2012 Con­tender Series: Michele Bach­mann

Michele Marie Bach­mann is the U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Minnesota’s 6th con­gres­sional dis­trict. This dis­trict wraps around out­side the north­ern half of the Minneapolis/​St. Paul met­ro­pol­i­tan area, extend­ing to the north­west to include St. Cloud. The dis­trict is mostly sub­ur­ban, tend­ing toward rural farm­land as it moves away from the Twin Cities. This dis­trict was once rep­re­sented by Charles August Lind­bergh, father of the famed avi­a­tor. Rep. Bachmann’s pub­lic per­sona has reflected the con­ser­v­a­tive pol­i­tics of her district.

Rep. Michele Bach­mann offi­cial photo.

I intend in this arti­cle to avoid much edi­to­ri­al­iz­ing. I will also resist the temp­ta­tion to present many quotes. Pluck­ing those low-​​hanging fruit would sim­ply be mean; the facts speak for themselves.

Her first term in the House began in Jan­u­ary of 2007, when she replaced retir­ing two-​​term Repub­li­can Mark Kennedy. She had pre­vi­ously served for six years in the Min­nesota State Sen­ate, defeat­ing 18-​​year incum­bent Gary Laidig to secure the GOP endorse­ment in 2000. In Novem­ber of 2003, she co-​​sponsored a Min­nesota state Con­sti­tu­tional Amend­ment that would have banned same-​​sex mar­riage. Her efforts to get that pro­posed amend­ment on a bal­lot ref­er­en­dum failed. She tried again in 2004, and again the state Sen­ate rejected her proposal.

Ms. Bach­mann briefly (Novem­ber, 2004–July, 2005) held a minor lead­er­ship posi­tion in the State Sen­ate. Dick Day, then the state Repub­li­can Sen­ate Minor­ity Leader, appointed her Assis­tant Minor­ity Leader in charge of Pol­icy for the Sen­ate Repub­li­can Cau­cus. About eight months later, the Cau­cus removed her from this posi­tion, for what Bach­mann char­ac­ter­ized as “philo­soph­i­cal dif­fer­ences” with Day. She ran for the United States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives the fol­low­ing year, and became the first Repub­li­can woman elected to the U.S. Con­gress from Minnesota.

Since she has pre­sented her­self as a pos­si­ble pres­i­den­tial can­di­date, it is rel­e­vant to con­sider some of her leg­isla­tive actions and posi­tions. It is dif­fi­cult to give more than a short sum­mary, as she has been so active and out­spo­ken. I hope com­menters will expand on the fol­low­ing, and add more detail in places I have omitted.

As one of her first major actions upon tak­ing office, in Jan­u­ary of 2007, Ms. Bach­mann called for hear­ings on Pres­i­dent Bush’s plans for a “troop surge” in Iraq. She repeat­edly declined to com­ment on whether she per­son­ally sup­ported or opposed the surge, claim­ing to not have enough infor­ma­tion to decide. In Feb­ru­ary, a res­o­lu­tion oppos­ing the surge was approved in the House by a vote of 246–182. She voted against the resolution.

This rep­re­sented one of the few times Ms. Bach­mann has been hes­i­tant to take a stand on an issue. She voted against a bill to increase the min­i­mum Pell grant for col­lege stu­dents from $4,310 to $5,200. The bill also would lower inter­est rates on fed­er­ally sub­si­dized stu­dent loans from 6.9 per­cent to 3.4 per­cent, and would raise the max­i­mum loan to $30,500 from $7,500. She claimed this bill “favors the costly, government-​​run direct lend­ing pro­gram over non­profit and com­mer­cial lenders.” The bill over­whelm­ingly passed the House, and Pres­i­dent Bush signed it into law in Sep­tem­ber of 2007.

