Tarryl Clark On Bachmann "She'll Still Be on Fox News After I Defeat Her"

Tarryl Clark speaks with Mike McIntee of The Uptake at the DFL convention last weekend.



UPDATE: Also from The Uptake:

DFL endorsed congressional candidate Tarryl Clark addresses the DFL convention in Duluth about her campaign against Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

Tarryl Clark's Mytengrandphoto.com Website on Rachel Maddow Show

Tarryl Clark Tuesday tweet:

Can you afford $10,000 for a photo with Bachmann and Palin? Most MNs can't! Visit www.mytengrandphoto.com to get yours for free.

Tarryl Clark Thursday tweet:

www.mytengrandphoto.com (and our campaign!) featured on @Maddow last night, check it out: http://tinyurl.com/ycgdrsq

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

H/T City Pages Blotter

Are the Bachmann Supporters in the Blogosphere Going to Appeal to Anti-gay Animus to Help Bachmann?

Gary Gross is attacking Tarryl Clark for her appearance at Netroots Nation.

Tarryl isn’t a centrist or a moderate. She’s a hardline liberal. Her appearance is another bit of proof that she isn’t a centrist. One of the topics on the Netroots Nation’s agenda this weekend was fighting for full rights for LGBT citizens. Part of their fight is to enact legislation that permits gay marriage. While that’s a centrist position within the Nutroots Nation, it’s more than a little outside the mainstream of Sixth District politics.

I have no idea what Tarryl Clark's position is on gay marriage. She opposed the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage (the Bachmann amendment), when she ran for the legislature. Gay equality is not a liberal or conservative position. Some of the most anti-gay people I have met have been from the far left. Threads on Daily Kos which criticized President Obama on gay issues have quickly devolved into anti-gay rhetoric. Some of the most inclusive people I've met are also strong conservatives. Democrats tend to use the gay community as an ATM, while Republicans cater to the theocratic base in their party and tend to be publicly hostile to gays.

I left the following comment on Gary Gross's blog:

#

Michele Bachmann’s single minded pursuit of the Bachmann amendment while in the legislature, had less to do with “protecting traditional marriage”, than marginalizing gays for political gain. Why else were signs such as “Death Penalty for Homosexuals as Prescibed (sic) in the Bible” so prominent at her 2004 rally for this cause?

While Bachmann was a state senator, she sent an email to supporters bragging about stopping any other legislative business to promote her amendment - which was all about anti-gay animus, despite the claims to be about marriage.

If Bachmann was serious about preserving traditional marriage, she would have focused on divorce. It’s not the possibility of gays getting married that causes the high divorce rate among heterosexual married couples.

Comment by Eva Young • 23Aug2009 @ 7:14 pm
#

Gary Gross, author of the blog responded:

Blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada…Your animus towards Michele is well-known…NEXT

Comment by Gary Gross

Michele Bachmann can't be allowed to forget this sign that was prominent at the rally she keynoted at the state capitol in 2004:



Michele Bachmann likes to claim she doesn't hate gays. However, it appears that to Michele Bachmann, the only good gay is an ex-gay.

Michele Bachmann Challenger Tarryl Clark Interviewed by Huffington Post

Read it here. Money quote:

But in an interview with the Huffington Post, Minnesota State Sen. Tarryl Clark had a pithier message: Michelle Bachmann was Sarah Palin before Sarah Palin was Sarah Palin.

"For many in Minnesota, when Sarah Palin came on the scene it seemed like she was Alaska's Michelle Bachmann," Clark told the Huffington Post. "They seem to share some similarities."

Bachmann, for her part, seems to like the analogy. The Minnesota Republican sent out a fundraising email just last week in which she seemed to be stepping into the void left by the former Alaska Governor.

"With Gov. Palin taking a well-deserved step out of the spotlight, it appears that I may be absorbing even more of the liberals' scorn," Bachmann said, who went on to warn that the media would "Palinize" her.

To Clark, Bachmann's penchant for the outrageous soundbite and the conservative media spotlight is a distraction at best, and a disservice to the taxpayers at worst.

"People in the sixth district deserve to have reasonable representation and right now we have a representative whose main accomplishments is creating controversy and generating talk show ratings," she told the Huffington Post.

"I can't profess to explain why she, for example, doesn't want people to comply with the law with the census. Or more importantly, why does she want to send our taxpayer dollars to other states?" Clark added. "We are already not getting a good return on our dollar. But the bottom line is, is that it reinforces that her head is really elsewhere. She does seem to be more interested in attention then in focusing on the needs of the district. And it is important that we do have someone willing to roll up their shirtsleeves and get the job done for people. And if she is interested in being Ann Coulter, fine. But the taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for that."

