Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann

Michele Marie Bachmann (born on April 6, 1956) is the Republican Representative of Minnesota's 6th congressional district. She is the third woman and first Republican woman to represent Minnesota in Congress. She defeated her Democratic challenger, Elwyn Tinklenberg, in the 2008 election in a race that had gained national attention following her controversial televised call for the media to investigate members of Congress for perceived anti-American bias, including Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The 6th congressional district includes the northern far suburbs of the Twin Cities along with St. Cloud. She won 50 percent of the votes in the 2006 election, defeating Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate Patty Wetterling and the Independence Party's John Binkowski. Bachmann served in the Minnesota State Senate from 2001 to 2007.

Michele grew up in Anoka, Minnesota, graduating from Anoka public high school in 1974. She graduated from Winona State University and later received her J.D. degree from discredited Oral Roberts University Coburn School of Law and a LL.M. degree in tax law from the College of William and Mary's Marshall-Wythe School of Law.

In 1993, Bachmann joined with other parents in Stillwater to open New Heights Charter School, the first K-12 charter school in the nation (City Academy High School in St. Paul, which began a year earlier as the first charter school in America, starts at an 8th grade level). In Minnesota, charter schools receive public tax money as tax-exempt nonprofits, and are overseen by a public school district. The oversight of New Heights soon encountered problems. Conflicts arose when a concerned group of parents and the school district questioned if money from public tax dollars was going towards inserting Christianity into the curriculum. Minnesota state law prohibits charter schools from using taxpayers' money for teaching religiously-motivated courses. One such parent, Denise Stephens, charges the board of directors of the school (which included Bachmann) with trying to set up classes on Creationism and advocating that "something called '12 Christian principles' be taught, very much like the 10 Commandments." According to Stephens, school officials also refused to allow the in-school screening of the Disney film Aladdin, feeling that it endorsed witchcraft and promoted paganism. With her directors, Bachmann appeared before the Stillwater School Board to address the parents' concerns. Feeling that the criticism was an unfounded personal attack, Bachmann stated, "Are you going to question my integrity?" As the critique continued, Bachmann and four members of her board resigned on the spot – reportedly viewing the whole controversy as stemming from anti-Christian discrimination.

Bachmann soon gained attention in conservative circles with her outspoken opposition to Minnesota's Profile of Learning and School-to-Work policies.

The Profile of Learning was a program of graduation standards in Minnesota. The criticism leveled at its first segment was that it was administered starting at the eighth grade but only required sixth grade competency in math and reading for high school graduation. The other segment of the Profile of Learning was criticized for focusing "on attitudes, values and beliefs of students, rather than on transmitting knowledge".

In 1998, Bachmann's opposition to the "Profile of Learning" caught the attention of the social conservative groups Maple River Education Coalition (now called EdWatch) and the Minnesota Family Institute (MFI). Throughout her political career, Bachmann’s positions have either been informed by or paralleled those of these groups. Both EdWatch and MFI have been strong supporters of Bachmann throughout her political career.

Bachmann's speeches for public education reform increased her visibility in her local district and within the Republican Party of Minnesota.

In 1999, under the advice of GOP regional leader Bill Pulkrabek, Bachmann put off her desire for a seat in the State Senate and ran for Stillwater school board. She lost the election, her single electoral defeat.

In 2000, Bachmann defeated Gary Laidig to secure the GOP endorsement for State Senator for Minnesota District 56. Both sides have different positions on how this was achieved. Bachmann, despite apparent opposition by state GOP leadership, went on to secure the Republican nomination. She then defeated Ted Thompson of the DFL and Lyno Sullivan of the Independence party in the General Election and took her seat in the Minnesota State Senate.

In 2002, after redistricting, Bachmann was pitted against a fellow incumbent State Senator, Jane Krentz of the DFL. She went on to defeat Krentz in the general election for the seat of the newly drawn District 52.

During her tenure as state senator, Bachmann appeared at and sometimes helped to organize public rallies at the state capitol that received significant media coverage and raised her political profile. She soon established herself as one of the most socially conservative members of the State Senate.

In October 2003, Bachmann was a featured speaker at a “Ten Commandments Rally” at the State Capitol. During the rally, about a dozen speakers call for a return to biblical and Christian principles and for posting the commandments in public schools and buildings. Bachmann was one of three Minnesota legislators who participated in the event, which was broadcast live on evangelical radio station KKMS.

On November 20, 2003, Bachmann and Representative Mary Holberg proposed a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. In 2004, Bachmann and a coalition of religious leaders announced plans for what was billed as a “Minnesota for Marriage” Rally.

On March 22, 2004, an estimated 3,000 people came to the State Capitol to attend the rally. It was the largest demonstration of the season at the statehouse and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty addressed the crowd, speaking in favor of Bachmann’s proposal. The 35 DFL members of the Senate who voted to keep Bachmann's proposal off the floor and instead return it to committee were immediately targeted by people from the rally. The demonstrators were given maps of the Capitol and urged to flood the senators' offices.

Sarah Janecek, co-editor of Politics in Minnesota and a Republican activist, claimed that Bachmann had single-handedly ground the Senate to a halt with her demands for a vote on the gay marriage amendment. The regular session of the 2004 Minnesota Legislature ended in a stalemate. Goals sought by both the Senate DFL majority and the House Republican majority, including a bonding bill for state construction projects and a balancing of the budget, were left undone. Bachmann’s efforts to get the same-sex marriage ban on a Minnesota referendum ballot in 2004 ultimately failed.

In November 2004, Republican Senate Minority Leader Dick Day appointed Bachmann as Assistant Minority Leader in charge of Policy for the Senate Republican Caucus.

Bachmann resurrected her proposal for a same-sex marriage ban amendment in March 2005. The earliest the same-sex marriage ban question could have gone on the ballot would have been in the 2006 election. When Bachmann was asked why the Legislature would be asked to vote on the question in 2005, she said: "We're bringing it up now because we hope to get a vote this year and get it over with." Senators Dean Johnson and John Hottinger claimed that Bachmann's reintroduction of the same-sex marriage ban was designed to solidify her conservative base as she bid for Republican Party endorsement for the Sixth District seat in Congress.

In April 2005, the State Senate rejected Bachmann’s proposed amendment again. That same month Bachmann appeared at another State Capitol rally for a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage. Though attendance was down from the previous year’s rally, speakers included Bachmann, Governor Tim Pawlenty and keynote speaker Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

In July 2005, the Republican Caucus removed Bachmann from her leadership position. Bachmann cited “philosophical differences” with Day as the reason for her ouster.

Mark Kennedy, the 6th District's congressman since 2001, announced in late 2005 that he would be running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mark Dayton of the DFL. Bachmann immediately entered the race for the house seat.

Bachmann received support from a fundraising visit in early July 2006 from Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. On July 21, 2006, Karl Rove visited Minnesota to raise funds for her election. In August, President George W. Bush came to town to keynote her congressional fundraiser, which raised about $500,000. Bachmann has also received fundraising support from Vice President Dick Cheney. None of these visits were made within her district, and most of her fundraising came from outside of her district.

The National Republican Congressional Committee put nearly $3 million into the race, for electronic and direct-mail ads against DFLer Wetterling. The amount was significantly more than the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent on behalf of Wetterling. However, Wetterling outraised Bachmann nearly 2 to 1 in individual contributions.

According to Bloomberg.com news, evangelical conservative leader James Dobson was “trying to engineer a win for Michele Bachmann” in the 2006 campaign. Dobson's Focus on the Family operatives planned to distribute 250,000 voter guides in Minnesota churches to reach social conservatives, according to Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council, a local affiliate of Dobson's group. In addition to Minnesota, Dobson’s group was also organizing turnout drives in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey and Montana.

During a debate televised by WCCO on October 28, 2006, news reporter Pat Kessler quoted a story that appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and asked Bachmann whether it was true that the church she belonged to taught that the Pope was the Anti-Christ. Bachmann stated that her “church does not believe that the Pope is the Anti-Christ, that's absolutely false... I'm very grateful that my pastor has come out and been very clear on this matter, and I think it's patently absurd and it's a false statement.” Bachmann is a member of a church that is part of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, whose doctrine teaches that the Roman Catholic papacy is the Anti-Christ identified in Scripture. She is an ardent practicer of witchraft, running a coven out in the country side.

