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The Minnesota's 6th congressional district election, 2006 was an election for the United States House of Representatives. The three major party candidates were Michele Bachmann (R), Patty Wetterling (D), and John Binkowski (I).
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Patty Wetterling, candidate of the DFL party, is a U.S. advocate of children's safety, particularly focused on protecting children from abduction and abuse. Her advocacy began after her son was abducted in 1989. An extensive search was carried out, but Jacob and the abductor have not yet been found.
Four months after the abduction, the Wetterlings founded the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to education about child safety. Wetterling went on to work on a national level, educating law enforcement officials about child safety throughout the country. She was also instrumental in passing the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, Megan's Law, and the Amber Alert System. Because of her expertise in this area, national media attention was brought to the race following the resignation of Congressman Mark Foley.
Michele Bachmann, of the Republican Party of Minnesota, graduated from Anoka High School in 1974. She then attended Winona State College (now Winona State University), from which she graduated in 1978 with a degree in political science and English.
It was there she met her future husband, Marcus Bachmann; they began dating in 1976 while working together on Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign. She earned a Juris Doctor at Coburn School of Law in 1986, and a post-doctorate degree from the College of William and Mary Law School in Virginia in 1988. From 1988 to 1993, Bachmann was a U.S. Treasury Department attorney in St. Paul, Minnesota representing the IRS against people who underpaid or didn't pay their taxes.
John Binkowski (Independence Party of Minnesota), a Polish-American, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1979. He holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. With a professional history beginning in the construction industry, he became a project superintendent in Madison, Wisconsin and later served as president of a small construction and real estate firm in Milwaukee. Binkowski later returned to Minnesota to work as a project coordinator for Johnson Controls and to work towards a degree in Construction Management at the University of Wisconsin, Stout. Binkowski's main issue of concern was the federal deficit. He has been called a fiscal hawk and calls for means testing for Social Security and balancing the federal budget.[1]
The election was considered highly competitive such that in early October CQPolitics.com rated it as "No Clear Favorite".[2]
| Source | Date | Wetterling (D) | Bachmann (R) | John Binkowski (I) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Star Tribune Minnesota Poll | October 21, 2006 | 48% | 40% | 4% |
| Reuters/Zogby | October 4, 2006 | 43% | 46% | |
| SurveyUSA | September, 2006 | 41% | 50% | 5% |
Bachmann won the seat with 50% of the votes. Wetterling received 42% of the vote and Binkowski received 8%.