Read the whole thing.

Eva Young interviews Tarryl Clark

I interviewed one of Michele Bachmann's opponents, Tarryl Clark today. Sen. Clark indicated that she is willing to sit down with me for a more in depth video interview. You can listen to the audio of the interview here.

After I shut off the recorder, Sen. Clark went on to talk about the anti-bullying bill. She supported the bill which included gay students in protections from bullying in the public schools. In previous years, Michele Bachmann had opposed such legislation because, as she said in the hearing: "it would turn boys into girls." Clark was unaware of the "Death Penalty for Homosexuals" sign carried by one of the participants in the 2004 Bachmann amendment rally.

Tarryl Clark to go to Netroots Nation

From the Clark Campaign:

To our blogger friends:

I wanted to let you know personally that Tarryl just made her first post on DailyKos. You can find it here.

I also wanted to tell you first -- in that post, Tarryl lets everyone know that she'll be attending Netroots Nation on Friday. If you're going to be there, please let us know. She'll be holding some "open office hours" to meet with folks and discuss her campaign, and will be attending the "meet the candidates" event Friday night.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks and look forward to working with all of you in the coming months.

King Banaian tweets:

Tarryl Clark is blogging on DailyKos? I think that will go over REALLY well in CD6.

Sen. Tarryl Clark's campaign has agreed to give me a video interview. We are in the process of scheduling times.

Dr. Maureen Reed's campaign has also agreed to an interview and we are still trying to schedule times.

Tarryl Clark post to the Daily Kos: Michele Bachmann "sound bites"

Clark is "headed out to the Kos," that's where a lot of the national netroots support for her challenge will come from (she hopes.) Excerpts:

For the past few years, Representative Michele Bachmann has been a hot topic on DailyKos and across the blogosphere.

I'm hoping that, with your help, we can put an end to that in November, 2010...

...I'll be coming to Netroots Nation this week, to talk to all of you about how I plan to win this campaign, and how you can join me. I'll be posting another diary during my time there, talking more about the campaign ahead and the issues at stake for the residents of Minnesota's 6th District.

Because as much as everyone has enjoyed talking about Michele Bachmann, I'm looking forward to talking about something else come November, 2010.

What's Netroots Nation, you ask? Well, that's kind of like the national convention for liberal and progressive bloggers. Clark is almost sure to go over well there. All she has to do is go to the podium, open up her mouth and say "Hello, I'm Tarryl Clark and I'm the Democrat running to defeat Michele Bachmann--" That's all she has to say, to get an ovation from that crowd. That's it.

Read the full post to the Kos, here.

A Typical Barely Literate Michele Bachmann Supporter

From the comments to Tarryl Clark's announcement:

You don't stand a chance against Bachman. Your party is the weakest most anti american party ever in the history of the USA. There is going to be a huge voter turnout of conservatives now that people have figured out what the health care scam is all about. I will vote Bachman antday over a chump like you. I want to see a Romney Bachman ticket for the whitehouse in 2012. Stupid liberal scum.

The rest of the commenters were supportive of Clark by and large.

Romney-Bachmann?

Tarryl Clark Statement

From Andrea Mokros (who is, I guess, Senator Clark's "press liason":)

Date: Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Subject: STATEMENT OF SENATOR TARRYL CLARK

STATEMENT OF SENATOR TARRYL CLARK

Saint Cloud, MN - State Senator Tarryl Clark, candidate for Congress
in Minnesota's 6th District, issued the following statement today
regarding El Tinklenberg's withdrawl from the 6th District race:

"From day one, El and I have shared the common goal of changing the
6th District's representation in Congress. El knows first-hand from
his work just how much is at stake for the working families and small
businesses across Minnesota. I thank El for his dedication and public
service, and know he will continue to be a leader in our community."

Whether you're "pro-life" or "pro-choice," Bachmann's "pro-duced" nothing

Andy Birkey does some really great articles on Michele over at the Minnesota Independent. But he makes a strange claim in his latest article on Michele, Tarryl Clark, and their current standing with pro-lifers.

Birkey writes:

With more than a year to go until the general election, abortion is already becoming an issue in the 6th Congressional District race. An analysis of anti-abortion campaign donations finds that Rep. Michele Bachmann is one of the country’s top earners — and she’s delivered for her contributors on that issue.