CREW characterized Bachmann's talk as "a stump speech wrapped in a sermon". Fellow LWCC pastor Rev. Tim Burt denied this saying that she had been invited to speak about "her spiritual journey" and "There was no intent for this to be a political event." Asked about the IRS complaint, Bachmann's spokeswoman would only say "Living Word was so gracious to invite Michele to speak." The IRS complaint has not been resolved.

On November 7, 2006, Bachmann defeated opponents Patty Wetterling and John Binkowski, taking 50 percent of the vote to Wetterling's 42 percent and Binkowski's eight percent.

Bachmann took several positions in opposition to the Democratic majority's 100-Hour Plan. Along with fellow Minnesota Republican, John Kline, Bachmann voted against legislation reinstating the PAYGO rules, which related to the federal budget process. She voted against legislation that would allow Medicare to negotiate for lower pharmaceutical prices and against legislation to raise the federal minimum wage.

Bachmann called for a full hearing of President George W. Bush's plan to increase troop levels in Iraq in January 2007. She said “The American people deserve to hear and understand the merits of increasing U.S. troop presence in Iraq. Increased troop presence is justifiable if that measure would bring a swift conclusion to a difficult conflict.” She "hesitated to give a firm endorsement, calling it instead 'a good first step in explaining to the American people the course toward victory in Iraq.'" When pressed by reporters, she said she had not come to any conclusion on the matter, saying she wanted more information. “I don't believe we have all of the information in front of us. As a member of Congress that's why I want to go to Iraq as quickly as I can. I want to get the best information in front of me.” When a resolution opposing the surge was voted on in the House of Representatives on February 16, 2007, the resolution was approved 246 to 182, with Bachmann voting "No".

During the 2007 State of the Union Address, Bachmann was on the aisle in a very visible position in the Chamber and frequently greeted members going into the Chamber. During President Bush's exit from the Chamber, Bachmann clasped his shoulder for about 30 seconds while waiting for a photograph to be taken. Bush signed two autographs for Bachmann and, finally, leaned into Bachmann for a kiss. The encounter received significant press coverage the next day.

On March 14, 2007, Bachmann's press secretary, Heidi Frederickson, sent out an email from her government account urging supporters to "take just a moment of your time to write 50–100 words about why your support Michele," and that Bachmann "would appreciate seeing that in the paper." The e-mails ran afoul of House rules regarding the use of congressional resources for campaigning. The e-mails asked constituents to send letters to local newspapers that praised Bachmann's record. Bachmann later said her office reported the incident to the House Ethics Committee.

On July 11, 2007, Bachmann voted against a bill that would raise the maximum Pell grant for college students from $4,310 to $5,200 by 2011, lower interest rates over five years on subsidized student loans to 3.4 percent from 6.8 percent, and raise federal student loan limits to $30,500 from $7,500. Supporters of the bill said "it would allow more students to attend college." Bachmann said her opposition was because "it fails students and taxpayers with gimmicks, hidden costs and poorly targeted aid. It contains no serious reform of existing programs, and it favors the costly, government-run direct lending program over nonprofit and commercial lenders." The bill passed the House by a 273-149 vote. President Bush signed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 into law on Sept. 27, 2007, increasing the maximum Pell award from $4,310 to $5,400 by 2012.

In February 2008, Bachmann voted against an extension of the Protect America Act. Later in March, she submitted an op-ed to the Star Tribune arguing that the PAA ought to have been passed and faulting Democrats in the House of Representatives for its failure to do so. The extension had been proposed and overwhelmingly supported by Democrats.

According to a report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service , the use of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL's) would actually reduce the amount of mercury in the environment, and the danger of mercury exposure from CFL's is minimal.

On June 3, 2008, the President signed The Credit and Debit Card Receipt Clarification Act (H.R. 4008) into law. The goal of the bipartisan bill, introduced by Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Congressman Tim Mahoney (D-FL), is to bring an end to frivolous lawsuits aimed chiefly at small businesses.

On July 17, 2008, Bachmann introduced legislation to track sexual predators using a database that had been previously off-limits. The Tracking Registered And Convicted Known (TRACK) Sex Offenders Act would give law enforcement access to the National Directory of New Hires.

The National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) contains records of all new hires, wage reports and unemployment claims in the United States. The database, already used to track down people who fail to pay court-ordered child support, could give law enforcement information on thousands of noncompliant sex offenders.

During the summer of 2008 as national gas prices rose to over $4 a gallon, Bachmann positioned herself as a leading Congressional advocate for increased domestic oil and natural gas exploration in ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf.

She joined ten other House Republicans and members of the media on a Congressional Energy Tour to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO, and to Alaska to receive a first hand account of emerging renewable energy technologies and the prospects of increased domestic oil and natural gas production in the barren, yet energy rich regions of Alaska, including ANWR.

When the Democrats adjourned Congress for their month-long August recess without addressing the nation’s rising energy costs, Bachmann and House Republicans gathered on the House floor throughout the month to call on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold a vote on energy to combat sky-rocketing energy costs. They spoke with tourists to the U.S. Capitol who were given very unusual access to sit in the House Chamber, a practice typically forbidden by House protocol, as Republicans one at a time told of their plan for American Energy Independence while lambasting the Democrats for refusing to act.

H.R. 6715 – Fast Track Shale Act The Fast Track Shale Act would open up U.S. federal lands that contain oil shale, cut red tape binding Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regulations for commercial development of this shale, and set in place new research and development that will help foster a better process of extracting this form of oil.

H.R. 6716 – Promoting New American Energy Act of 2008 The Promoting New American Energy Act would accelerate tax depreciation to 3 years for investments in newer, cleaner, more efficient energy technologies to make solar, wind, geothermal, etc., a bigger part of our arsenal of energy options more quickly. The basis for the bill is that a diverse arsenal of solutions will decrease our dependence on foreign oil and curb our gas costs.

H.R. 6717 - Emergency Energy Cut the Red Tape Now Act of 2008 The Emergency Energy Now Act would give the Secretary of Energy the ability to open the ANWR, oil shale reserves, and the Outer Continental Shelf, and streamline the refinery process. And, if the price of oil exceeds $100 a barrel, the Secretary would be required to waive leasing and permitting regulations to open up these energy stores.

H.R. 6953 – The GREEN Act The GREEN Act would authorize the President to review and approve oil and gas exploration, development, and production projects under existing Federal oil and gas leases, both onshore and offshore, and to limit administrative and judicial proceedings with respect to such projects, upon finding that such a project complies with all applicable Federal laws, and for other purposes.

She also filed a discharge petition to release H.R. 6107, the American Energy Independence and Price Reduction Act, for legislative action. With 181 cosponsors, this bipartisan bill which opens the Costal Plain of ANWR and mandates that the Secretary of Interior issue leases no later than 25 months from the date of enactment, deserves consideration by the U.S. House. It would also limit the footprint of development by including environmental regulations and restrictions for drilling. Once signed by a majority of House Members, 218, a discharge petition begins the process of forcing a bill out of a committee for action by the full House.

Bachmann opposed both versions of the “Wall Street” Bailout bill for America’s struggling financial sector.

She voted against the first proposed $700 billion dollar bailout of financial institutions, which failed to pass 205-228, and instead advocated a plan that would suspend mark-to-market accounting rules that force companies to take losses on artificially devalued assets on an artificial timetable to give investors more confidence. She also advocated for breaking up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, suspending the capital gains tax, and barring executives from excessive compensation or golden parachutes.

Soon after, the U.S. Senate passed a financial bailout package that was later passed in the House. Bachmann once again reiterated her displeasure to what she saw as a “short-sighted” bill that didn’t address the root of the problem – the credit crunch.

Bachmann also opposed the “Big Three” bailout for the American auto industry. The “Big Three” refers to Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors, who approached Congress to ask for roughly $15-billion to keep them operational into 2009. Hesitant to see more taxpayer money go towards what she saw as another under performing industry, Bachmann served up heavy criticism of the bill over fear that this sum of money was only the beginning and that the taxpayer would be hit up for billions more down the road unless the troubled companies actually changed their failing business model. Bachmann supported an alternative to help the American automakers stabilize their industry while they executed long-term restructuring and reorganization. According to Bachmann, her alternative would set hard benchmarks for reducing their debt and renegotiating money-pit deals with Big Labor and would set up the financial assistance as interim insurance instead of a taxpayer-financed bailout. Differing from the proposal that the majority brought before Congress, which she felt nationalized the auto industry, she believed her alternative would maintain an outlet for private investment in the American automakers.

