There are a couple of lessons to take away from Elwyn Tinklenberg’s fundraising gusher.
`Anti-American’ comments hurt Minn. rep’s campaign
By MARTIGA LOHN – 11 hours ago
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann spent months building her profile through appearances on “Larry King Live” and other TV talk shows. It took only a few minutes of airtime, and one disparaging remark about Barack Obama, to undo it.
After saying on MSNBC’s “Hardball” that Obama “may have anti-American views,” Bachmann found herself fending off criticism from former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Worse, Bachmann’s comment uncorked a gusher of donations to her opponent, transforming a race she had been favored to win into one more worry spot for Republicans.
Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg said his campaign brought in $740,000 in less than 72 hours, an amount he could only have imagined before Bachmann’s remarks. It took the former state transportation commissioner a year to raise $1 million before that, and Bachmann started the campaign’s critical final month with almost four times as much cash as he hand.
The money advantage that entrenched incumbents have can be evened out if challengers are smart about it.