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DFL to Gutknecht: Time to retire
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Race
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| Contributor | Eric |
| Last Edited | Eric Feb 17, 2005 05:05pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Star Tribune, The (Minneapolis - St. Paul) |
| News Date | Thursday, February 17, 2005 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In campaigning for his House seat in 1994, Minnesota Rep. Gil Gutknecht trumpeted his support for term limits in Congress and promised to serve no more than 12 years.
Now, at the start of his sixth two-year term, DFL leaders are calling on Gutknecht to honor his pledge and announce plans to retire. The controversy recalls the criticism Republicans directed at the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, when he repudiated a pledge to serve only 12 years in the Senate.
Gutknecht "still supports the idea of term limits, but you can't unilaterally enact them or it negatively impacts the district," his spokesman, Bryan Anderson, said Wednesday. If Gutknecht retired, he said, the southern Minnesota district would lose the political clout that comes with seniority -- including his chairmanship of an agriculture subcommittee.
"The reality is that in a time when agricultural districts are getting fewer in number, it's important that they have a strong voice," Anderson said.
Gutknecht also is pondering a run for the Senate, which could give him a political escape hatch from a term-limit controversy. Anderson said Gutknecht's 12-year pledge applied only to the House and did not address a possible shift to the Senate. |
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