Despite fallout from controversial statements that she had made, Bachmann defeated her Democratic opponent Elwyn Tinklenberg in the 2008 election.

At the beginning of the campaign, Bachmann was favored to win because of her incumbency and the general Republican tilt of the district. In October, however, her television appearance on Hardball with Chris Matthews, in which she questioned then presidential candidate Barack Obama's patriotism, and called for an investigation into the patriotism of Democratic members of Congress, reinvigorated Tinklenberg's campaign and tightened the race.

Bachmann has been a longtime opponent of legal abortion. In 2006, Bachmann stated that she would vote to permit abortion in cases of rape and incest. In the Senate, Bachmann introduced a bill proposing a constitutional amendment restricting state funds for abortion. The bill died in committee.

Bachmann is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online poker. In 2008, she opposed H.R. 5767, the Payment Systems Protection Act (a bill that sought to place a moratorium on enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act while the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve defined "unlawful Internet gambling").

In a 2001 article, Bachmann wrote extensively of her belief that the current governments of the United States and Minnesota had plans to end the American "free market economy" and impose a centralized, state-controlled economy in its place. She wrote that education laws passed by Congress in 2001, including "School To Work" and "Goals 2000", created a new national school curriculum that embraced "a socialist, globalist worldview; loyalty to all government and not America." In 2003, Bachmann said that the "Tax Free Zones" economic initiatives of Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty were based on the Marxist principle of "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." She also said that the administration was attempting to govern and run centrally-planned economies through an organization called the Minnesota Economic Leadership Team (MELT), an advisory board on economic and workforce policy chaired by Pawlenty.

Prior to her election to the State Senate and again in 2005, Bachmann signed a “no new taxes” pledge sponsored by the Taxpayers League of Minnesota. As Senator, Bachmann introduced two bills that would have severely limited state taxation. In 2003 she proposed amending the Minnesota state constitution to adopt the “Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights” (TABOR). In 2006, Bachmann proposed repealing Minnesota's alternative minimum tax. Bachmann refused opportunities to have TABOR heard when these were offered to her by Tax committee chair, Larry Pogemiller. Repeal of the alternative minimum tax died in committee.

In 2005, Bachmann opposed Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s proposal for a state surcharge of 75 cents per pack on the wholesale cost of cigarettes. Bachmann said that she opposed the state surcharge “100 percent—it's a tax increase.” She later came under fire from the Taxpayers' League for reversing her position and voting in favor of the cigarette surcharge.

On September 26, 2008, Bachmann was criticized by the Congressional Black Caucus for reading an article that blamed rule changes in the Community Reinvestment Act for the economic crisis of 2008 on the House floor.

However, scholars have echoed Bachmann's claim that the federal government required banks to lend to lower-income households and in poor neighborhoods to individuals who could not fulfill their long term mortgage obligations.

Later in the same show Chris Matthews got reactions from Katrina Vanden Heuvel, co-editor of The Nation, and Pat Buchanan. Vanden Heuvel said "I think what we just heard was a Congresswoman channeling Joe McCarthy... There is an... extremism unleashed in this nation which you just heard on this program, which could lead to violence, and hatred, and toxicity, and against the backdrop of the great depression we're living through...could lead, and I don't use this word lightly, to a kind of American fascism which is against the great values of this nation and which people like that are fomenting." "I think you have a socialist Bernie Sanders who is a left-wing individual he’s not anti-American. You have liberals who are not anti-American." When asked if he thought that there were any anti-American members of Congress he said "No, I don’t know of any." Buchanan contrasted these people with Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, and Ayers, whom he compared to a Ku Klux Klan church bomber.

Bachmann's comments also had an impact on her re-election campaign. In the 24 hours after her appearance on Hardball, her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg, received $488,127.30 in new donations and a campaign urging Congress to officially censure Bachmann was launched with over 35,000 signatures in the first 24 hours. In less than 72 hours, Tinklenberg received $740,000 in donations and between Friday night and Monday afternoon he had received more than $810,000. Tinklenberg said that he hears "in that kind of a call echoes of the House Un-American Activities Committee." Minnesota Democratic Party Chairman Brian Melendez said "The last politician who used that term that carelessly was Joe McCarthy, and Michele Bachmann seems anxious to step into his shoes." He also stated "She said what she said and her meaning could not be more clear." Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Doug Thornell said "We’re going up on TV this week and next week and we’re spending over a million dollars ." In response to her comments, Aubrey Immelman, a Republican who lost to Bachmann in the primary, said he would begin a write-in campaign. On October 22, 2008, it was reported that the National Republican Congressional Committee canceled several hundred thousand dollars worth of television advertising time slated for Bachmann's campaign.

Recognized as the #47 "Most Loathsome Person in America, 2008" by The Beast (newspaper).

Bachmann's husband, Marcus Bachmann, operates a Christian counseling center in the St. Croix valley area. He has a master's degree in counseling from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and a doctorate in clinical psychology from a distance-learning school, Union Institute & University in Cincinnati.

To the top

St. Cloud, Minnesota

St. Cloud (IPA: /ˌseɪntˈklaʊd/) is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 63,702 at the 2000 census, making it the third largest city in the state outside the Twin Cities metropolitan area. It is the county seat of Stearns County. It is named after the city of Saint-Cloud, France (near Paris), which was named for the 6th-century French monk Clodoald.

Though mostly in Stearns County, the city also extends into Benton County and Sherburne County. One of the fastest-growing cities in the state, St. Cloud is surrounded by a small metropolitan area, with Waite Park, Sauk Rapids, Sartell, St. Joseph and St. Augusta directly bordering the city, and Foley, Kimball, Clearwater, Clear Lake, Rockville, and Cold Spring nearby. With 167,392 residents at the 2000 census, the St. Cloud metropolitan area ranks behind only Minneapolis-St.Paul and Duluth-Superior in population.

St. Cloud is located 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the "Twin Cities" of Minneapolis-St. Paul along Interstate 94, U.S. Route 10, and Minnesota State Highway 23. The St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is made up of Stearns and Benton Counties. The city was included in a newly defined Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud Combined Statistical Area (CSA) in 2000, even though commuting criteria did not require mandatory inclusion. St. Cloud has never been part of the 13-county Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington-WI "Metropolitan Statistical Area," a more commonly used definition of large urban areas. The boundary between the two government-designated areas is unclear because Sherburne County is considered part of the Twin Cities metropolitan area yet contains part of the city of St. Cloud.

The Mississippi River flows through the city, breaking into a series of channels just downstream from the St. Cloud dam, a city-owned structure featuring hydroelectric generators that can produce up to 9 megawatts of electricity. The Mississippi's 30 "Beaver Islands" lie at the southern end of the city.

Minnesota was organized as a territory in 1849. The St. Cloud area had been opened to legal ownership by non-Native Americans following treaty negotiations with the Winnebago tribe in 1851 and 1852.

St. Cloud was a waystation on the Middle and Woods branches of the Red River Trails between the Canadian border at Pembina and St. Paul. The cart trains often consisted of hundreds of ox carts; the carters would camp west of the city and cross the Mississippi in St. Cloud or in Sauk Rapids, just to the north.

The City of St. Cloud was incorporated in 1856. It developed from three distinct settlements, known as Upper Town, Middle Town, and Lower Town, that were established beginning in 1853. The remnants of the deep ravines that separated the three are still visible today. Middle Town was settled primarily by Catholic German-Americans, who were attracted to the region by Father Francis Xavier Pierz. Lower Town was founded by settlers from New England and the mid-Atlantic states. Upper Town, or Arcadia, was plotted by General Sylvanus Lowry, a slave-holding Southerner from Kentucky. Lowry was St. Cloud's first mayor, serving only one year.

Lowry battled Abolitionist newspaper editor Jane Grey Swisshelm. At one point Swisshelm's newspaper office was broken into and the press thrown into the Mississippi. St. Cloud's experience with slavery was brief. Nearly all of the Southerners left the St. Cloud area when the Civil War broke out. Lowry died soon after in 1865.

Stephen Miller served a two-year term as Minnesota governor beginning in 1864, the only citizen of St. Cloud to hold the office. Miller was a "Pennsylvania German businessman", lawyer, writer, active abolitionist, and personal friend of Minnesota Governor Ramsey. He was on the state's Republican electoral ticket with Abraham Lincoln in 1860. With no previous military experience, Miller enlisted as a private in the Minnesota's First Regiment of Volunteers, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel and eventually "Brigadier General of Volunteers". After fighting at Bull Run and in eight other battles, Miller became ill and later transferred to another unit, missing the regiment's famous charge at Gettysburg. His son Wesley, who had enlisted with his father, was killed in the battle. While in military service, Miller also served as commander of Mankato's Camp Lincoln, where 38 Dakota men were executed for their role in the Dakota War of 1862.

