises, what was it in the time since those ads were made that caused Bachmann to change her mind?

But what if she did know she was going to retire? In that context the ads make even less sense.

♣ Almost as soon as the news came out about Michele Bachmann’s pending retirement, the floodgates of Republicans with interest in the seat opened. At this point, it might be easier to list the Republicans who have demurred, as it seems like almost every single GOPer in the sixth district is interested in this race.

If you prefer list form:

  • Tom Emmer
  • Phil Krinkie
  • Rep. Peggy Scott
  • Sen. Michelle Benson
  • Rep. Matt Dean
  • Rep. Tim Sanders
  • Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer
  • Rhonda Sivarajah
  • Pete Hegseth

A tweet concerning one of the names on the above list, and all the other names as well if the tweeter is correct:

♣ While Republicans were busy piling into the now open seat race, Democrats were busy getting out, well, one Democrat specifically. Jim Graves announced that he will be suspending his campaign in the wake of Michele Bachmann’s retirement announcement.

This week, we learned that we succeeded. We set out to defeat Rep. Bachmann, and that has been accomplished. You should feel incredibly proud. After all, it was the grassroots movement you built that kept the pressure on and forced Rep. Bachmann from her seat in Congress.

I’ll never be able to thank you enough for being part of this team. But after struggling with this decision – agonizing over it with my friends, supporters and family, I’ve decided to suspend my campaign indefinitely.

I don’t mean to give Jim Graves too much flack, he took on a tough challenge last cycle for a political newcomer and almost succeeded.

But in the immediate aftermath of Bachmann’s retirement announcement, Graves stressed the fact the he was running for the people of Minnesota’s sixth district, not against Michele Bachmann.

Yet one day later he claims victory because she retired. You can’t have it both ways. In the end though, what was he going to do? His chances of victory decreased dramatically with Bachmann’s announcement and he didn’t get to be a successful business person by doing tilting at windmails.

And while I know that Bachmann retiring is satisfying for many liberals, I’m not so sure this is the outcome that liberals should have wanted. Examine the following image:

shellys leg record

This is part of why I have failed to understand the desire to get rid of Michele Bachmann. She doesn’t do anything. She just goes on TV and says things that aren’t true. Or goes on the radio and says things that aren’t true. Or goes wherever anyone will let her really, to say untrue things.

But she doesn’t actually do anything legislatively. and more often then not she’s a thorn in John Boehner’s side.

And this last cycle she had to raise 10 times the amount of money as her Democratic opponent in order to win the most Republican district in the state by two points.

Meanwhile, John Kline is the chair of the Education committee in the House and is involved in actually crafting despicable legislation. He doesn’t go on the TV and the radio and make a fool of himself though, so I guess he’s not as bad right?

♣ Another tweet about a possible candidacy:

♣ And an actual announcement of a candidacy:

Republican Mike McFadden, an executive at the Lazard finance firm, announced on Wednesday that he would vie against Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken next year.

McFadden, who has never run for a high-profile office before, is the first Republican to announce a challenge to the Democratic incumbent. Franken won his first race by a recount-inducing few hundred votes.

It’s still early of course, and the legislative session just got over with, but there are now three candidates who have announced against Mark Dayton for Governor and Al Franken for Senate and none of them are State Legislators.

It’s my opinion, and I’ve expressed it before, that anyone who voted for the anti-Marriage amendment is essentially tainted for a statewide race. Which is why business people and county commissioners are probably the GOPs best bet.

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