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Betty McCollum
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's 4th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Bruce Vento
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Born	July 12, 1954 (1954-07-12) (age 53) South St. Paul, Minnesota
Political party	Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
Spouse	divorced
Religion	Roman Catholic

Betty L. McCollum (born July 12, 1954) is an American politician and member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). She is currently a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Minnesota's 4th congressional district, one of eight congressional districts in Minnesota, thus far serving in the 107th, 108th, 109th, and 110th congresses. At the district's center is St. Paul, Minnesota's capital city. She is the second woman elected to Congress from Minnesota.

McCollum was born in South St. Paul, Minnesota. She first got involved in politics in 1986, when her daughter got hurt on a slide in a North St. Paul city park. The city council wouldn't do anything to fix the slide, so McCollum's neighbors encouraged her to run for a spot on the council herself. She won that November and served three terms.^[1] She then won an upset victory over longtime state representative Rick O'Conner, and served four terms in the state house.

After 4th District Congressman Bruce Vento decided not to seek a 13th term due to illness in 2000 (he died before the election), McCollum won the DFL nomination to succeed him. The district is heavily Democratic (only the neighboring 5th District is considered more Democratic), and Democrats have held the seat since 1949. However, McCollum's main concern wasn't Republican Linda Runbeck, but Independence Party candidate Tom Foley. Foley had previously been county attorney for Ramsey County (almost all of which is in the 4th District) as a Democrat. Many thought that Foley could siphon off enough votes from McCollum to allow Runbeck to sneak up the middle and end the long run of Democratic dominance in the district. However, in the end McCollum defeated Runbeck by a solid 17-point margin, with Foley in a distant third place. Foley only succeeded in making McCollum the only Democrat not to win at least 50 percent of the vote since Democrats began their current run in the district. The district has since reverted to form, and McCollum has been reelected three times without serious opposition.

McCollum received a 91% progressive rating from a self-described non-partisan group that provides a "searchable database of Congressional voting records from a Progressive perspective"^[2] and scored a 13% conservative rating by the conservative group, SBE Council.^[3]

In 2004, McCollum gained national visibility when she and fellow Democrat, Jim McDermott of Washington called for Secretary of Education Rod Paige to resign for claiming the National Education Association was "a terrorist organization."

She is the first Minnesota woman elected to Congress since Coya Knutson in the 1950s. In January, 2007 she was joined by the first Republican woman elected from Minnesota — Michele Bachmann of the 6th district.

McCollum is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, where she is the only Minnesotan. At the start of the 110th Congress, McCollum was also appointed to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Under normal circumstances, House Democrats aren't allowed to serve on another committee when they also serve on one of the chamber's three "exclusive" committees--Appropriations, Financial Services and Ways and Means. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and committee chairman Henry Waxman granted McCollum a waiver allowing her to take a second committee slot.^[4]

• 2006 election for U.S. House of Representatives — 4th District
  • Betty McCollum (DFL) (inc.), 70%
  • Obi Sium (R), 30%

• 2004 election for U.S. House of Representatives — 4th District
  • Betty McCollum (DFL) (inc.), 58%
  • Patrice Bataglia (R), 33%
  • Peter Vento (I), 9%

• 2002 election for U.S. House of Representatives — 4th District
  • Betty McCollum (DFL) (inc.), 62%
  • Clyde Billington (R), 34%
  • Scott Raskiewicz (G), 4%

• 2000 election for U.S. House of Representatives — 4th District
  • Betty McCollum (DFL), 48%
  • Linda Runbeck (R), 31%
  • Tom Foley (I), 21%

• US Congressional Delegations from Minnesota

1. ^ Campaign 2004. Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved on 2007-02-26.
2. ^ Leading with the Left. Progressive Punch. Retrieved on 2006-11-02.
3. ^ Congressional Voting Scorecard 2005 (pdf). SBE Council’s Congressional Voting Scorecard 2005. Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (June, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-11-02.
4. ^ http://www.mccollum.house.gov/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC={1CADF88E-E4C9-4132-A6D3-FEC0C9D92CD9}&DE={1AB45113-CB6E-4B7E-A830-02B77F7BAFEC}

• Minnesota Legislators Past and Present

• Betty McCollum at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

• U.S. Congresswoman Betty McCollum official House site
• Betty McCollum at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Federal Election Commission — Betty McCollum campaign finance reports and data
• MPR — Campaign 2006: Batty McCollum profile from Minnesota Public Radio
• On the Issues — Betty McCollum issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Betty McCollum campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart - Representative Betty McCollum (MN) profile
• Washington Post - Congress Votes Database: Betty McCollum voting record
• Minnesota's Congresswoman Betty McCollum official campaign site
• Betty McCollum, A Letter to AIPAC, New York Review of Books, Volume 53, Number 10, June 8, 2006, with an introduction by Michael Massing.