Although he never attended college, as governor Miller supported higher education, including the state "Normal" schools, one of which later became St. Cloud State University. In his final legislative address as governor, he made a strong but unsuccessful argument for a black suffrage amendment to the state constitution.

St. Cloud was named after Saint-Cloud, the Paris suburb, by John Wilson, a Maine native with French Huguenot ancestry. Wilson later said that his decision came from his interest in Napoleon, whose favorite palace was located in Saint-Cloud.

In 1917, Samuel C. Pandolfo started the Pan Motor Company in St. Cloud. Pandolfo claimed that St. Cloud would become the new Detroit for all the Pan-Cars produced. He was later convicted and imprisoned for attempting to defraud investors.

Courtroom scenes in the Disney Film The Mighty Ducks were filmed in St. Cloud, and a few cut scenes were filmed at the Municipal Athletic Center (MAC).

St. Cloud is a regional transportation hub within Minnesota. Major roadways including Interstate Highway 94, U.S. Highway 10, and Minnesota State Highways 15 and 23 pass through the city.

Bus service within the city and to neighboring Sartell, Sauk Rapids, and Waite Park is offered through St. Cloud Metro Bus which was recognized in 2007 as the best transit system of its size in North America. The Metro Bus Transit Center in the downtown area is also shared with Greyhound Lines and Jefferson Lines. Several rail lines run through the city as well, which is a stop on Amtrak's Empire Builder line. A commuter rail line running from the Twin Cities known as the Northstar Corridor will reach the city in a second phase.

St. Cloud is also home to St. Cloud Regional Airport, which makes daily connecting flights to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on Northwest Airlines.

The city of St. Cloud is home to the St. Cloud Area School District, which serves St. Cloud, St. Augusta, Clearwater, Waite Park, St. Joseph, Haven Township and of course St. Cloud itself. The District has 8 elementary schools, a new K-8 in St. Joseph, and two major public high schools, St. Cloud Technical High School and St. Cloud Apollo High School. St. Cloud also has a major private high school, Cathedral High School. Both public high schools offer a broad selection of Advanced Placement courses, and rank high in the state in number of AP tests taken and of test takers. St. Cloud Tech is the older of the two, opening in 1917, and is located just west of downtown on the city's south side. Apollo opened in 1970 and serves the expanding north side of the city. Other high schools and secondary schools that serve the city of St. Cloud include St. Robert Bellarmine's Academy, St. Cloud Christian School, Immaculate Conception Academy, and St. Cloud Alternative Learning Center. The nearby cities of Sauk Rapids and Sartell also each have their own school districts and high schools, bringing the number of public high schools in the metropolitan area to four.

The St. Cloud area is home to a number of several higher education facilities, including the second-largest university in the state, St. Cloud State University. As of 2007, 17,892 students attend SCSU. Other post-secondary institutions and campuses in St. Cloud proper include St. Cloud Technical College (SCTC), Rasmussen College, Globe University/Minnesota School of Business, and the College of St. Scholastica. Additionally, the College of St. Benedict (a private Catholic Liberal Arts college) is located in nearby St. Joseph while its sister school, St. John's University, is in nearby Collegeville.

St. Cloud is in Minnesota's 6th congressional district, currently represented by Michele Bachmann (R). St. Cloud is partly in Minnesota House of Representatives district 15A, currently represented by Steve Gottwalt (R), and partly in 15B, currently represented by Larry Haws (DFL). State Senate District 15 is represented by Senate Assistant Majority Leader Tarryl Clark (DFL).

In the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama and Joe Biden won 54% of the vote in the city of St. Cloud, and John McCain and Sarah Palin 46%.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 30.9 square miles (80.1 km²), of which 30.2 (78.1 km²) are land and 0.8 (2.0 km²) (2.62%) water.

The area of former Saint Cloud Township in Stearns County, now divided between the cities of Saint Cloud and Waite Park, is located in Township 124 North of the Arkansas Base Line and Range 28 West of the 5th Principal Meridian.

St. Cloud lies in the cool summer-type Humid continental climate zone (Köppen Dfb), with warm, humid summers and very cold winters with heavy snowfall. January is the coldest month, with an average high temperature of 19°F (-7°C) and an average low temperature of -1°F (-18°C). July is the warmest month, with an average high of 82°F (28°C) and an average low of 58°F (14°C).

St. Cloud is the principal city of the St. Cloud Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area that covers Benton and Stearns counties and had a combined population of 167,392 at the 2000 census.

As of the census of 2000, there were 59,108 people, 22,652 households, and 12,254 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,959.9 people per square mile (756.7/km²). There were 23,249 housing units at an average density of 770.9/sq mi (297.6/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 91.75% White, 2.37% African American, 0.72% Native American, 3.11% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.58% from other races, and 1.40% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.33% of the population.

There were 17 households out of which 27.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.4% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.9% were non-families. 30.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the city the population was spread out with 20.8% under the age of 18, 24.1% from 18 to 24, 27.6% from 25 to 44, 17.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 28 years. For every 101 females there were 101.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $37,346, and the median income for a family was $50,460. Males had a median income of $33,670 versus $23,759 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,769. About 5.0% of families and 13.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.0% of those under age 18 and 9.9% of those age 65 or over.

The main newspaper is the St. Cloud Times. The St. Cloud Diocese also publishes the St. Cloud Visitor, which serves the regional Catholic community.

Television station KPXM (channel 41), an "ion" network affiliate, is licensed to the city, though the signal also reaches the Twin Cities region. Low-power stations are: WCMN (channel 13) which is not always on the air, K19BG (channel 19) a TBN affiliate, and KTCJ (channel 30) a digital-only Christian. Additional, St. Cloud State University students operate cable-only UTVS (channel 21), which includes local news.

Minnesota Public Radio began in nearby Collegeville at St. John's University.

To the top

Minnesota's 6th congressional district election, 2006

The Minnesota's 6th congressional district election, 2006 was an election for the United States House of Representatives. The three major party candidates were Michele Bachmann (R), Patty Wetterling (D), and John Binkowski (I).

Patty Wetterling, candidate of the DFL party, is a U.S. advocate of children's safety, particularly focused on protecting children from abduction and abuse. Her advocacy began after her son was abducted in 1989. An extensive search was carried out, but Jacob and the abductor have not yet been found.

Four months after the abduction, the Wetterlings founded the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to education about child safety. Wetterling went on to work on a national level, educating law enforcement officials about child safety throughout the country. She was also instrumental in passing the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, Megan's Law, and the Amber Alert System. Because of her expertise in this area, national media attention was brought to the race following the resignation of Congressman Mark Foley.

Michele Bachmann, of the Republican Party of Minnesota, graduated from Anoka High School in 1974. She then attended Winona State College (now Winona State University), from which she graduated in 1978 with a degree in political science and English.

It was there she met her future husband, Marcus Bachmann; they began dating in 1976 while working together on Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign. She earned a Juris Doctor at Coburn School of Law in 1986, and a post-doctorate degree from the College of William and Mary Law School in Virginia in 1988. From 1988 to 1993, Bachmann was a U.S. Treasury Department attorney in St. Paul, Minnesota representing the IRS against people who underpaid or didn't pay their taxes.

John Binkowski (Independence Party of Minnesota), a Polish-American, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1979. He studied Economics and Spanish while attending the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He left college to work as a carpenter for Buss Construction. He became a project superintendent in Madison, Wisconsin and later served as president of a small construction and real estate firm in Milwaukee. Binkowski later returned to Minnesota to work as a project coordinator for Johnson Controls and to work towards a degree in Construction Management at the University of Wisconsin, Stout. Binkowski's main issue of concern was the federal deficit. He has been called a fiscal hawk and calls for means testing for Social Security and balancing the federal budget.

The election was considered highly competitive such that in early October CQPolitics.com rated it as "No Clear Favorite".

Bachmann won the seat with 50% of the votes. Wetterling received 42% of the vote and Binkowski received 8%.

To the top

Minnesota

Minnesota ( /mɪnɨˈsoʊtə/ (help·info)) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state on May 11, 1858. Known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", the state's name is the Dakota word for "water". Those waters, together with forests, parks, and wilderness areas, offer residents and tourists a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.