No, she hasn't. That's not true, what he's written there. Michele hasn't delivered any successful legislation that's lowered the number of abortions. And she hasn't organized any successful repeal of law permitting abortion. So what does reporter Birkey mean when he insists that Bachmann's "delivered" for her pro-life contributors?

Birkey explains here:

Bachmann’s disproportionate share of contributions has paid off for her anti-abortion benefactors. She’s sponsored or cosponsored an impressive 13 bills restricting abortion rights so far this year. Among the bills, one includes funneling entitlement money to “abortion alternatives” programs and another that would ban race and sex discrimination against fetuses. Yet another would give 14th Amendment protections to an embryo or fetus.

You see: Birkey seems to think that "making noise" equals "delivering for her contributors" or "paying off for her contributors." It doesn't.

It's true that the anti-abortion lobbyists love Michele, but it's not true that she's *ever* delivered anything of value in the way of the changes in the law that this lobby seeks. (I can't find any evidence of Bachmann delivering a successful reform in the law governing abortion, and I assume that Birkey can't either or he would have reported it.)

When Mark Kennedy, Bachmann's predecessor as Congressman here, announced on his web pages that he "delivered" for the people of the Sixth District: he listed the amounts of money that amount that his lawmaking work in D.C. produced for the people of the district. That was "real" money, a tangible refund to Kennedy's constituents of the real money that his constituents had paid in federal taxes. Kennedy was bragging that he had "delivered" something "real" to his district: a cash infusion to foster or preserve prosperity in the local economy.

Bachmann on the hand, "delivers" nothing real, nothing tangible, nothing that will become law. I think Birkey is wrong to suggest that she is delivering for the pro-life crowd, if all she delivers is empty resolutions that go nowhere.

To make it clearer, let's go back to Rep. Mark Kennedy. Suppose that Kennedy had announced on his web pages that he *hadn't* obtained large amounts of money for his district--announcing that he had merely "sponsored resolutions for large amounts of taxpayer money to be returned to his district" (but these resolutions had gone nowhere, in fact, and never become law or reality.) If that had been the case (and Kennedy and a newspaper had announced that his go-nowhere resolutions constituted "delivery to" his constituents) Kennedy would have gotten nothing but dismissive laughs. And so would a paper that reported his non-achievement as "paying off" for his supporters.

What Bachmann has delivered here, is also empty rhetoric and pointless gestures that don't go anywhere. If the anti-abortion set is *happy* with empty rhetoric and pointless gestures, that's their business--but Bachmann has in fact delivered nothing. A commenter to Birkey's article makes the point:

Alec
Comment posted July 30, 2009 @ 7:06 pm

You state that supporting Bachmann has paid off for the anti-abortion groups, but I do not see any evidence of that whatsoever. Authoring useless bills that will never pass doesn’t help, does it? In fact, I wonder if Bachmann has ever authored a bill that actually became law. I am pro-choice, and for all practical purposes Bachmann and I have done the same for abortion rights groups. Nothing. Which is about the same as she has done for her real constituents.

Clark almost (not quite) nails the Bachmann issue...

...in that letter announcing her candidacy, published yesterday on this blog. Here's what she's got to say about MB:

For the past few years, the 6th District's representation in Congress has been about missed opportunities. We've watched opportunities slip away - opportunities to build our local infrastructure, to modernize our transportation system, and to create good jobs and a strong business climate.

It's time to deliver more than a sound bite. Representative Bachmann's biggest accomplishments are creating controversy instead of creating good jobs, and working the talk show circuit instead of helping working families...

That's pretty good. The first paragraph I quoted there is about how much Bachmann non-representation has *cost the people of the district.* Bachmann's knee-jerk special interest votes, failure to use her committee assignments to regulate financial markets--all of that hurt people in and out of her district. Bachmann actually bragged about how she refused to bring home some of the federal tax dollars her constituents pay. Bachmann's mindless "I won't seek federal money for my district" ideology cost her constituents real jobs, real opportunity to weather a bad economy. Clark might have also mentioned the chronic high rate of home foreclosures in the Sixth District, which is disgraceful.

The second paragraph is also pretty good: it is true that Bachmann is more interested in being a notorious national figure than in creating jobs and helping working families. After nearly ten years in government, Bachmann is more famous for what she says than for anything she's actually achieved. And that's true whether you're a conservative or a liberal or a whatever.

It's amazing that Bachmann gets a pass on the talk show circuit when she's called on to comment on economic matters--isn't it? An informed interviewer could demolish her by letting her start in on her conservative talking points--and then ask her about the rate of home foreclosures in the Sixth since she's been in office, compared to other Minnesota districts. If she really is credible on the subject of how to fix the economy--why is the rate of Minnesota home foreclosures highest in *her* district? But they don't ask her that, so she gets a pass and continues to spout conservative country club economics on TV and radio--with impunity.

