Republican Challenges Bachmann

Aubrey Immelman

By Tim Pugmire
Minnesota Public Radio
Morning Edition
July 17, 2008

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Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is facing a primary election contest in the 6th District. The challenge comes from college professor Aubrey Immelman, who says he entered the race to give GOP voters an alternative, conservative candidate this year.

St. Paul, Minn. — During the past year and a half, Aubrey Immelman of Sartell says he has heard several questionable public statements from Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Immelman says Bachmann showed a weakness on national security issues last year when she claimed knowledge of a secret plan to partition Iraq. […]

“I did not oppose initially the invasion of Iraq because I had no reason not to trust the president and the Secretary of State, Colin Powell at the time,” he said. “And it’s only in 2004 that the truth began to come out about the cherry-picked intelligence and so on that I turned against the U.S. involvement in Iraq.”

Following a recent news conference on energy issues, Bachmann said she welcomed Immelman to the race. […]

Steve Frank, a political science professor at St. Cloud State University, says Immelman appears to be a serious candidate, but he faces long odds. […]