Nearly sixty percent of Minnesota's residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area known as the Twin Cities, the center of transportation, business, and industry, and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; eastern deciduous forests, also heavily farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods. The large majority of residents are of Nordic or German descent, but ethnic diversity has increased in recent decades. Substantial influxes of African, Asian, and Latin American immigrants have joined the descendants of European immigrants and of the original Native American inhabitants.

The state is known for its moderate to liberal politics and social policies, its civic involvement, and high voter turnout. It ranks among the healthiest states, and has one of the most highly educated and literate populations.

The word Minnesota comes from the Dakota language name for the Minnesota River: Mnisota. The root Mni (also spelled mini or minne) means, "water". Mnisota can be translated as sky-tinted water or somewhat clouded water. Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mnisota. Many locations in the state have similar names, such as Minnehaha Falls ("waterfall"), Minneiska ("white water"), Minnetonka ("big water"), Minnetrista ("crooked water"), and Minneapolis, which is a combination of mni and polis, the Greek word for "city".

Minnesota is the northernmost state apart from Alaska; its isolated Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods is the only part of the 48 contiguous states lying north of the 49th Parallel. It forms part of the U.S. region known as the Upper Midwest. The state shares a Lake Superior water border with Michigan and Wisconsin on the northeast; the remainder of the eastern border is with Wisconsin. Iowa is to the south, North Dakota and South Dakota to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba to the north. With 87,014 square miles (225,365 km²), or approximately 2.25% of the United States, Minnesota is the twelfth largest state.

Minnesota contains some of the oldest rocks found on earth, gneisses some 3.6 billion years old, or 80% as old as the planet. About 2.7 billion years ago, basaltic lava poured out of cracks in the floor of the primordial ocean; the remains of this volcanic rock formed the Canadian Shield in northeast Minnesota. The roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of Precambrian seas formed the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. Following a period of volcanism 1.1 billion years ago, Minnesota's geological activity has been more subdued, with no volcanism or mountain formation, but with repeated incursions of the sea which left behind multiple strata of sedimentary rock.

In more recent times, massive ice sheets at least one kilometer thick ravaged the landscape of the state and sculpted its current terrain. The Wisconsin glaciation left 12,000 years ago. These glaciers covered all of Minnesota except the far southeast, an area characterized by steep hills and streams that cut into the bedrock. This area is known as the Driftless Zone for its absence of glacial drift. Much of the remainder of the state outside of the northeast has 50 feet (15 m) or more of glacial till left behind as the last glaciers retreated. 13,000 years ago gigantic Lake Agassiz formed in the northwest; the lake's outflow, the glacial River Warren, carved the valley of the Minnesota River, and its bottom created the fertile lands of the Red River valley. Minnesota is geologically quiet today; it experiences earthquakes infrequently, and most of them are minor.

The state's high point is Eagle Mountain at 2,301 feet (701 m), which is only 13 miles (20.9 km) away from the low of 602 feet (183 m) at the shore of Lake Superior. Not withstanding dramatic local differences in elevation, much of the state is a gently rolling peneplain.

Two continental divides meet in the northeastern part of Minnesota in rural Hibbing, forming a triple watershed. Precipitation can follow the Mississippi River south to the Gulf of Mexico, the St. Lawrence Seaway east to the Atlantic Ocean, or the Hudson Bay watershed to the Arctic Ocean.

The state's nickname, The Land of 10,000 Lakes, is no exaggeration; there are 11,842 lakes over 10 acres (.04 km²) in size. The Minnesota portion of Lake Superior is the largest at 962,700 acres (3,896 km²) and deepest (at 1,290 ft (390 m)) body of water in the state. Minnesota has 6,564 natural rivers and streams that cumulatively flow for 69,000 miles (111,000 km). The Mississippi River begins its journey from its headwaters at Lake Itasca and crosses the Iowa border 680 miles (1,094 km) downstream. It is joined by the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling, by the St. Croix River near Hastings, by the Chippewa River at Wabasha, and by many smaller streams. The Red River, in the bed of glacial Lake Agassiz, drains the northwest part of the state northward toward Canada's Hudson Bay. Approximately 10.6 million acres (42,900 km²) of wetlands are contained within Minnesota's borders, the most of any state except Alaska.

Minnesota has four ecological provinces: Prairie Parkland in the southwestern and western parts of the state, the Eastern Broadleaf Forest (Big Woods) in the southeast, extending in a narrowing strip to the northwestern part of the state, where it transitions into Tallgrass Aspen Parklands, and the northern Laurentian Mixed Forest, a transitional forest between the northern boreal forest and broadleaf forests to the south. These northern forests are a vast wilderness of pine and spruce trees mixed with patchy stands of birch and poplar. Much of Minnesota's northern forest has been logged, leaving only a few patches of old growth forest today in areas such as in the Chippewa National Forest and the Superior National Forest where the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness has some 400,000 acres (1,600 km²) of unlogged land. Although logging continues, regrowth keeps about one third of the state forested. Nearly all of Minnesota's prairies and oak savannas have been destroyed or fragmented because of farming, grazing, logging, and suburban development.

While loss of habitat has affected native animals such as the pine marten, elk, and bison, others like whitetail deer and bobcat thrive. The state has the nation's largest population of timber wolves outside Alaska, and supports healthy populations of black bear and moose. Located on the Mississippi Flyway, Minnesota hosts migratory waterfowl such as geese and ducks, and game birds such as grouse, pheasants, and turkeys. It is home to birds of prey including the bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, and snowy owl. The lakes teem with sport fish such as walleye, bass, muskellunge, and northern pike, and streams in the southeast are populated by brook, brown, and rainbow trout.

Minnesota endures temperature extremes characteristic of its continental climate; with cold winters and hot summers. The record high and low span is 174 degrees (from -60 to 114 degrees) Fahrenheit (span of 96C°; from -51°C to 45°C). Meteorological events include rain, snow, blizzards, thunderstorms, hail, derechos, tornadoes, and high-velocity straight-line winds. The growing season varies from 90 days per year in the Iron Range to 160 days in southeast Minnesota near the Mississippi River, and mean average temperatures range from 36 °F (2 °C) to 49 °F (9 °C). Average summer dew points range from about 58 °F (14.4 °C) in the south to about 48 °F (8.9 °C) in the north. Depending on location, average annual precipitation ranges from 19 in (48.3 cm) to 35 in (88.9 cm), and droughts occur every 10 to 50 years.

Minnesota's first state park, Itasca State Park, was established in 1891, and is the source of the Mississippi River. Today Minnesota has 72 state parks and recreation areas, 58 state forests covering about four million acres (16,000 km²), and numerous state wildlife preserves, all managed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. There are 5.5 million acres (22,000 km²) in the Chippewa and Superior National Forests. The Superior National Forest in the northeast contains the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which encompasses over a million acres (4,000 km²) and a thousand lakes. To its west is Voyageurs National Park. The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA), is a 72 miles (116 km) long corridor along the Mississippi River through the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area connecting a variety of sites of historic, cultural, and geologic interest.

Before European settlement, Minnesota was populated by the Anishinaabe, the Dakota, and other Native Americans. The first Europeans were French fur traders that arrived in the 1600s. Late that century, Ojibwe Indians migrated westward to Minnesota, causing tensions with the Sioux. Explorers such as Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, Father Louis Hennepin, Jonathan Carver, Henry Schoolcraft, and Joseph Nicollet, among others, mapped out the state.

The portion of the state east of the Mississippi River became a part of the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War, when the Second Treaty of Paris was signed. Land west of the Mississippi River was acquired with the Louisiana Purchase, although a portion of the Red River Valley was disputed until the Treaty of 1818. In 1805, Zebulon Pike bargained with Native Americans to acquire land at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. The construction of Fort Snelling followed between 1819 and 1825. Its soldiers built a grist mill and a sawmill at Saint Anthony Falls, the first of the water-powered industries around which the city of Minneapolis later grew. Meanwhile, squatters, government officials, and tourists had settled near the fort. In 1839, the Army forced them to move downriver, and they settled in the area that became St. Paul. Minnesota Territory was formed on March 3, 1849. Thousands of people had come to build farms and cut timber, and Minnesota became the 32nd U.S. state on May 11, 1858.

