Citizen insight into Oberstar’s defeat
Jim Oberstar's defeat in Tuesday night's election was a political earthquake. We wanted to know more from Minnesota citizens about what happened to unseat Oberstar and the origins of support for Republican Chip Cravaack.
My colleague Molly Bloom reached out to Minnesotans in MPR's Public Insight Network to try and found out why.
"Mr. Oberstar misread the threat posed by a candidate like Cravaack," said Bob Feiro, a Cravaack supporter from Duluth. He told us:
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The demographics have changed significantly since either Blatnik or Oberstar took office. traditional northeastern Minnesota values are becoming less and less of the decider, as the urban sprawl from the Metro area becomes a larger and larger voice. (i.e. Chip Cravaack and his supporters waited out the election in Hinckley).
With the redistricting power won by the Republicans in the State races, this will become even more pronounced in what were traditional DFL strongholds.
Click on the map icons below to read more of what Feiro and other Minnesotans are telling us on the Oberstar vote. (Add your voice here.)
James Redfield, an Oberstar supporter from Rush City, said he didn't think his candidate " took the challenge to heart and started working for reelection too late."
The political shift coming "is big, and there is a great difference between the economy in the (district's) North and in the South. This makes a huge difference on the feelings of the people."
Oberstar today reflected on his 36 years in Congress, telling his staff and reporters during an emotional news conference that he had no regrets, MPR's Elizabeth Dunbar wrote.
He defended his votes supporting the federal stimulus money and health care reform but acknowledged that the people of his district had spoken, Dunbar wrote.
"People are fickle and impatient. He did not spend enough time in Minnesota. This upset many constituents," Diana Kuopus an Oberstar backer from Eveleth, told us.
"I have no idea what my fellow constituents were thinking in electing a congressman with no experience and no agenda that I have heard. I am frustrated with the naivety of voters who fall for the empty rhetoric of candidates calling for "change" and "a new direction" with no specifics."
But Dale Buisman, a Cravaack backer from North Branch, suggested Oberstar had lost touch with many Minnesotans.
Oberstar, "spends too much of our money, he always talks about how much money he spends in the district. Well that money has to come out of my pocket first, then he got his hands on it and spent it in ways I do not like," Buisman said.
"We will now be represented by some one who lives in the district and perhaps we will be listened to and have real representation."
Dan Ellis, an Oberstar supporter from Hibbing, put the changes in the 8th succinctly.
For decades we've lived blue (unionization, government intervention in economics and industry, etc), believed red (small government, "pull yerself up by the bootstraps"), and voted blue.
Now, we're voting red, which may change how we live, which is to say the 8th district may become what it is... a Republican district.
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