Michele Bachman says a Minnesota five-judge panel arbitrarily chose her friends and neighbors. How persecuted is she, really? (More)
Yesterday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) objected to the Minnesota redistricting plan approved by the courts:
Just as we suspected, the liberal courts have changed the makeup of Minnesota’s Congressional districts. The courts’ liberal bias was evident by cherrypicking the districts and going so far as to draw my home – where I have raised my family and represented in Congress for the past six years – outside the new sixth district.
I refuse to allow the courts to arbitrarily determine who my friends, neighbors, and constituents are, and I will take every necessary step to correct this injustice. I have therefore decided to campaign for re-election in the new sixth district, where a majority of my constituents remain.
Setting aside whether the redistricting reflects “liberal bias,” Rep. Bachmann’s listing “friends, neighbors, and constituents” implies that redrawing the district boundaries cut her off from all three. Is her next door neighbor no longer next door? Will her friend down the street now shun her?
In terms of process, the state’s district maps were drawn by a five-member judicial panel after Gov. Mark Dayton (D) vetoed the proposal of the Republican-controlled legislature. The Twin Cities Pioneer Press reports that Bachmann’s previous district was overpopulated by almost 100,000 residents:
The biggest exceptions are Bachmann’s 6th District, which now runs from Washington County across the northern suburbs to just past St. Cloud, and DFL Rep. Betty McCollum’s 4th District covering Ramsey County and portions of Dakota and Washington counties.
The redistricting, done every 10 years to reflect population shifts, had to cut more than 96,000 residents out of Bachmann’s growing 6th District and add more than 48,000 to McCollum’s shrinking 4th District.
It did that in two ways. It lopped off the far ends of the 6th District – western Stearns County and a portion of Washington County directly east of St. Paul – and added a piece of Carver County in the western suburbs. And it dropped the southern portion of the 4th District, but pushed the eastern border all the way to Wisconsin.
None of that “arbitrarily determined” Rep. Bachmann’s friends or neighbors, or even her constituents. She can run in any Minnesota district, as Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution does not require House members to live in the districts they represent. And she’s already announced that she’ll run in the 6th District, where most of her current constituents live.
Maybe she’ll even make some new friends. Unless she keeps complaining about them.
+++++
Happy Wednesday!
Bachmann’s delusions of grandeur are showing again – or is that delusions of adequacy? Does she have a functioning brain? Once again, it shows she doesn’t have a clue about the process. Of course, she probably feels she should be the only one representing the entire state…
… if not the entire country. Remember, god told her to run for president. Of course, god also told Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum to run for president. Either god likes wanted a GOP primary fight or some folks were hearing other voices….
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
😀 🙂 😀
Okay, this is really too much. So she’s been redistricted in favor of the “one man/one vote” rule, can still run in her old district, and sadly her friends and neighbors might not be able to vote for her. These friends and neighbors may not have been voting for her anyway (how would she really know?), they can still campaign for her if they choose….
Umm, is she saying she just lost tens of thousands of friends? That she can no longer run next door and have coffee with the neighbors?
Or is she really certain that everything is about her.
I’m sure that, were she challenged, Rep. Bachmann would insist she meant to say her constituents are also friends and neighbors. But she didn’t say it that way. Republicans really need to start a garage band called Inartfully Worded.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
This is just crazy, but what else would we really expect? Yes, they did determine different constituents, but friends and neighbors? Really?
Unless she doesn’t count you as a friend/neighbor unless you are a constituent?
That’s what her words imply, Glenda. As I wrote in reply to winterbanyan above, I’m sure Rep. Bachmann would deny that implication if a reporter challenged her on the point. She wasn’t even speaking off the cuff, when all of us sometimes mangle our thoughts. She wrote this in a fundraising letter, almost certainly on a keyboard that has a backspace key. Just sayin’….
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Very true, she had a backspace key. No videotape. Plenty of time to edit. 😆
Look at it as not wanting an opponent in her new district.
The five Judge panel forgot the key requirement of redistricting, incumbent protection. Districts should be Gerrymandered to protect incumbents unless one party has full control. With full control you both protect your partys incumbents and pack the oppositions districts.
You’re right, Jim, that was a huge oversight: incumbent protection. I’m sure that’s in the Constitution somewhere. 😉
The panel came right out and said they made no effort to protect incumbents. The shakeup was even greater in the state legislature:
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Bachmann’s new sixth district is still very reliably red. No need to shed any tears on her behalf. I suppose, since it is the law, that I shouldn’t complain about people not having to live in their districts. A lot of us were hoping to see Bachmann run against McCollum in the 4th. Oh well.
I did notice that Bachmann is back to having been a Minnesotan. I guess the ‘I learned everything important in my life in Iowa’ was just sound effects for the straw polls in Iowa.
Hey, I’ll gladly let Minnesota have her. 🙂
That thing about Iowa needs to be repeated often and loudly by her opponent. Hah!
I’m not going to shed any tears for her either, addisnana. The district lines had to be redrawn for population reasons, and the map looked reasonable. And as you note, Rep. Bachmann will still be the favorite in the 6th District … even if her friends and neighbors can’t vote for her.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
I used to live in NJ’s 9th CD which has been redrawn and has given rise to a contest between 2 good Dems: Rothman v Pallone. From allies to name-calling foes in an instant. Bummer.
That is a bummer, Mike. 🙁 However, you’ve been on the inside long enough to know just how ugly the internecine fighting can get. I’m just learning. What an eye-opener.
It’s sad when erstwhile allies are pitted against each other, Mike.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
I regularly write my Senators and Representative. Bachmann only responded to constituent emails once she started running for President. Before that, no response at all. Once she became a Presidential candidate the responses were actually quite well written….respectfully disagree etc. etc.
I wrote because when she appeared on camera saying, “All my constituents agree with me on this..” I could say to the TV, “Read your mail!”
She managed to get re-elected while ignoring constituent e-mails? Or maybe she only responded to people who agreed.
Even my terrible Tea Party congresscritter responds to every communication.
It’ll be interesting to see if she draws a primary challenger. If that’s a “mostly red” district, the odds are that someone in that district would run, and I think Michele might have some trouble being painted as a carpetbagger. 😉
I would be stunned if any Republican ran against Rep. Bachmann. She has an amazing reputation as a fundraiser, and any serious GOP challenger would need to have a lot of money already lined up.
Good Afternoon! ::hugggggs::