Bachmann is anything but your standard politician. Bachmann on defense after W.H. bid

ANDOVER, Minn. — By all the standard metrics, Rep. Michele Bachmann should be coasting to victory.

Her name ID is off the charts. She has bundles of cash. And her newly redrawn suburban Twin Cities district has an 8-point Republican registration edge.


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Of course, Bachmann is anything but your standard politician. And after spending much of her current House term running for president and lobbing partisan rhetorical bombs, the tea party hero suddenly has a fight on her hands.

Hotel company executive Jim Graves, her Democratic opponent, has spent more than $500,000 of his own money trying to unseat the three-term congresswoman. Bachmann has given him plenty of ammunition to attack her as an ideologue who treats her day job as a side hobby as she continually seeks the national spotlight.

“Unfortunately, Michele Bachmann’s gotten distracted by her own celebrity,” one Graves TV ad says. “It’s cost Minnesota.”

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His campaign is plastering the district with pamphlets, declaring that “Congress needs more people with experience building businesses, not burning bridges.” On the stump, Graves tweaks Bachmann for her oft-repeated mantra in the presidential primary that she’s a native of Waterloo, Iowa.

It’s “insult to injury for the people of the 6th District,” he says.

The offensive has left Bachmann bruised. A poll released last week by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune found Bachmann clinging to a surprisingly close 51 percent to 45 percent lead.

Iowa Rep. Steve King, a tea party leader and one of Bachmann’s closest confidants, spoke with the congresswoman recently about her reelection battle.

“She’s in a competitive race,” King said in an interview. “My sense is she’ll be alright. But she’s in a test with a self-funded multimillionaire running against her.”

It’s not the first time Bachmann has faced a serious challenge. In 2008, she held off her Democratic opponent, 46 percent to 43 percent. That election came just weeks after she set off a national firestorm by declaring in a TV interview that then-Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama “may have anti-American views.”

To some Republicans, Bachmann’s decision to wage an ill-fated presidential bid has left her vulnerable once again.

“Graves, having a few things to talk about, is making a pretty decent run of it,” said Scott Cottington, a Minnesota-based GOP consultant and a former top staffer at the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Running for president and missing votes – that’s got some bite to it.”

Bachmann dismisses any suggestion that she could lose. She exuded confidence in a brief exchange with reporters after a Saturday evening campaign rally here, which was complete with a tea party activist dressed up in Revolutionary War attire.

“Actually, we’re doing pretty well. The polling data looks very, very good, and it’s just a function of working hard,” she said. “Things look good, and we’re happy.”

But Bachmann also stresses to voters that, with her presidential run now behind her, she’s focused on her congressional seat. A brochure her aides handed out at the rally used the word “Minnesota” nearly a dozen times.

“I’m Michele Bachmann, and I was running for president of the United States. Now I am running to be the next member of Congress from the 6th Congressional District, and I’m telling you one thing: You get your money’s worth when you send me to Washington, D.C.,” she said to wild applause.

Still, Bachmann remains a divisive figure back home, just as she is elsewhere. Voters love her or hate her, but few are lukewarm.

Walking along a parade route on a cold Saturday afternoon in Anoka, Graves marveled at the responses to his challenge of Bachmann. One woman shook his hand and said, “Thank you for doing this.” Another wished him well before muttering an expletive about the congresswoman. Graves quickly turned away.

Others were less friendly to Graves. One man on the route refused to shake Graves’s outstretched hand. Staring at the candidate, the man said, “Who is that, Big Spending Jim?” — a line that’s nearly verbatim from one of Bachmann’s most recent TV ads.

Grimacing, Graves walked on.

“You know, I am totally biased, but I don’t see how anyone can vote for her,” he said.

While Graves may have succeeded in making the race closer than expected, few Democrats believe he will pull it out.

Even Graves admits it’s a David vs. Goliath undertaking.

“I’m a serious underdog. There’s no doubt about that,” he told POLITICO. “People thought I was literally crazy to run, but I felt compelled to do so.”

In an interview at his campaign headquarters, Graves reflected on what it’s been like trying to take on one of the tea party’s most-celebrated figures. For one, there’s the money factor: Bachmann’s raised more than $12 million — much of it from her extensive national network of conservative activists — compared with the $2 million or so Graves has collected, which includes his own funds.

That overwhelming cash advantage is part and parcel of Bachmann’s talent at generating publicity. When the congresswoman suggested recently that a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, critics pounced. But to her throng of loyalists, it was another example of Bachmann’s courage.

Graves readily admits he can’t compete with the Bachmann PR machine.

“I can tell you this much: If she calls a press conference today, she could get a room full of people,” the first-time candidate said. “I’d call a press conference, and I would get one or two people there. She attracts a lot of attention.”

Graves is also finding his Catholicism to be an obstacle. He predicts the vast majority of evangelical voters — a growing segment of the new district — will support Bachmann, an outspoken social conservative and born-again Christian.

As Election Day approaches, Bachmann is doing what she does best — serving up red meat to the conservative faithful.

At the Saturday rally, she hammered the president over Libya and “Obamacare” and told the crowd she’d continue the push to repeal the Wall Street reform bill that Obama signed.

Some Republicans believe Bachmann’s enduring bond with the GOP base will be her lifesaver once again.

“Congresswoman Bachmann always seems to make her races interesting, but she always seems to come out on top,” said Phil Krinkie, a former state representative who ran against Bachmann in a 2006 Republican primary, when she was first elected. “She has a polarizing effect on people — they either like her or dislike her — but in the final analysis, they mostly like her.”