There's a "heads up" for the Bachmann staffers who read this blog. You might want to get her ready to answer that one, in case she ever runs into an interviewer who actually knows something about what's going on down on the ground here.

The reason that Clark's letter doesn't "nail it," is that she makes no allusion to what every one of her supporters already knows about Bachmann: that Bachmann is a nut, liar, and bigot. This has been noted time and again in national political reporting on our district, and this year it has been alluded to in more than one Minnesota daily paper. But Clark is trying to keep it positive, I guess.

You can read the rest of Clark's letter in Avidor's post, here.

Tarryl Clark Video - She's Running for Congress

Tarryl Clark's website isn't exactly all the way up yet, however there is an appeal for $$$ and a video:



A Message from Tarryl Clark:

Dear Friend,

I want you to hear it from me.

With the encouragement and support of Minnesotans from Stillwater to Saint Cloud, today I am announcing I have filed the forms necessary to pursue Minnesota’s 6th District seat in Congress, currently held by Representative Michele Bachmann.

Minnesotans understand the challenges facing our State and our nation. As a State Senator, I talk every day with families and businesses facing economic challenges head-on. As a Mom and Dad, my husband Doug and I must often make the same difficult decisions about balancing the rising costs of college, health care, and energy.

I see these challenges, and believe they present great opportunities. On issues ranging from health care to caring for our veterans; from energy independence to relieving the burdens on small businesses; from helping parents ensure their children are ready to start school to developing a 21st Century work force; we have an opportunity to address our nation’s challenges while also creating new opportunities for jobs and growth.

For the past few years, the 6th District’s representation in Congress has been about missed opportunities. We’ve watched opportunities slip away -- opportunities to build our local infrastructure, to modernize our transportation system, and to create good jobs and a strong business climate.

It’s time to deliver more than a sound bite. Representative Bachmann’s biggest accomplishments are creating controversy instead of creating good jobs, and working the talk show circuit instead of helping working families. I am ready to go to Congress to put our community’s interests first -- to fight for Minnesota’s working families, seniors, children, small business owners, and veterans.

With your support and help, I’ve won tough campaigns before and, with your support and help, I know we will do it again. I’m proud to have earned the DFL endorsement in each of my campaigns, and this campaign will be no different: I will seek and abide by the DFL endorsement, and I will not challenge the endorsement in a primary. The future of those in the 6th District is too important to let party politics get in the way.

I hope you’ll join me. A winning campaign needs passion, energy, and good ideas. If you talk to people across Minnesota, they will tell you I bring those qualities to every campaign.

I can’t do this without you. A winning campaign also needs resources to connect with voters. I hope you will join our campaign today.

With your help, we can transform our challenges into opportunities for progress. I ask for your support as we build a winning campaign.

Sincerely,

Tarryl Clark

P.S. Please share this message and video with your friends!

H/T MN Publius:

Commenter Liz: "Tarryl Clark announced today on MPR."

...but I can't find any confirmation on MPR's Polinaut site or the Google news wires, at this moment.

Commenter Liz wrote in twice this afternoon to say that she heard Clark "officially announce," on the radio. Commenter Liz reported twice that Clark "officially announced," at one p.m. today on MPR.

I will keep looking for confirmation of this. Did anyone else hear Clark "officially announce?"

All I can find on MPR right now is the same story that we have already been running for days--that Clark has filed FEC papers etc. that indicate she is running.

We did that here, already. If anyone else has a source for "Clark has officially announced" (which is different from just filing the papers to run) please send a link. If she has "officially announced," the timing of her "roll-out" is interesting--because this is the day after Tinklenberg began his big pitch for funds on the Kos.

Elwyn Tinklenberg makes his pitch to the Daily Kos

...and gets a very positive reaction, for the most part. I'm writing this shortly after midnight, Minnesota time. In the "Recommended Diaries" section of the Kos (one of the most widely read political blogs in the United States) is piece by Elwyn himself, announcing his run against Bachmann.

It's generated 225 comments so far; a respectable total. And diaries don't get elevated to the coveted "Recommended Diaries" list without the intervention of Kos staffers, so they are paying attention, too. (Wrong, according to Karl in our comments thread.)