Source: min​nesotans​for​glob​al​warm​ing​.com

She has occa­sion­ally spent time look­ing for prob­lems to solve. She once intro­duced leg­is­la­tion that would bar the dol­lar from being replaced by any for­eign cur­rency. (Is this a nec­es­sary reg­u­la­tion?) She has called for the media to inves­ti­gate mem­bers of Con­gress for “anti-​​American views.” She intro­duced the “Light Bulb Free­dom of Choice Act,” intended to repeal the switch from incan­des­cent to com­pact flu­o­res­cent light bulbs, claim­ing that flu­o­res­cent bulbs pol­lute more because of their mer­cury content.

She is con­sid­ered a leader in the Tea Party move­ment. She is the founder of the House Tea Party Cau­cus. She attempted to lever­age her noto­ri­ety into a lead­er­ship posi­tion in the 112th Con­gress, seek­ing to become House Repub­li­can Con­fer­ence Chair. But she was soundly rebuked by Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Paul Ryan, Mike Pence, Eric Can­tor, and oth­ers. Shortly after, she pre­sented her per­sonal response to Pres­i­dent Obama’s State of the Union address in 2011, billing it as the “Tea Party response.” It was car­ried live by CNN.

She has endorsed drilling for oil in ANWR, claimed global warm­ing is a “hoax,” and opposed cap and trade leg­is­la­tion. She opposed TARP (both the ini­tial ver­sion that failed in a close vote, and the later ver­sion that was enacted). She voiced seri­ous con­cerns about the 2010 Cen­sus, and urged cit­i­zens to limit their coöperation.

Rep. Michele Bach­mann speaks in favor of PPACA repeal. Source: Rep. Michele Bachmann.

She opposed the Patient Pro­tec­tion and Afford­able Care Act (PPACA), say­ing that it con­tained “death pan­els,” allowed fund­ing for abor­tions, and pro­vided care to ille­gal immi­grants. She claimed the pro­posal for a pub­lic option amounted to a “gov­ern­ment takeover of health care.”

But we ain’t seen noth­ing yet. In one of her most recent acts, early in the 112th Con­gress, she pro­posed repeal of the recent finan­cial reg­u­la­tory reform act, call­ing it a “job-killing…financial reg­u­la­tory bill.”

Ms. Bach­mann is known for a rather out­go­ing and effu­sive style. You can find some of her best quotes here. I rec­om­mend thumb­ing through them.

What are her chances of get­ting the Repub­li­can nom­i­na­tion? She should prob­a­bly be con­sid­ered a long shot. If Sarah Palin runs, the two of them are likely to be seen as being pressed from the same mold, and would tend to split votes in the pri­maries. Ms. Palin has an advan­tage of greater name recog­ni­tion; Ms. Bach­mann has the advan­tage of hav­ing demon­strated she can hold elected office for extended peri­ods with­out resign­ing. (Fun fact: Alaska has a pop­u­la­tion of a bit under 686,000; Ms. Bachmann’s dis­trict is a bit under 615,000.) If Ms. Palin drops out, Ms. Bach­mann is her nat­ural heir.

Would the Repub­li­cans go with a female pres­i­den­tial can­di­date? Will the Repub­li­can estab­lish­ment accept a can­di­date so closely asso­ci­ated with the Tea Party? Can she man­age a ground game on a national scale with such a crowded field? Don’t write her off for the third-​​tier sta­tus most ana­lysts give her; she is a proven fundraiser, rak­ing in a record $13.2 mil­lion in her 2010 reëlec­tion cam­paign, over $20 for each per­son in her dis­trict (the FEC is look­ing into some of those funds). This may make her a force to be reck­oned with.

LATE BREAKING: Ms. Bach­mann spoke yes­ter­day before a recep­tive audi­ence at the CPAC gath­er­ing, and brought them to their feet. She called on fis­cal con­ser­v­a­tives to unite with social con­ser­v­a­tives and with defense hawks, to hold on to the House, take the Sen­ate, and defeat Pres­i­dent Obama in 2012. She repeat­edly referred to the President’s poli­cies as “social­ist,” and called PPACA the “crown jewel of social­ism.” Study her speech; it is a pre­view of what her Pres­i­den­tial cam­paign will be about.

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