It can’t happen here? by John Myers and Lee Bloomquist Appearing in Duluth News Tribune on 2006-10-22. In the campaign ad, a smiling Jim Oberstar is dressed in a bicycling outfit, surrounded by photos of such French landmarks as the Eiffel Tower and the Moulin Rouge. “Congressman Jim Oberstar’s Tour de France!” announces the ad sponsored by Republican challenger Rod Grams. On the back: “Jim Oberstar has seen a lot of France. When was the last time you saw him in Minnesota?” Strong stuff, for a Northeastern Minnesota political race. The problem, the Democratic candidate’s supporters say, is that the photo of Oberstar was taken near Brainerd at an event on the Paul Bunyan State Trail — one of dozens of visits to his home district during the past two years. Dirty politics at best, outright deception at worst, Oberstar’s campaign cried. “You don’t want to use the ‘L’ word lightly, but there’s nothing else to call this,” Oberstar’s campaign communications director John Schadl said. “This is another of their lies. I took the (bicycle) photograph of Jim in Brainerd, and they ripped it off our Web site.” “He doesn’t live here and seldom visits Minnesota,” said Grams, adding that he doesn’t feel his campaign is attacking Oberstar. “I don’t think compare-and-contrast and pointing out facts is an attack,” Grams said. “Jim is the one who has called me a liar and impugned my character.” It’s another round in the kind of heated campaign that the 8th Congressional District hasn’t seen in years. A DFL STRONGHOLD Unable to beat Oberstar on the usual conservative hot-button issues — Oberstar is anti-abortion and pro-gun — Grams’ campaign has instead painted Oberstar as a globetrotting career politician out of touch with Northeastern Minnesota. An earlier mass mailing and radio ad featuring French music poke fun at Oberstar’s fluent French and his trips at taxpayer expense. Oberstar was first elected in 1974 and has been re-elected every two years by some of the widest margins in all of Congress. His predecessor, John Blatnik, did just as well. In fact, a Republican hasn’t held the seat since William Pittenger left office on Jan. 6, 1947. Oberstar was considered so untouchable that, as recently as 2004, the Republican-leaning National Rifle Association bought ads supporting Oberstar and George Bush on the same billboard. Republican candidates in the 8th District were seen as sacrificial lambs and got little help or money from their national or state party. The entry of Grams into the race, a former U.S. senator and well-known figure, signaled the first name brand Republican to run against Oberstar. Grams — accustomed to close, hard-fought races for Congress in central Minnesota and for the U.S. Senate seat he held for one term, 1995 to 2001 — is waging a low-budget but aggressive campaign to unseat Oberstar. Grams said he decided to get into the race based on the need for economic development. Job growth in areas such as Rochester or Sioux Falls, S.D., have far outpaced the Northland, he said. “It stuck out like a sore thumb,” Grams said this week before a meeting in Mountain Iron with the All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Minnesota, which Oberstar also attended. “After 32 years, the Northland has lost 32,000 jobs,” Grams said. “Even Jim had to leave to find a job.” What thrust him into the campaign was people saying,“ ‘Where’s Jim?’ ” Grams said. CLAIMS DON’T CHECK OUT Last week, Grams mailed a campaign brochure that claimed Oberstar spent $18,000 to travel overseas during the last two years but never managed to stop in International Falls. It’s not true. A search of International Falls Daily Journal archives found reports of Oberstar visiting the city at least six times since January 2004, mostly to discuss economic development, highway and border issues. Oberstar’s office confirmed the six trips. But Grams said campaign ads that portray Oberstar as someone who’s not often in the district are accurate. “We did professional research on that, and that was the research that we got,” Grams said. “Those facts are very accurate. Four times we’ve sent letters to Jim saying that if this is inaccurate, tell us. In four months, he’s never provided anything that says we’re wrong.” He’s wrong, Oberstar campaign staffers told the News Tribune. They produced travel records showing the congressman was home 22 times for 84 days during a period Grams said he made it back only four times for nine days. “I never expected this from a former U.S. Senator, to stoop this low,” Oberstar said after a recent campaign event in Duluth. “It’s fairly common taking on a long-term incumbent to try to portray them as out of touch,” said Gary Percival, assistant professor of political science at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Percival said that as negative ads become more of a national strategy, campaigns that are light on their research may get burned. “The risk they take when they throw out these claims is that someone takes the time to fact-check them,” he said. Grams’ ads may have succeeded in moving the Oberstar campaign slightly off-message. Oberstar’s feel-good “Working for Minnesota” ads had focused entirely on the congressman’s effort to improve roads, help farmers and spur economic development in the region. This month, the campaign began running a TV ad featuring former Duluth Mayor Gary Doty. In the ad, Doty extols Oberstar’s support for the city, noting that Oberstar called him almost every week to see what Duluth needed. “Rod Grams never called me once,” Doty says to the camera. It is a blast at Grams during his term in the U.S. Senate, and the first Oberstar ad to mention Grams by name. A SHIFTING DISTRICT Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District has grown south and west in recent years to accommodate the state’s shifting population trends. The addition of counties such as Wadena, Hubbard and Isanti has brought more conservative voters and more impetus for Republicans to wage a serious campaign. Organized labor, a key element of DFL victories, has lost power after massive job cuts during the last 20 years in union taconite plants and paper mills. “The 8th District is getting more conservative,” Percival said. “If you look at the 2004 presidential election, Bush did pretty well up here. It was only a 4- or 5-point margin for Kerry.” (According to numbers from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Web site, the Kerry/Edwards ticket won the 8th District by 6.63 points.) But Grams may have picked the wrong year, Percival said, with Republicans nationwide fighting a groundswell of opposition to President Bush and the war in Iraq. “I’d be shocked if Jim Oberstar lost this seat. Especially this year — it’s not a good year to be a Republican challenging a popular incumbent,” Percival said. “But in the future, especially when Oberstar decides to retire, it’s not out of the question the district could go Republican.” Oberstar campaign staff members say Grams’ campaign tactics haven’t changed much since 2000, when Grams lost his Senate re-election bid to DFLer Mark Dayton. That year, Grams’ campaign manager — now his wife — was charged and later sentenced for violating state campaign laws. Christine Grams was accused of using a false e-mail identity to spread false rumors about DFL Senate candidate Mike Ciresi. She was given a 30-day stayed jail sentence and fined by an Anoka County judge in 2001 for the crime. Christine Grams used a special plea to accept the court’s punishment but not admit guilt. Rod Grams said he’s been well-received in campaigning across northern Minnesota. “It’s been great,” he said. “Even at the parade this summer in Chisholm, in Jim’s hometown, I had a warm reception. I had many people smile and say, ‘Rod, you have our support.’ When I’m out traveling in our (campaign) RV, I get 10 thumbs-up for every finger I get.”

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