Patty Wetterling
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Patty Wetterling 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. She is currently a candidate for the Minnesota Sixth District seat in the United States House of Representatives as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate. She ran for the same seat in 2004, losing in the general election to the GOP incumbent, Mark Kennedy.
Political career
Wetterling had been a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in 2006 that will be vacated by Mark Dayton , who announced he is not seeking re-election, but withdrew on January 20, 2006. Upon that announcement, she gave her endorsement to Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
After leaving the Senate race, Wetterling was publicly asked by Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Mike Hatch to run with him as Lieutenant Governor. Wetterling declined Hatch's offer. On February 3, 2006, Wetterling announced that she would once again run in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District. Wetterling's opponent for the DFL nomination is Elwyn Tinklenberg. A third DFL candidate, Scott Mortensen, dropped out several months prior to when Wetterling entered the race.
On May 13, 2006, Wetterling won the DFL endorsement to face Republican state senator Michele Bachmann for the U.S. House seat in the north-metro Sixth Congressional District. In defeating Elwyn Tinklenberg, she will have another chance to win the seat vacated by Mark Kennedy. The Sixth district could be a close race between Bachmann and Wetterling as the district tends to lean Republican.
Wetterling was the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate in the 2004 U.S. House of Representatives race for Minnesota's sixth Congressional district.
She eventually lost a tight race to the Republican Party incumbent, Mark Kennedy. Wetterling decided to run in the race after Stillwater, Minnesota lawyer Janet Robert withdrew.
Biography
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota and later moved to St. Joseph, Minnesota, where she raised four children with her husband Jerry. On October 22, 1989, their son Jacob Wetterling, then 11 years old, was abducted at gunpoint by a masked man. 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.Notes
In 1999, for the 10th anniversary of Jacob's abduction. Patty Wetterling decided to write a letter, it would be put in the paper, for the abductor to read. Patty consulted the FBI for advice on how to word the letter. Minnesota area newspapers agreed to print it for her. In the letter, Patty ask the abductor if Jacob is still with him. The letter offers compassion for the abductor; Patty tells him all little boys, including when he was one, deserve to have a happy childhood. She tells him she's sorry if he did not. She tells him she doesn't see him as an ugly, dirty, old man and hopes that if he ever goes fishing and catches something he cooks it for Jacob. She and her family are looking for answers, and only he can answer them. She wants to know what became of Jacob after the kidnapping. The letter generated some tips, but nothing substantial.Also in early 2004, news reports circulated that new evidence is being considered in the abduction of her son. News outlets in the Twin Cities indicated that another boy had been assaulted not long before Jacob disappeared. Police were also ruling out the long-held belief that the abductor had gotten away in a car.
Electoral history
- 2004 Race for U.S. House of Representatives - 6th District
- *Mark Kennedy (R) (inc.), 54%
- *Patty Wetterling (DFL), 46%
External links
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