Treaties between whites and the Dakota and Ojibwe gradually forced the natives off their lands and on to smaller reservations. As conditions deteriorated for the Dakota, tensions rose, leading to the Dakota War of 1862. The result of the six-week war was the execution of 38 Dakota—the largest mass execution in United States history — and the exile of most of the rest of the Dakota to the Crow Creek Reservation in Nebraska.

Logging and farming were mainstays of Minnesota's early economy. The sawmills at Saint Anthony Falls, and logging centers like Marine on St. Croix, Stillwater, and Winona, processed high volumes of lumber. These cities were situated on rivers that were ideal for transportation. Later, Saint Anthony Falls was tapped to provide power for flour mills. Innovations by Minneapolis millers led to the production of Minnesota "patent" flour, which commanded almost double the price of "bakers" or "clear" flour, which it replaced. By 1900, Minnesota mills, led by Pillsbury and the Washburn-Crosby Company (a forerunner of General Mills), were grinding 14.1% of the nation's grain.

The state's iron-mining industry was established with the discovery of iron in the Vermilion Range and the Mesabi Range in the 1880s, and in the Cuyuna Range in the early 1900s. The ore was shipped by rail to Duluth and Two Harbors, then loaded onto ships and transported eastward over the Great Lakes.

Industrial development and the rise of manufacturing caused the population to shift gradually from rural areas to cities during the early 1900s. Nevertheless, farming remained prevalent. Minnesota's economy was hard-hit by the Great Depression, resulting in lower prices for farmers, layoffs among iron miners, and labor unrest. Compounding the adversity, western Minnesota and the Dakotas were hit by drought from 1931 to 1935. New Deal programs provided some economic turnaround. The Civilian Conservation Corps and other programs around the state established some jobs for Indians on their reservations, and the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 provided the tribes with a mechanism of self-government. This provided natives a greater voice within the state, and promoted more respect for tribal customs because religious ceremonies and native languages were no longer suppressed.

After World War II, industrial development quickened. New technology increased farm productivity through automation of feedlots for hogs and cattle, machine milking at dairy farms, and raising chickens in large buildings. Planting became more specialized with hybridization of corn and wheat, and the use of farm machinery such as tractors and combines became the norm. University of Minnesota professor Norman Borlaug contributed to these developments as part of the Green Revolution. Suburban development accelerated due to increased postwar housing demand and convenient transportation. Increased mobility, in turn, enabled more specialized jobs.

Minnesota became a center of technology after the war. Engineering Research Associates was formed in 1946 to develop computers for the United States Navy. It later merged with Remington Rand, and then became Sperry Rand. William Norris left Sperry in 1957 to form Control Data Corporation (CDC). Cray Research was formed when Seymour Cray left CDC to form his own company. Medical device maker Medtronic also started business in the Twin Cities in 1949.

Saint Paul, located in east-central Minnesota along the banks of the Mississippi River, has been Minnesota's capital city since 1849, first as capital of the Territory of Minnesota, and then as state capital since 1858.

Saint Paul is adjacent to Minnesota's most populous city, Minneapolis; they and their suburbs are known collectively as the Twin Cities metropolitan area, the thirteenth largest metropolitan area in the United States and home to about 60% of the state's population (April 2005). The remainder of the state is known as "Greater Minnesota" or "Outstate Minnesota".

Minneapolis and Saint Paul are the only cities in Minnesota with over 100,000 inhabitants. The state also has fifteen cities with populations above 50,000 but below 100,000 (based on 2005 estimates). In descending order of size they are Rochester, Duluth, Bloomington, Plymouth, Brooklyn Park, Eagan, Coon Rapids, St. Cloud, Burnsville, Eden Prairie, Maple Grove, Woodbury, Blaine, Lakeville, and Minnetonka. Of these listed, only Rochester, Duluth, and St. Cloud are outside the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Minnesota's population continues to grow, primarily in the urban centers. The populations of metropolitan Sherburne and Scott Counties doubled between 1980 and 2000, while 40 of the state's 87 counties lost residents over the same decades.

From fewer than 6,100 people in 1850, Minnesota's population grew to over 1.75 million by 1900. Each of the next six decades saw a 15% rise in population, reaching 3.41 million in 1960. Growth then slowed, rising 11% to 3.8 million in 1970, and an average of 9% over the next three decades to 4.91 million in the 2000 census. As of July 1, 2007, the state's population was estimated at 5,197,621 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The rate of population change, and age and gender distributions, approximate the national average. Minnesota's growing minority groups, however, still form a significantly smaller proportion of the population than in the nation as a whole. The center of population of Minnesota is located in Hennepin County, in the city of Rogers.

Over 75% of Minnesota's residents are of Western European descent, with the largest reported ancestries being German (38%), Norwegian (17%), Irish (12%), and Swedish (10%). As of 2006, 6.6% of residents were foreign-born, compared to 12.5% for the nation. The state has had the reputation of being relatively homogeneous, but that is changing. The Hispanic population of Minnesota is increasing rapidly, and recent immigrants have come from all over the world, including Hmong, Somalis, Vietnamese, South Asians, and emigrants from the former Soviet bloc.

Although Christianity is dominant, there is a long history of non-Christian faith. Ashkenazi Jewish pioneers set up Saint Paul's first synagogue in 1856, and there are now appreciable numbers of adherents to Islam, Buddhism, and other traditions. The majority of Minnesotans are Protestants, though Roman Catholics make up the largest single Christian denomination. A 2008 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showed that 32% of Minnesotans were affiliated with Protestant traditions, 21% with Evangelical Protestants, 28% with Roman Catholic, 1% each with Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and Black Protestant traditions, smaller amounts for other faiths, and 13% unaffiliated. This is broadly consistent with the results of the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey, which also gives detail on percentages of many individual denominations.

Once primarily a producer of raw materials, Minnesota's economy has transformed in the last 200 years to emphasize finished products and services. Perhaps the most significant characteristic of the economy is its diversity; the relative outputs of its business sectors closely match the United States as a whole. The economy of Minnesota had a gross domestic product of $234 billion in 2005. Thirty-six of the United States' top 1,000 publicly traded companies (by revenue in 2006) are headquartered in Minnesota, including Target, UnitedHealth Group, 3M, Medtronic, General Mills, U.S. Bancorp, and Best Buy. The largest privately owned U.S. company, Cargill, is headquartered in Minnetonka. Minnesota's state budget is currently facing a $935 million deficit.

The per capita income in 2005 was $37,290, the tenth-highest in the nation. The three-year median household income from 2002 to 2004 was $55,914, ranking fifth in the U.S. and first among the 36 states not on the Atlantic coast. White families earned more income than the national average but among the population under age 18, more than 20% of Asians and Hispanics, more than 40% of African Americans and more than 40% of Native American girls in Minnesota lived in poverty.

Minnesota's earliest industries were fur trading and agriculture; the city of Minneapolis grew around the flour mills powered by St. Anthony Falls. Although less than 1% of the population is employed in the agricultural sector, it remains a major part of the state's economy, ranking 6th in the nation in the value of products sold. The state is the U.S.'s largest producer of sugar beets, sweet corn, and green peas for processing, and farm-raised turkeys. Forestry remains strong, including logging, pulpwood processing and paper production, and forest products manufacturing. Minnesota was famous for its soft-ore mines, which produced a significant portion of the world's iron ore for over a century. Although the high-grade ore is now depleted, taconite mining continues, using processes developed locally to save the industry. In 2004, the state produced 75% of the country's usable iron ore. The mining boom created the port of Duluth which continues to be important for shipping ore, coal, and agricultural products. The manufacturing sector now includes technology and biomedical firms in addition to the older food processors and heavy industry. The nation's first indoor shopping mall was Edina's Southdale Center and its largest is Bloomington's Mall of America.

Minnesota is one of 42 U.S. states with its own lottery; its games include Powerball, Hot Lotto (both multi-state), and Gopher 5.

The state produces ethanol fuel and is the first to mandate its use, a 10% mix (E10) since 1997, and a 20% mix (E20) in 2013. There are more than 310 service stations supplying E85 fuel. A 2% biodiesel blend has been required in diesel fuel since 2005. As of December 2006 the state was the country's fourth-largest producer of wind power, with 895 megawatts installed and another 200 megawatts planned, much of it on the windy Buffalo Ridge in the southwest part of the state.

