Abortion Foes Fund Rep. Bachman, Bash State Sen. Clark
by Andy Birkey, New Journalist Fellow
August 6, 2009 - 7:00am (Print)
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. At the same time, local anti-abortion forces are already tarring Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) candidate State Sen. Tarryl Clark just a day after she announced her candidacy.
Bachmann is ranked third of 435 U.S. House members in total campaign contributions from anti-abortion interests, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Bachmann received $63,658 since she announced her run for Congress in 2005 — 3.5 times the amount given by abortion opponents to all other Minnesota House members combined. Only Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., who was first elected to Congress in 2002, and Chris Smith, R-N.J., who’s been in Congress since 1980, have raised more from the anti-abortion lobby, taking in $89,081 and $142,854 respectively.
Among Minnesota’s other House members, Reps. John Kline ($9,050), Collin Peterson ($6,307), and James Oberstar ($3,289) have received money from the anti-abortion lobby. Three other members — Reps. Betty McCollum ($11,900), Tim Walz ($19,400) and Keith Ellison ( $4,600) — have accepted gifts from abortion-rights groups.
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.
Her efforts have earned her the support of Minnesota’s largest anti-abortion group, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, which all but endorsed Bachmann in a scathing attack on Sen. Tarryl Clark only a day after she launched her campaign to replace Bachmann.
“The voters in the 6th Congressional District need to know that Tarryl Clark is a radical anti-life candidate,” said MCCL executive director Scott Fischbach said in a statement on Tuesday. “Senator Clark has voted to use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions — even cruel saline abortions!”
“From now until the election in 2010, MCCL will work tirelessly to make sure the voters know that it is Congresswoman Michele Bachmann who is willing to stand up and fight for the innocent unborn and their mothers, while Tarryl Clark supports even the most gruesome taxpayer funded abortions,” he said.
Dr. Maureen Reed, who is also seeking to defeat Bachmann, hasn’t taken a strong stance on abortion, either in the current campaign or as candidate for lieutenant governor in 2006.