Tinklenberg aide Dana Houle is in the comments thread to the Tinklenberg announcement, fielding the occasional question from commenters. Most of the comments are quite supportive, some Kos readers are even donating money to Elwyn on the strength his announcement on the blog. As you may know, the Kos readership and other liberal/progressive blogs did an outstanding job raising funds for Tinklenberg in the final weeks of his last contest with Bachmann. Donations were received in small amounts from regular folks who hailed from every state in the union.

The incident that triggered the donations was not something Tinklenberg did. It was something Michele Bachmann did: her appearance on Chris Matthew's Hardball news show. When she called for a media investigation of her fellow congressmen and senators to check for anti-Americanism, the outrage at the Kos and other blogs was palpable--and readers reached for their checkbooks and credit cards.

Tinklenberg is an intelligent politician. So his diary in the Kos does not contain his other announcement: that he does not intend to abide by the decision of the DFL in the primary, if they do not select him to run against Bachmann. Pointing *that* out, would cause some people on the Kos to put away their checkbooks and credit cards--and generate quite a bit of hate mail in the comment thread, I suppose.

I doubt that very many of the commenters on the Kos tonight are from Minnesota. Their contempt for Bachmann and kooky lies is obvious, but so is their lack of knowledge about the strange election dynamics we have here in the Sixth District. A few commenters are critical of Tinklenberg, but that seems to be because he's a Blue Dog or because he failed to beat an obvious kook, despite all the help he received last time.

None of the Tinklenberg criticisms so far cite his "I'm going to ignore the Dem decision on the nominee, unless it's me" stand. None of the more than two hundred comments so far explain the possible consequences of that decision or the effect of the independence voters on the election.

Neither Tinklenberg nor Dana Houle seem inclined to mention those unpleasant realities to Kos readers tonight. I'm not wading into that comment thread to explain those issues either, because it's entirely possible that ET may end up being the Dem nominee again and I'm certainly not going to be the one to try to discredit a likely Dem candidate.

Tinklenberg and his managers have obviously decided to go after the netroots support now, before Clark officially announces. That's probably wise, from the ET camp's point of view. Though Clark has filed, she hasn't "rolled out" yet--and a strong show of financial and moral support from the netroots is going to be critical for any Dem candidate hoping to defeat Bachmann.

We can't blame Kos readers and editors for being naive or ill-informed about the election dynamics of the Sixth District of Minnesota. Bachmann's craziness makes headlines around the country, the election dynamics of the Sixth District don't. I would wager that most Minnesotans who live in and outside the Sixth District don't understand why a Bachmann victory is the statistical way to bet. Most of the Minnesota political press doesn't bother to explain how the different political interests in the district can generate a Bachmann plurality despite the awful state of her district. If most of the local reporters don't know or report, how could people outside the state understand?

I have explained election dynamics on the Kos before, but I'm just another diarist there--one of thousands. A *very* good day for one of my articles on the Kos generates only from ninety to a hundred comments, nothing like the attention that Tinklenberg is receiving tonight. Even if the Kos community doesn't have all the information it needs to make a good decision about which candidate to support, its heart is in the right place: they know what Bachmann is, and they want to help us get rid of her.

Commenter: more evidence that Tarryl Clark is in the race

Tonight Dump Bachmann commenter and Sixth District Congressional candidate Aubrey Immelman says it's fair to say that Taryll Clark is now a candidate in the Sixth District race against Bachmann.

Immelman presented the evidence for Clark's entry into the race in one of the comment threads this evening, and it is reprinted here:

State Sen. Tarryl Clark can now fairly be called a candidate for the U.S. House seat in Minnesota's 6th Congressional District.

The Federal Election Commission website shows the FEC received Clark's Statement of Organization (FEC Form 1) and Statement of Candidacy (FEC Form 2), dated July 17, via USPS Express mail.

The title of Clark's campaign committee is Friends of Tarryl (Clark). According to the paperwork, Clark is filing as a Democrat to run for U.S. House of Representatives in Minnesota's 6th Congressional District.

Clark's filings can be viewed on the FEC website at: http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?_29030121960+0

The FEC filing does not mean that Clark is formally a candidate. For that (i.e., to get ballot access) the prospective candidate has to file an Affidavit of Candidacy with the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State during the official filing period the first two weeks of July 2010.

The primary purpose of the FEC filing is to raise and spend money in excess of $5,000 for a political campaign in accordance with federal election law.

What does Clark's entry into the race say about the prospect of defeating Bachmann? To answer that question, I suggest a reading of Bill Prendergast's assessment at: http://dumpbachmann.blogspot.com/2009/07/some-good-signs-for-our-side.html

Thanks for the info, websites, and explication, Aubrey. While other media sleep, the Dump Bachmann readers come back with the story.