AP - Motherhood is hard to miss in Minnesota's most competitive House race. Democrat Patty Wetterling, whose son disappeared 17 years ago, has grabbed the national spotlight in the fallout from the Mark Foley scandal. She immediately launched a hard-hitting television ad that argued Republicans "knowingly ignored the welfare of children to protect their own power."
WOODBURY, Minn. - Motherhood is hard to miss in Minnesota's most competitive House race. Democrat Patty Wetterling, whose son disappeared 17 years ago, has grabbed the national spotlight in the fallout from the Mark Foley scandal. She immediately launched a hard-hitting television ad that argued Republicans "knowingly ignored the welfare of children to protect their own power."
On Saturday, she will deliver the Democratic response to
President Bush's radio address, focusing on protecting children, including Internet safety.
Wetterling's Republican rival, state Sen. Michele Bachmann, helped raise almost two dozen foster children along with her own. She has condemned the actions of Foley, the former GOP lawmaker who resigned in disgrace after reports of sexually explicit messages to teenage male pages.
The two are vying for an open House seat, a political opportunity created when three-term Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) opted to run for the Senate.
The Foley scandal stands to boost Wetterling's candidacy, said Steven Smith, a congressional scholar at Washington University in St. Louis.
"They're playing in her ballpark now," said Smith, who lives in the Minnesota district. "Her home field is children's issues and sexual predation and related concerns."
On the evening of Oct. 22, 1989, Wetterling's 11-year-old son, Jacob, his younger brother and a friend were riding their bikes home after picking up a video at a convenience store about a mile away. A masked gunman confronted them on a rural road and told the other two boys to run into the woods without looking back — or he would shoot them. Despite a massive search effort, Jacob was never seen or heard from again.
The loss of her son transformed Wetterling from a stay-at-home mom to national advocate for missing children. Many in the district still remember the crime, and a campaign ad showing her holding a framed photograph of Jacob revives the wrenching story of her son's abduction.
"I know her from the unfortunate tragedy that made her so public," said Susan Rego, a political activist in St. Michael who gave $300 to Wetterling's campaign. "She struck me as someone who's just like your neighbor and wants to get something done."
An early Bachmann ad shows her laughing and playing with her husband and children.
"You know what you get and where she stands," said John Walter, a family friend who donated $2,100 to her campaign and backs Bachmann's anti-abortion stance. "The fact that she raised 23 foster children while having five of her own tells me who she is."
Academics say motherhood makes for a powerful campaign theme.
"There's something very deep in us that responds to that," said Jean Bethke Elshtain, a University of Chicago ethics professor who has written extensively on women in politics. "It's sort of like men over the years emphasizing their war experiences — that somehow you spoke with more authenticity if you participated in a war."
Democrats see the district, which lies in a corridor that stretches northwest from the Twin Cities to St. Cloud, as a possible pickup in their fight to regain control of the House. It leans Republican, but its swing voters helped elect outsider Jesse Ventura as governor in 1998.
After Jacob's disappearance, Wetterling, 56, focused on raising her three other children and now has a 2-year-old granddaughter. Her campaign has focused on middle-class families like her own. She has called for tuition credits, broader mortgage deductions, universal health care and withdrawing U.S. troops from
Iraq.
Wetterling lost to Kennedy two years ago, 54-46 percent. Last year, she launched a Senate bid, then abandoned that for another House run.
She had a slight financial advantage with the backing of pro-abortion rights group EMILY'S List. But after an August fundraiser hosted by President Bush, Bachmann was in line for a cash infusion.
While Wetterling has never held elected office, Bachmann, 50, built her power base over the last three years by leading a conservative charge in the legislature against gay marriage. That divisive issue has not been evident in her congressional campaign, which has focused on traditional GOP themes such as cutting taxes and government regulations.
But in a year when many GOP candidates are keeping their distance from Bush, Bachmann stands out for her enthusiastic embrace of his administration, including fundraisers hosted by Vice President
Dick Cheney and Bush adviser Karl Rove.
When Bush visited the district to help her raise cash, Bachmann sent a rhapsodic letter to supporters recounting an impromptu stop at a custard cafe.
"Always the mom, I thought, we need napkins. I asked the president if he had a napkin and he said 'no.' So, I had to quickly grab napkins. I cannot imagine dripping custard in the presidential limousine," she wrote.
10-05-2006, 04:30 PM
