MN-03: A Wilde Challenge! Help Raise $1K for Cable TV Buys

3 Comments

1. 

   BooMan on October 9, 2006 at 2:10 pm

   Good luck.  Any info about the incumbent?

   • 

     northcountry on October 9, 2006 at 2:35 pm

     Served in the MN State Senate for 12 years prior to his election in 1990. Widely perceived as a moderate and is co-chair of the House Addicition, Treatment and Recovery Caucus.  Patrick Kennedy’s AA Sponsor.

     Ramstad’s record is far from moderate however.  See the comment attached below.

     The 3rd CD itself is quite interesting:

     Affluent, highly educated suburban district just to the west of Minneapolis.  Strong exurban pockets.  Strong pockets of skilled blue collar workers and technicans. Some rural and small town areas. Some quasi-urban areas with poverty issues.  Growing Somali and East African presence.

     Lots of soccer and security Moms.

     Kerry carried the district with 48% in 2004 and won many traditional moderate, affluent, blue-blood, country-club Republican towns, including Edina where no democrat had ever carried the town in a state-wide of federal election since at least 1945 (and some people say as far back as the town’s founding in the 1920s.)

     Several republican-leaning legislative districts flipped to democrats in 2004 and a democrat beat a sitting Republican mayor for a special election for State Senate in the winter of 2005.

2. 

   northcountry on October 9, 2006 at 2:42 pm

   Moderate… or not?

   You decide:

   Jim Ramstad voted outside the Republican Party only 18% of the time. (according to Congressional Quarterly and Progressive Punch)

   Weaken ethics: Jim Ramstad voted to weaken House ethics rules when Tom DeLay proposed doing so as GOP Majority Leader. Link: H Res. 5, Roll Call #6, 1/4/05

   Tom Delay: Jim voted with Tom DeLay 80% of the time (through 3/31/2006)

   Torture vote: Jim voted to authorize torture and eliminate habeas corpus, in violation of international standards and laws that our nation has agreed to. From Clerk.House, September 27, 2006

   National Debt: Jim Ramstad, as a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, carries responsibility for the decisions leading to our $8.5 trillion dollar national debt.

   Michele Bachmann:  Jim Ramstad co-hosted a fundraiser for Michele Bachmann on July 20, 2006.  Then President Bush came to Jim Ramstad’s district to hold another fundraiser for Bachmann on August 22.

   Civil rights: Jim has voted to restrict civil rights for gay Americans, just like Michele Bachmann.  H.J. Res. 88 (07/18/2006)

   Corruption and Mismanagement: Jim Ramstad voted to continue awarding contracts to Halliburton even after the Pentagon’s own audit processes found that more than $100 million of their contractor’s costs in Iraq were unreasonable.

   Big Money:  Jim Ramstad voted against cracking down on the oil and gas industries price gouging, and then rewarded them with billions of dollars in new tax breaks.  Big oil and gas industries have given Jim Ramstad $65,350. From The Center for Responsive Politics The Center for Responsive Politics and Open Secrets

   More Big Money: Jim Ramstad has taken more than $200,000 from pharmaceutical interests and voted 94% their way, including supporting the Medicare Part D Donut Hole. From The Center for Responsive Politics Open Secrets