Will Dems Squeeze Out Michele Bachmann -- After November?
The Minnesota Republican Party is warning that Democrats in the state may try and squeeze Rep. Michele Bachmann out of office, the New York Times reports -- not by defeating her this November, but by eliminating her district when the state redraws its congressional map next year.
Bachmann's campaign tells Hotsheet redistricting isn't a concern. "We're focusing on winning big in November," campaign spokesman Sergio Gor said.
The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party also dismissed the issue, telling the Times they had no such plans to kick the outspoken Tea Party conservative out of Congress by getting rid of her district.
The reality, however, is that Midwesterners are likely to have fewer congressional representatives after this year due to the results of the Census. Congressional seats are allotted based on the Census counts from each state, and the population is growing faster in Southern and Western states.
Midwestern states made concerted efforts to get full Census participation, the Times reports. Ironically, Bachmann may have detracted from those efforts. Last year, the congresswoman decried the Census, arguing that there were too many personal questions asked. She said she and her family would only partially fill out their Census forms. Other Republicans urged her to rethink her position.
Gor would not comment on whether Bachmann fully filled out the Census and reiterated their focus on the race against Democrat Tarryl Clark in the safely Republican district.
"We've got 34 days until victory," he said.
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