Bachmann Faces Tough Race, Losing Conservatives
Newsmax
Three-term Congresswoman and former GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is facing a stiff re-election challenge from hotel magnate Jim Graves in Minnesota.
A new poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosen Research shows Bachmann leading Democrat Graves by a very slim margin, 48 percent to 43 percent, with 9 percent undecided.
And after respondents were read brief biographies of the two candidates, Graves received 51 percent of their votes to Bachmann’s 44 percent.
Equally troubling for the incumbent, just 14 percent of those surveyed rated her job performance as “excellent,” and 34 percent rated it as “poor.” Another 22 percent said “fair,” and 26 percent said “good.”
Bachmann holds a fundraising edge, but it’s not a strong one, as many grass-roots conservatives have turned sour on her as a tea party leader.
At the end of March, Bachmann had $642,480 on hand, but she raised most of that in just two months.
Bachmann raised a record $13.5 million for her last re-election campaign.
But conservatives and tea partyers are less inclined to fork over money to Bachmann this time around, citing the fact she raised millions in 2010 promising to remain in Congress as a thorn against Obama and the GOP establishment.
After winning re-election, she soon launched a presidential bid and diverted millions from her congressional coffers. Her bid, which many conservatives saw as an ego trip, failed disastrously.
Bachmann withdrew from the race early after racking up more than $1 million in debt.
Other conservatives were angry that during the presidential primary Bachmann never endorsed any of the other conservative candidates in the heated race.
She eventually endorsed Mitt Romney. GOP insiders claimed she held back her endorsement so as not to antagonize the Romney camp, thinking she could end up on the short list for his vice-presidential running mate.
That hope fizzled, and this year the congresswoman was carved out of her former seat due to redistricting. Her new district is slightly more Republican than it was before its boundaries were redrawn.
The new poll, The Washington Post reports, is “sure to re-start the debate over whether the controversial Minnesota Republican can truly be beaten.”
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