Bachmann Won’t Seek Re-election Next Year

Bachmann Won’t Seek Re-election Next Year
By GERRY MULLANY
The New York Times

Representative Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican who made an ill-fated run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, announced Wednesday that she would not seek a fifth term in Congress next year.

She made the announcement just six months after being re-elected in what was her most challenging Congressional campaign since she was first elected to the House in 2006. Her announcement also comes as her former presidential campaign faces inquiries into its fund-raising activities.

“I have decided next year I will not seek a fifth Congressional term,” she said in a video on her campaign Web site. “This decision was not impacted in any way by the recent inquiries into the activities of my former presidential campaign or my former presidential staff,” she added.

Mrs. Bachmann is known for her strong anti-abortion stance and adherence to Tea Party values but her presidential campaign was marked by frequent stumbles and her candidacy failed to catch fire in a crowded field of candidates that included Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Herman Cain, who all eventually lost to Mitt Romney.

In her congressional race last year, Mrs. Bachmann won re-election by just 4,200 votes out of 356,000 votes cast, beating the hotelier Jim Graves, who was greatly outspent. Mr. Graves recently announced that he would seek the seat again.

“My decision was not in any way influenced by any concerns about my being re-elected to Congress,” she said. “If I ran I would again defeat the individual who I defeated last year.”

Her announcement comes as the Office of Congressional Ethics looks into claims by Ms. Bachmann’s former campaign aides that she may have improperly used money raised by one of her House-affiliated political action committees to help her presidential bid in the run-up to the Iowa presidential caucuses in January 2012. She came in sixth in that race, even though she campaigned heavily in the state. The defeat led her to pull out of the race the next day.

While her presidential bid initially excited Tea Party supporters, Mrs. Bachmann would later find herself upstaged by conservative opponents like Mr. Cain and Mr. Santorum, and she was prone to misstatements, including saying the vaccine against the human papillomavirus was linked to “mental retardation.”

But her campaign was not without impact. Her victory in the Ames, Iowa, straw poll in the summer of 2011 forced Tim Pawlenty, the former Republican governor of Minnesota, to drop out of the contest early, after he did poorly in his neighboring state.

In her video announcement, Mrs. Bachmann did not rule out returning to politics in the future.

“There is no future option or opportunity, be it directly in the political area or otherwise, that I won’t be giving serious consideration if it can help save and protect our great nation for future generations,” she said.

She also said she expected “the mainstream liberal media to put a detrimental spin” on her decision not to seek re-election, calling its attention to her political fortunes “a true compliment of my public service effectiveness.”

Ms. Bachmann had been a largely obscure member of Congress from Minnesota before the emergence of the Tea Party in 2010. She seized on the movement to brand herself a national voice of conservatives and become the leader of the “Tea Party Caucus” in the House.

In January of 2011, Ms. Bachmann delivered her own, unofficial “Tea Party” response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. She mocked the president’s fiscal policies and urged a repeal of the president’s health care plan known as Obamacare. But the brief, televised response prompted comedy sketches because of its low production values and because Ms. Bachmann appeared to be looking off to the side throughout her remarks.

Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.

This is too bad. Bachman was a good egg. It was unfortunate how things happened during her run for the POTUS. I felt like during the GOP debates, no one would give her the time of day.

Dennis324 wrote:This is too bad. Bachman was a good egg. It was unfortunate how things happened during her run for the POTUS. I felt like during the GOP debates, no one would give her the time of day.

You do realize that she is under investigation for money laundering (allegations that initiated with her former staff) by the FBI and is also under investigation by the Republican controlled House Ethics Committee, right? There is nothing good about this woman.

Bryant wrote:

Dennis324 wrote:This is too bad. Bachman was a good egg. It was unfortunate how things happened during her run for the POTUS. I felt like during the GOP debates, no one would give her the time of day.

You do realize that she is under investigation for money laundering (allegations that initiated with her former staff) by the FBI and is also under investigation by the Republican controlled House Ethics Committee, right? There is nothing good about this woman.

What!?!?!?

Nothing good you say!?!?!?

You seen those DSL's!?!?!?

Marconius wrote:

Bryant wrote:

Dennis324 wrote:This is too bad. Bachman was a good egg. It was unfortunate how things happened during her run for the POTUS. I felt like during the GOP debates, no one would give her the time of day.

You do realize that she is under investigation for money laundering (allegations that initiated with her former staff) by the FBI and is also under investigation by the Republican controlled House Ethics Committee, right? There is nothing good about this woman.

What!?!?!?

Nothing good you say!?!?!?

You seen those DSL's!?!?!?

Other than internet, what is a DSL?

Bryant wrote:

Marconius wrote:

Bryant wrote:

Dennis324 wrote:This is too bad. Bachman was a good egg. It was unfortunate how things happened during her run for the POTUS. I felt like during the GOP debates, no one would give her the time of day.

You do realize that she is under investigation for money laundering (allegations that initiated with her former staff) by the FBI and is also under investigation by the Republican controlled House Ethics Committee, right? There is nothing good about this woman.

What!?!?!?

Nothing good you say!?!?!?

You seen those DSL's!?!?!?

Other than internet, what is a DSL?

*sigh*
Younguns, I swear.
D***
Suckin
Lips

*sigh* I thought we were better than this.

Dennis324 wrote:*sigh* I thought we were better than this.

Hey, I wasn't the one that brought up the DSLs..... :-P

Miles1 wrote:

Dennis324 wrote:*sigh* I thought we were better than this.

Hey, I wasn't the one that brought up the DSLs..... :-P

Thinking we are better..........that frame of mind has started lots of crap in the past.

Some need to chill and appreciate attempts to keep it light.

This is not a response to Miles, but since it is a response to Dennis, he already feels that he is so much better than me, that he no longer has to acknowledge my existence. WWJD???

Miles1 wrote:

Dennis324 wrote:*sigh* I thought we were better than this.

Hey, I wasn't the one that brought up the DSLs..... :-P

I know. I saw who you quoted and what he said. Its become pretty much par for the course. Not surprised in the least.