Democrat Jim Read joins race for Congress in 6th District
A political science professor says he will run for Congress in Minnesota's 6th District.
Jim Read, 55, lives in Avon and teaches at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University.
The 6th has been safe territory for Republicans. Michele Bachmann has represented the the district since 2007, but announced in May she will not seek re-election next year.
Read said he's running to give people a choice. The latest congressional crisis drove him to get into the race, he said.
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"As soon as the government shutdown began and with this imminent crisis on defaulting on the debt, we'd entered a very difficult and dangerous period in American politics," Read said. "And my first thought was not can I win? My first thought was I have to do something."
Read ran for the state Legislature as a Democrat and narrowly lost in the early 1990s.
Republicans Tom Emmer, Phil Krinkie, John Pederson and Rhonda Sivarajah are competing for the chance to be the Republican candidate next year.
Another Democrat, Judy Adams, said in June that she was running.