Tarryl Clark, Itinerant Representative of the People

It didn't go so well for Tarryl Clark the last time she ran for Congress -- Michele Bachmann beat her easily. So Clark decided to move to Duluth and run in a different district for this cycle. It may not work out for her this time, either, but she does have her supporters. Especially the Star Tribune, which gave her a nice in-kind campaign contribution cleverly disguised as a news story:

"You have to keep pushing if you want to make things better," Clark said. "I've learned to be both persistent and patient -- and I think that's a trait that will serve me well in Washington."

Her campaign against Bachmann endeared Clark to national Democratic groups like EMILY's list, which helped her raise more than $1 million for her current campaign, dwarfing the other two Democrats in the race -- former U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan and former Duluth City Council President Jeff Anderson.

But what are Clark's bona fides? Let the Star Tribune tell you:

A longtime community organizer, Clark has worked with groups ranging from labor unions to the Girl Scouts. Long before she rented a condo in Duluth and set her sights on the Eighth District seat, she says, she crisscrossed the district for decades for work or for church youth group programs with her husband, Doug.

In other words, she's driven through the district a fair amount, which distinguishes her from perhaps a half-dozen other politicians in Minnesota. But her commitment to the issues of the 8th Congressional District are true and heartfelt, of course:

"As corny as it sounds, I try to figure out, 'Where can I make the biggest difference?' and right now, with Congress forgetting that their priorities are our families and our communities, I think where I can make the biggest difference is there," Clark said.

I'm sure a lot of people in the 8th think the best way Clark can make a difference is to be someplace other than within the district's boundaries, especially Rick Nolan and Jeff Anderson. Unfortunately for the utterly selfless Clark, some folks in the 8th aren't sufficiently grateful for her ministrations:

But on the Iron Range, the spine of the district, they have a word for people who come North looking for work. They call them packsackers, a term stemming from the days when outsiders carried their belongings in a packsack as they sought temporary work in the region's mines.

How will Clark's strengths as a prolific fundraiser and dogged campaigner with strong union ties balance against the packsacker stigma? 

How indeed? Clark has a bigger problem than being a packsacker, though. It's her day job:

Clark is keeping her day job as she campaigns, working part time for the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor unions and environmental groups. 

And if you want to know why Clark will have trouble, that's the reason. Environmental groups are problematic for the 8th, which relies on mining for much of its economic opportunity. Environmentalists and mining aren't exactly a love connection and while the mine workers are heavily unionized, those aren't the unions that Clark's organization favors. The jobs on the Range aren't about "green energy."

It will be interesting to see if Clark can pull things off. She does have a significant financial advantage over Nolan and Anderson, but the only thing she has in common with many voters in the 8th are the letters "DFL" after her name.