Minnesota has a slightly progressive income tax structure; the three brackets of state income tax rates are 5.35%, 7.05% and 7.85%. Minnesota is ranked as the 6th highest in the nation for per capita total state taxes. The sales tax in Minnesota is 6.5%, but there is no sales tax on clothing, prescription medications, some services, or food items for home consumption. The state legislature may allow municipalities to institute local sales taxes and special local taxes, such as the 0.5% supplemental sales tax in Minneapolis. Excise taxes are levied on alcohol, tobacco, and motor fuel. The state imposes a use tax on items purchased elsewhere but used within Minnesota. Owners of real property in Minnesota pay property tax to their county, municipality, school district, and special taxing districts.

Minnesota's major fine art museums include the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center, and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum. The Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra are prominent full-time professional musical ensembles that perform concerts and offer educational programs to the community. Attendance at theatrical, musical, and comedy events in the area is strong. The Guthrie Theater moved into a new building in 2006, boasting three stages and overlooking the Mississippi River. In the United States, the Twin Cities' number of theater seats per capita ranks behind only New York City; with some 2.3 million theater tickets sold annually. The Minnesota Fringe Festival is an annual celebration of theatre, dance, improvisation, puppetry, kids' shows, visual art, and musicals. The summer festival consists of over 800 performances over 11 days in Minneapolis, and is the largest non-juried performing arts festival in the United States.

The rigors and rewards of pioneer life on the prairie were the subject of Giants in the Earth by Ole Rolvaag and of the Little House series of children's books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Small-town life was attacked by Sinclair Lewis in the novel Main Street, and more gently and affectionately satirized by Garrison Keillor in his tales of Lake Wobegon. St. Paul native F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of the social insecurities and aspirations of the young city in stories such as Winter Dreams and The Ice Palace (published in Flappers and Philosophers). Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famous epic poem The Song of Hiawatha was inspired by Minnesota and many places and bodies of water in the state are named in the poem.

Minnesotan musicians of many genres include soul star Prince, harmony singers The Andrews Sisters, rockabilly star Eddie Cochran, folk musician Bob Dylan, garage rock band The Castaways, pop songwriters Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, indie rock artists Jonny Lang and Soul Asylum, and cult favorites such as Hüsker Dü and The Replacements.

Minnesotans have made significant contributions to comedy, theater, and film. Ole and Lena jokes are best appreciated when delivered in the accent of Scandinavian Americans. Garrison Keillor is known around the country for resurrecting old-style radio comedy with A Prairie Home Companion, which has aired since the 1970s. Local television had the satirical show The Bedtime Nooz in the 1960s, while area natives Lizz Winstead and Craig Kilborn helped create the increasingly influential Daily Show decades later. Actors from the state include Eddie Albert, Judy Garland, Jessica Lange, Winona Ryder. Joel and Ethan Coen, Terry Gilliam and Mike Todd contributed to the art of film, and others brought the offbeat cult shows Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Let's Bowl to national cable from the Twin Cities.

Stereotypical Minnesotan traits include manners known as "Minnesota nice," Lutheranism, a strong sense of community and shared culture, and their distinctive brand of North Central American English sprinkled with Scandinavian-sounding words such as uff da. Potlucks, usually with a variety of hotdish casseroles, are popular at community functions, especially church activities. Minnesota's Scandinavian heritage makes lutefisk a traditional holiday dish. Movies like Fargo, Drop Dead Gorgeous, New in Town, Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men, the radio show A Prairie Home Companion and the book How to Talk Minnesotan lampoon (and celebrate) Minnesotan culture, speech and mannerisms.

The Minnesota State Fair, advertised as The Great Minnesota Get-Together, is an icon of state culture. In a state of 5.1 million people, there were nearly 1.7 million visitors to the fair in 2006. The fair covers the variety of life in Minnesota, including fine art, science, agriculture, food preparation, 4H displays, music, the midway, and corporate merchandising. It is known for its displays of seed art, butter sculptures of dairy princesses, the birthing barn, and the "fattest pig" competition. One can also find dozens of varieties of food on a stick, such as Pronto Pups, cheese curds, and deep fried candy bars. On a smaller scale, many of these attractions are offered at numerous county fairs.

Other large annual festivals include the Saint Paul Winter Carnival, Minneapolis' Aquatennial and Mill City Music Festival, the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, Moondance Jam in Walker, and Detroit Lakes' 10,000 Lakes Festival, the Judy Garland Festival in Grand Rapids, and WE Fest.

The people of Minnesota have a high rate of participation in outdoor activities; the state is ranked first in the percentage of residents who engage in regular exercise. Minnesotans have the nation's lowest premature death rate, third-lowest infant mortality rate, and the second-longest life expectancies. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 91% of Minnesotans have health insurance, more than in any other state. These and other measures have led two groups to rank Minnesota as the fourth-healthiest state in the nation.

On October 1, 2007 Minnesota became the seventeenth state to enact a statewide smoking ban in restaurants and bars with the enactment of Freedom to Breathe Act.

Medical care is provided by a comprehensive network of hospitals and clinics, headed by two institutions with international reputations. The University of Minnesota Medical School is a highly rated teaching institution that has made a number of breakthroughs in treatment, and its research activities contribute significantly to the state's growing biotechnology industry. The Mayo Clinic, a world-renowned medical practice, is based in Rochester. Mayo and the University are partners in the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics, a state-funded program that conducts research into cancer, Alzheimer's disease, heart health, obesity, and other areas.

In March 2008, The American State Litter Scorecard, presented at the American Society for Public Administration national conference, rated Minnesota along with Vermont as topmost Best states for litter/debris removals from public properties (roadways, streams, trails), resulting in an overall healthy environmental quality status.

One of the first acts of the Minnesota Legislature when it opened in 1858 was the creation of a normal school at Winona. More recently, the state ranked 13th on the 2006–2007 Morgan Quitno Smartest State Award, and is first in the percentage of residents with at least a high school diploma. More than 90% of high school seniors graduated in 2006, but about 6% of white, 28% of African American, 30% of Asian American and more than 34% of Hispanic and Native American students dropped out of school. Minnesota students earn the highest average score in the nation on the ACT exam. While Minnesota has chosen not to implement school vouchers, it is home to the first charter school.

The state supports a network of public universities and colleges, currently 32 institutions in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System, and five major campuses of the University of Minnesota. It is also home to more than 20 private colleges and universities, four of which rank among the top 100 liberal arts colleges, according to U.S. News and World Report.

Transportation in Minnesota is overseen by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Principal transportation corridors radiate from the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area and Duluth. The major Interstate highways are I-35, I-90, and I-94, with I-35 and I-94 passing through the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, and I-90 going east-west along the southern edge of the state. In 2006, a constitutional amendment was passed that required sales and use taxes on motor vehicles to fund transportation, with at least 40% dedicated to public transit. There are nearly two dozen rail corridors in Minnesota, most of which go through Minneapolis-St. Paul or Duluth. There is water transportation along the Mississippi River system and from the ports of Lake Superior.

Minnesota's principal airport is Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP), the headquarters and major passenger and freight hub for Northwest Airlines and Sun Country Airlines. Most other domestic carriers serve the airport. Large commercial jet service is provided at Duluth and Rochester, with scheduled commuter service to six smaller cities via Northwest Airlines subsidiary Mesaba Airlines.

Amtrak's daily Empire Builder (Chicago-Seattle) train runs through Minnesota, calling at Midway Station in St. Paul and five other stations. Intercity bus service is provided by Greyhound, Jefferson Lines, and Coach USA. Local public transit is provided by bus networks in the larger cities and by the Hiawatha Line electrified light rail service linking downtown Minneapolis with the Airport and Bloomington.

As with the federal government of the United States, power in Minnesota is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

The executive branch is headed by the governor. The current governor is Tim Pawlenty, a Republican whose first term began on January 6, 2003 and who was narrowly re-elected in 2006. The current Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota is Carol Molnau, who was also the head of the Minnesota Department of Transportation until the Senate refused to confirm her appointment in February 2008. The offices of governor and lieutenant governor have four-year terms. The governor has a cabinet consisting of the leaders of various state government agencies, called commissioners. The other elected constitutional offices are secretary of state, attorney general, and state auditor.

The Minnesota Legislature is a bicameral body consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The state has sixty-seven districts, each covering about sixty thousand people. Each district has one senator and two representatives (each district being divided into A and B sections). Senators serve for four years and representatives for two years. In the November 2006 election, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) gained nineteen house seats, giving them control of the House of Representatives by 85–49. The Senate is also controlled by the DFL. In early 2008, the DFL picked up an additional seat in a special election to expand their majority to 45–22. The DFL now controls a veto-proof majority in the Senate.

