In less than a week, voters in Minnesota's 5th district will elect a new representative to Congress for the first time in nearly three decades. MPR's Brandt Williams checks out all four campaigns.
Candidates from four political parties are stepping up their efforts this week to win over voters in Minnesota's most Democrat-friendly district. DFL endorsed candidate Keith Ellison hopes voters who sent retiring congressman Martin Sabo to Washington for 14 terms, will turn out for him next Tuesday. But Ellison is facing vigorous challenges from Tammy Lee, the Independence Party candidate, and Republican candidate Alan Fine. Jay Pond of the Green Party is courting voters who might not favor the three major party candidates.
Transcripts
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BRENT WILLIAMS: Tammy Lee is not only running against Keith Ellison, she's running against the entire DFL party in a district that loves its DFL candidates. The cook partisan voting index, a non-partisan review of national and state races, rates the 5th District as D plus 21. That means voters in the district cast ballots for Democratic candidates at a rate that is 21 percentage points higher than the national average. But Lee says she's got a strategy to draw enough of those DFLers and Republicans to her side to win the election.
TAMMY LEE: We have been phone banking. We have been dropping with get out the vote information. We have people on the phones in three different locations right now. We are reaching out to Democrats and Republicans and leaning votes, split ticket households. We've targeted them across the suburbs, South Minneapolis. We have a very aggressive plan to get people to the polls.
BRENT WILLIAMS: Lee's strategy also features the endorsement of a tripartisan coalition of former and current elected and appointed officials. Some members of that group represent the suburban cities that abut Minneapolis within the district, and others are political insiders like Kathleen Anderson. Anderson worked for Fifth District Congressman Martin Sabo for all his 28 years in Congress.
KATHLEEN ANDERSON: Having worked for him all those years, I know the kind of integrity that he has shown in his representation of the Fifth congressional district. Tammy Lee is the only candidate remaining on the ballot who can carry on this legacy. In my opinion, Keith Ellison is just not acceptable.
KEITH ELLISON: My name is Keith Ellison, and I'm running for United States Congress, and I need you all to go on here and vote next Tuesday. Does that make sense to you?
BRENT WILLIAMS: A few hours after the Lee campaign announced its claim that it's gaining momentum in the race, Keith Ellison is shaking hands and handing out fliers to people in a downtown Minneapolis homeless shelter.
KEITH ELLISON: You're old enough to vote?
VOTER: Yep.
KEITH ELLISON: All right. You're old enough to vote? All right. Good.
BRENT WILLIAMS: Ellison's opponents have tried to paint him as unfit to serve in Congress. Earlier this year, Ellison admitted that he'd had his driver's license suspended because of unpaid parking tickets. Critics have also tried to tie him directly to the nation of Islam, whose leader, Louis Farrakhan, has made anti-Semitic comments. They've also tried to tie him to the Council on American Islamic Relations, a group which some US officials say has ties to terrorist groups.
Ellison is a Muslim, but says he's not a member of the nation of Islam, a mainly African-American sect of Islam, much smaller than the worldwide population of Muslims. Ellison's opponents have had less to say about his performance in his two terms in the State House, and he says he's not concerned that some Democrats won't vote for him.
KEITH ELLISON: It's America. You can vote for whoever you want. I think if you look at the work I've done in the legislature and the long record of working hard for people in the community, I think I'm clearly the best choice in this race. But people can vote for whomever they please.
BRENT WILLIAMS: Both the Ellison and Lee campaigns indicate they are not counting on a strong showing from Republican Alan Fine. Historically, Republicans have not fared well in the Fifth. In the 2004 presidential election, 71% of voters went for John Kerry, and 28% voted for George W. Bush.
ALAN FINE: So we asked the Hmong community here. We asked everybody here to support Alan Fine. OK?
VOTER: I hope you make it.
BRENT WILLIAMS: On a recent Friday afternoon, Fine received a hearty reception from a group of Hmong and Cambodian leaders at a North Minneapolis community center. Fine told them that he's the best candidate to represent them, because he has a firm grasp of the issues that concern them, such as the continued persecution of people who haven't left Laos or Cambodia.
ALAN FINE: We can't ignore wherever there's famine or genocide or war occurring anywhere in the world, and we need people in Washington who are going to make the effort to pull together the constituencies to get things done for you.
JAY POND: Hi, everyone. My name is Jay Pond, candidate for Congress.
BRENT WILLIAMS: Green party candidate Jay Pond is seeking votes at a South Minneapolis light rail station during the morning rush. Most people take his flyers but seem reluctant to engage him in more than a brief greeting. Pond says he's actually had better luck door knocking in areas where people are more economically disadvantaged. He says those people are more willing to vote for change.
JAY POND: So there's a lot of discontent out there, and there's a discontent with the party system. So it makes it easier for us as third party candidates.
BRENT WILLIAMS: Pond may be a long shot for Congress, but the Green Party has had success in Minneapolis. Voters have put three greens on the city council in recent years, and while history may be behind the DFL, there haven't been any polls taken that would offer insight as to where voters are leaning in the 5th District in the days before the election. Reporting from Minneapolis, I'm Brent Williams, Minnesota Public Radio news.