DCCC Lowers the Boom on Bachmann

...and the internetz should get the credit. From thereisnospoon:

First, the DCCC has taken notice and decided to up the ante in a big way by spending $1 million on the race:

The race for the 6th District just keeps getting bigger and more national. Thanks Michele Bachmann!

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will spend more than $1 million in TV ads against Rep. Bachmann, according to Minnesota Public Radio. The race is getting newfound national attention after Bachmann asked the media to investigate members of Congress with anti-American views.

Keep in mind that Tinklenberg only trailed Bachmann by a measly 4 points in a poll conducted prior to her execrable rant on Hardball, and that Bachmann's incumbent number was at a shockingly low 42%. Keep in mind also that Tinklenberg's own website today says he trails Bachmann in cash on hand by only a few hundred thousand dollars. The DCCC's million dollar infusion into this race will give him over a half-million cash on hand advantage heading into the final fortnight before the election, allowing him to ride the momentum wave, present himself to thousands of voters, and show Bachmann at her worst in ad after ad throughout the district.

And once there's chum in the water:

...her Republican primary opponent Aubrey Immelman has decided to resurrect his campaign as a write-in candidate:

Aubrey Immelman, who mounted an unsuccessful Republican primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, said today he will file to run as a write-in candidate for the 6th Congressional District in the Nov. 4 election.

Immelman, a professor of political psychology at the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University, said he decided to run a write-in campaign after becoming upset at Bachmann's comments on a cable talk show Friday...

He said he intends to offer himself as an "alternative for disillusioned Republicans" who cannot bring themselves to vote for DFL- and Independence Party-endorsed candidate Elwyn Tinklenberg or for Bob Anderson, the titular Independence Party candidate.

Immelman's primary challenge to the incumbent Bachmann earned him 14% support on election day--not a bad tally for an underfunded. intra-party anti-incumbent run. That's a significant show of anti-Bachmann sentiment among the Republican faithful. Immelman is no doubt trying to set himself up to be the most serious Republican challenger to Tinklenberg, should Bachmann be defeated. More power to him, especially as he's being politically savvy, and clear about the strategy heading into November 4th:

He says the one thing he will not do is ask Democrats to vote for him. He says he wants his candidacy to be a Republican referendum on Bachmann and the direction the party has taken the country.

It's hard to know just how much difference Immelman's move may or may not make in the long run, but it may give an easy out to many Republicans (at least to the 14% of Immelman's voters) who cannot see themselves voting for the Democrat, but who are also appalled at Bachmann's outrageous conduct.

The DCCC wouldn't have done this were it not for the internet-based opposition to Bachmann that raised over $600,000 for her opponent.