Minnesota's court system has three levels. Most cases start in the district courts, which are courts of general jurisdiction. There are 272 district court judges in ten judicial districts. Appeals from the trial courts and challenges to certain governmental decisions are heard by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, consisting of sixteen judges who typically sit in three-judge panels. The seven-justice Minnesota Supreme Court hears all appeals from the Tax Court, the Worker's Compensation Court, first-degree murder convictions, and discretionary appeals from the Court of Appeals; it also has original jurisdiction over election disputes.

Two specialized courts within administrative agencies have been established: the Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals, and the Tax Court, which deals with non-criminal tax cases.

Below the city and county levels of government found in the United States, Minnesota has other entities that provide governmental oversight and planning. Some actions in the Twin Cities metropolitan area are coordinated by the Metropolitan Council, and many lakes and rivers are overseen by watershed districts and soil and water conservation districts.

There are seven Anishinaabe reservations and four Dakota communities in Minnesota. These communities are self-governing.

Minnesota currently has only one United States senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar. The outcome of the United States Senate election in Minnesota, 2008 is contested. The state has eight congressional districts; they are represented by Tim Walz (1st district), John Kline (2nd), Erik Paulsen (3rd), Betty McCollum (4th), Keith Ellison (5th), Michele Bachmann (6th), Collin Peterson (7th), and James Oberstar (8th).

Federal court cases are heard in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, which holds court in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Fergus Falls. Appeals are heard by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis, Missouri and St. Paul.

Minnesota is known for a politically active citizenry, and populism has been a longstanding force among the state's political parties. Minnesota has a consistently high voter turnout, due in part to its liberal voter registration laws, with virtually no evidence of voter fraud. In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, 77.9% of eligible Minnesotans voted—the highest percentage of any U.S. state—versus the national average of 61.2%. Previously unregistered voters can register on election day at their polls with evidence of residency.

Hubert Humphrey brought national attention to the state with his address at the 1948 Democratic National Convention. Eugene McCarthy's anti-war stance and popularity in the 1968 New Hampshire Primary likely convinced Lyndon B. Johnson to drop out of the presidential election. Minnesotans have consistently cast their Electoral College votes for Democratic presidential candidates since 1976, longer than any other state. Minnesota is the only state in the nation that did not vote for Ronald Reagan in either of his presidential runs.

Both the Democratic and Republican parties have major party status in Minnesota, but its state-level "Democratic" party is actually a separate party, officially known as the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). Formed out of a 1944 alliance of the Minnesota Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties, the DFL now serves as a de-facto proxy to the federal Democratic Party, and its distinction from the Democratic Party, while still official, is now a functional technicality.

The state has had active third party movements. The Reform Party, now the Independence Party, was able to elect former mayor of Brooklyn Park and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura to the governorship in 1998. The Independence Party has received enough support to keep major party status. The Green Party, while no longer having major party status, has a large presence in municipal government, notably in Minneapolis and Duluth, where it competes directly with the DFL party for local offices. Official "Major party" status in Minnesota (which grants state funding for elections) is reserved to parties, which receive 5% or more of the state's general vote in the U.S. Presidential election. Status is revised every four years.

Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002, defeating former Vice President and former U.S. Senator Walter Mondale (D-MN), who entered the race as the Democratic candidate after Senator Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash on October 25, 2002. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, Senator Coleman was the mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota from 1994 to 2002 and served 17 years with the Minnesota Attorney General Office, holding the positions of Chief Prosecutor and Solicitor General of the State of Minnesota. In 1996, after becoming increasingly frustrated with the Democratic Party, Coleman joined the Republican Party, which more closely matched his values. In his 1997 mayoral campaign for re-election as a Republican, Coleman received 59 percent of the vote.

The state's U.S. Senate seats have generally been split since the early 1990s, and in the 108th and 109th Congresses, Minnesota's congressional delegation was split, with four representatives and one senator from each party. In the 2006 midterm election, Democrats were elected to all state offices except for governor and lieutenant governor, where Republicans Tim Pawlenty and Carol Molnau narrowly won re-election. The DFL also posted double-digit gains in both houses of the legislature, elected Amy Klobuchar to the U.S. Senate, and increased the party's U.S. House caucus by one. Keith Ellison (DFL) was elected as the first African American U.S. Representative from Minnesota as well as the first Muslim elected to Congress nationwide.

The Twin Cities area is the fifteenth largest media market in the United States as ranked by Nielsen Media Research. The state's other top markets are Fargo-Moorhead (118th nationally), Duluth-Superior (137th), Rochester-Mason City-Austin (152nd), and Mankato (200th).

Broadcast television in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest started on April 27, 1948, when KSTP-TV began broadcasting. Hubbard Broadcasting Corporation, which owns KSTP, is now the only locally-owned television company in Minnesota. There are currently 39 analog broadcast stations and 23 digital channels broadcast over Minnesota.

The four largest daily newspapers are the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, the Pioneer Press in Saint Paul, the Duluth News Tribune in Duluth and The Minnesota Daily, the largest student-run newspaper in the U.S. Sites offering daily news on the Web include MinnPost, the Twin Cities Daily Planet, business news site Finance and Commerce (web site) and Washington D.C.-based Minnesota Independent. Weeklies including City Pages and monthly publications such as Minnesota Monthly are also available.

Two of the largest public radio networks, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and Public Radio International (PRI), are based in the state. MPR has the largest audience of any regional public radio network in the nation, broadcasting on 37 radio stations. PRI weekly provides more than 400 hours of programming to almost 800 affiliates. The state's oldest radio station, KUOM-AM, was launched in 1922 and is among the 10 oldest radio stations in the United States. The University of Minnesota-owned station is still on the air, and since 1993 broadcasts a college rock format.

Minnesota has professional men's teams in all major sports. The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome is home to the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League, and to the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball, winners of the 1987 and 1991 World Series. Target Field is currently being constructed on the west side of downtown Minneapolis, which will be the home of the Minnesota Twins once completed. The Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association play in the Target Center. The National Hockey League's Minnesota Wild team reached 300 consecutive sold-out games in St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center on January 16, 2008. The Minnesota Thunder plays professional soccer in the USL First Division, the second tier of the American Soccer Pyramid; it plays at the National Sports Center in Blaine.

Minor league baseball is represented both by major league-sponsored teams and independent teams such as the popular St. Paul Saints.

Professional women's sports include the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association, the Minnesota Lightning of the United Soccer Leagues W-League, the Minnesota Vixen of the Women's Professional Football League, and the Minnesota Whitecaps of the National Women's Hockey League.

The Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I school, with sports teams competing in either the Big Ten Conference or the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Four additional schools in the state compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey: the University of Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud State University, Bemidji State University, and Minnesota State University Mankato. There are nine NCAA Division II colleges represented by the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in Minnesota, and sixteen NCAA Division III colleges represented by the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and Upper Midwest Athletic Conference.

Winter Olympic Games medallists from the state include eleven of the twenty members of the gold medal 1980 ice hockey team (coached by Minnesota native Herb Brooks) and the bronze medallist U.S. men's curling team in the 2006 Winter Olympics. Swimmer Tom Malchow won an Olympic gold medal in the 2000 Summer games and a silver medal in 1996.

Grandma's Marathon is run every summer along the scenic North Shore of Lake Superior, and the Twin Cities Marathon winds around lakes and the Mississippi River during the peak of the fall color season.

Minnesotans participate in high levels of physical activity, and many of these activities are outdoors. The strong interest of Minnesotans in environmentalism has been attributed to the popularity of these pursuits.

In the warmer months, these activities often involve water. Weekend and longer trips to family cabins on Minnesota's numerous lakes are a way of life for many residents. Activities include water sports such as water skiing, which originated in the state, boating, canoeing, and fishing. More than 36% of Minnesotans fish, second only to Alaska.

Fishing does not cease when the lakes freeze; ice fishing has been around since the arrival of early Scandinavian immigrants. Minnesotans have learned to embrace their long, harsh winters in ice sports such as skating, hockey, curling, and broomball, and snow sports such as cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling.

State and national forests and the seventy-two state parks are used year-round for hunting, camping, and hiking. There are almost 20,000 miles (32,000 km) of snowmobile trails statewide. Minnesota has more miles of bike trails than any other state, and a growing network of hiking trails, including the 235-mile (378 km) Superior Hiking Trail in the northeast. Many hiking and bike trails are used for cross-country skiing during the winter.

To the top