Letter to the Editor: Bachmann isn’t invincible

November 29, 2012 by

Election night was a great night for Democrats across Minnesota, with the exception of three congressional races. Three Republican incumbents won re-election to the U.S.  House, including Michele Bachmann in the 6th District.

To say that Congresswoman Bachmann is a polarizing figure in American politics is an understatement. Bachmann is so extreme that the GOP leadership in the House has denied her a leadership position. If Bachmann is too extreme for somebody like Eric Cantor, that really reveals where her priorities lie. Her views certainly aren’t representative of mainstream America, and they are far from being representative of her constituents.

The only reason Bachmann won a fourth term Nov. 6 is because Republican-controlled Legislature redistricted (gerrymandered) Minnesota congressional districts, making the 6th even more advantageous for Republicans. If the 6th had been the same geographic area it was in 2010, Bachmann’s opponent, Jim Graves, would have been elected.

Graves has demonstrated Bachmann isn’t invincible. So how do you put a Democratic candidate over the top in the 6th District? There are four areas a candidate should concentrate on.

First, let the constituents know that you will represent them. Michele Bachmann represents herself.

Next, remind voters that Michelle Bachmann voted against increasing the federal minimum wage in 2007 – George W. Bush signed the bill into law – and that she is staunchly opposed to raising the minimum wage in the future. Ask Bachmann why she is so opposed to workers being guaranteed to make a paltry $7.25 per hour.

A Democratic candidate should focus on improving the economy of the 6th District, and promote tax breaks for businesses that move into the district and offer employees competitive wages and salaries above the federal minimum wage. Graves did a superb job promoting business growth in this campaign and it is one of the reasons why he almost won the district.

The last thing a Democratic candidate needs to do is to reassure voters in the 6th District that sanity will be restored to the congressional seat. Let the voters know that you will bring a common sense approach to Washington and will reach across the aisle.

Jim Graves did a great job in three of these areas. He was clearly the sane choice (he certainly implied it), but in the 6th District it is necessary for a candidate to be explicit that they are, in fact, the sane alternative to Bachmann. If a candidate would also point out that Bachmann is against the federal minimum wage law and hold her to account for it, the tide would turn. Exposing Bachmann’s views on fair wages and more grassroots support than in 2012 for the Democratic candidate would seal Bachmann’s fate.

That will be a great day for America.

– Jeffrey Couillard, AFSCME #844

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Outside John Kline’s office, minimum-wage workers rally for a raise

July 24, 2012 by

Workers ask John Kline to consider living on $290 per week, the gross pay of a full-time, minimum-wage worker in Minnesota.

Could John Kline live on $290 per week?

That’s the question several constituents from the 2nd Congressional District asked their Republican representative in the weeks leading up to today’s three-year anniversary of the last federal minimum-wage increase.

When Kline failed to provide his constituents with an answer, they decided to deliver a letter to his Burnsville office – and bring along about 50 of their friends and supporters. Together, they rallied in support of efforts to give the country’s lowest-paid workers a raise – efforts Rep. Kline says he continues to oppose.

“The economy is getting worse, and people need help,” said Dezirai Jones, a Savage resident who works for minimum wage at a local restaurant. “(Kline) doesn’t know what it’s like to make minimum wage. Even if he tried he would find it hard and a real eye-opener.”

Jones and other minimum-wage workers at the event, staged by the union-backed organization Minnesotans for a Fair Economy, talked about their struggle to make ends meet for themselves and their families.

“Minimum wage is basically impossible to live off of,” said Mallory Curran of Lakeville, a single mother who is separated from her husband but unable to afford a divorce.

A Minnesotan working 40 hours a week at minimum wage grosses about $290. Kline, by contrast, averages a salary of about $3,300 per week.

James L. Peng of Inver Grove Heights asked Kline to consider agreeing to live on $290 a week.

“Perhaps it’s difficult to imagine what $290 a week might look like,” Peng wrote in a letter to Kline. “We’d like to encourage you to consider trying to live on that amount for one week. After all, it isn’t easy to understand one’s personal experience if you haven’t encountered that experience yourself.”

Kline, who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, voted against the last minimum-wage increase, passed in 2007.

Without an increase over the last three years, the minimum wage has failed to keep up with inflation – let alone skyrocketing executive pay.

Workers in the 2nd Congressional District weren’t the only ones pushing a minimum-wage hike today. A team of prominent economists, including a Nobel laureate and a former Secretary of Labor, released a letter to President Obama and congressional leaders today.

The letter, sent from the Economic Policy Institute, argues “a higher minimum wage at this juncture will not only provide raises for low-wage workers but would provide some help on the jobs front as well.”

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