Michele Bachmann's DFL Opponent Candidates and Abortion

Lady mentioned these articles in the comments, and I haven't had the time to get to these yet. Eric Black of Minn Post did interviews with both Maureen Reed and Sen. Tarryl Clark this week. I hope he and other reporters are equally aggressive with questioning Michele Bachmann on the consequences of her position on abortion. Bachmann believes abortion should be illegal. So if Bachmann believes abortion should be illegal, what should the criminal penalty be for the woman obtaining the abortion? 5 years, 10 years, life in prison without parole? As Bill Prendergast pointed out in an earlier post, while Michele Bachmann waxes eloquent about abortion, as an elected official she has done nothing to reduce the number of abortions in this state.

While Maureed Reed didn't commit to abiding by the DFL endorsement during the interview, she did make one iron clad commitment:

"I would not run on the IP line. I'm DFL. And that's the line that I'll be on."

It's been reported that the IP is rethinking cross endorsement this time. If they don't cross endorse a DFL candidate, 2008 candidate Bob Anderson stated for the record in Eric Black's article about the Tarryl Clark interview:

Anderson, 51, a dental technician, has said he might run again, and if he does he would seek the IP endorsement. Since I've been tormenting all the other candidates on the abiding question, I asked Anderson this week whether he would abide by the IP endorsement. He said yes, he would, as long as it didn't involve a cross-endorsement like last time. He was unwilling to defer to Tinklenberg since Tinklenberg would be on the ballot as the DFL candidate (and, presumably, if Anderson hadn't run, there would have been no IP candidate on the congressional ballot).

IP endorsements involve the entire state apparatus, rather than congressional district conventions. The IP withheld endorsement from Anderson in favor of El Tinklenberg the last election cycle. They have several options this time should Bob Anderson run for endorsement as IP and Maureen Reed runs for cross endorsement:

1. Endorse a candidate who will run on the IP ballot line


2. Cross Endorse


3. Withhold endorsement

If they choose option C, then Bob Anderson won't run. Most likely someone else would file.

Personally, I think there should be signature requirements for all ballot access. This forces candidates to show some level of support before getting access to the ballot, and takes away the option for candidates for candidates to run just by paying a nominal filing fee.

Eric Black analyses the prospects:

This year it’s Reed who seeking both the DFL and IP endorsements. She refuses to say whether she will abide by the DFL endorsement, which means (although she won’t acknowledge this) that she reserves the right to run in a primary against Clark if Clark wins the endorsement. (Clark has flatly promised to abide and said that if Reed or anyone else wins the DFL endorsement, she will drop out of the congressional race and seek to keep both her seat in the state Senate and her position in the DFL Senate leadership.)

Reed also said that she would not run on the IP ballot line, because she intends to run on the DFL ballot line. She is unwilling to make her intentions completely clear, but it creates the possibility that, if Clark wins the DFL endorsement, Reed could either run in a DFL primary or -- especially if she wins the IP endorsement -- run on the IP ballot line in the general election.

But Anderson says that the IP is reconsidering its policy on cross-endorsement and might, at an October meeting, adopt a rule that it will only endorse candidates who are exclusively seeking the IP nomination.

Reed was very clear that she would NOT run on the IP ballot line. She was unclear whether she would abide by DFL endorsement.