After announcing that she would not run for re-election next year, Michele Bachmann also spurred her opponent to drop out of the race. Democrat Jim Graves has dropped out of the race for Minnesota’s 6th congressional district. Now Democrats are left to scramble to try and find a replacement to run for the empty seat left by Rep. Michele Bachmann.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Graves said she found out that he was dropping out of the race late last night, and the decision was a complete shock. The spokeswoman, Julie Pearl, said “I’m a little heartbroken. I’m one of those Democrats who’s going to try and talk him back into it”. Pearl could not elaborate on why Graves decided to withdraw his name from the race, but it’s pretty clear to all of us what’s going on here.
Mr. Graves knows he will lose the election. He lost to Bachmann in 2012 by 4,300 votes.
Although many considered Bachmann a weak candidate in the race, it was clear that she represented a solid red district and many there supported her. With Bachmann no longer in the race, it is clear that a Republican should have no problem winning this seat.
But it must be difficult to work for the DCCC today. According to their spokeswoman the DCCC hasn’t given up on the seat yet.
“We expect this district will feature a bitter Republican primary fight over who can get the furthest to the right the fastest, and we’ll monitor the race as it develops. Regardless of whether Michele Bachmann is running, her brand of extremism and obstruction has infected the Republican party – and it will be on the ballot in MN-06 and Republican-held districts across the country where we will fight to elect commonsense problem-solvers," she said.
What’s really upsetting to see is that just on Wednesday Graves was quoted saying that ““I always said I wasn’t running against Michele Bachmann, I was running for the people of the country, and that won’t change”. But obviously that isn’t true. Now he says that his mission has been accomplished,
“Basically, after all that’s gone on, and with Michele Bachmann now stepping down, I’ve been talking to my friends and family and frankly, the feeling is, ‘Mission Accomplished,'" he said.
"She wasn’t representing the people of the 6th District appropriately, and now she won’t be representing them. There’s no way anyone could run and win who would be worse than Michele Bachmann. So we accomplished that task.”
So now we know the real purpose of Graves’ choice to run and then drop out. He simply hated Michele Bachmann and wanted her out. And now that she has decided to remove herself from the office, he has given up on “running for the people of this country”.
Well it’s good to know where we all stand. When you fear your opponent and know you are going to lose, just act as Jim Graves did today, drop out and say it was still a victory.