ROCHESTER -- With only a campaign button to mark his mission, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kurt Bills stepped out of an unmarked silver Jeep Patriot and hoisted a stack of pamphlets, readying himself for a task few statewide candidates ever tackle: knocking on doors one-by-one in a last-ditch attempt to connect with voters.
Bills has little choice. Three weeks out from Election Day, he has little money, no television ads and only a few campaign workers -- he shares his spokesman with a long-shot congressional candidate. The Rosemount legislator has slim name recognition statewide and his own national party -- even though it is battling for control of the U.S. Senate -- has virtually ignored his race.
On this warm fall day, Bills' only companion was Republican state Rep. Mike Benson, in whose car Bills rode and in whose neighborhood Bills was door-knocking. Bills had asked two days earlier to join Benson. The two split up, each taking one side of the street.
At one door, Bills started out by mentioning his opponent, Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
"She's very well known. I'm not," he said.
Another door: "She has a lot of money. I don't so much."
Seeing Bills on her doorstep, homeowner Sharon Tuntland, a Republican, offered this assessment: "You're a brave person to take on Amy."
A teacher and first-term House lawmaker, Bills is here in part because every big-name Republican declined to run against Klobuchar, whose careful politics and high approval ratings in a state where President Obama leads have given her an unusually large political cushion.
His efforts have been hampered by his other duties. In a race that typically demands every minute of a candidate's time and then some, Bills still starts his days teaching his first-period high school economics class. Before setting out on a day of campaigning recently, he spent several hours in parent-teacher conferences.
"At this point, he hasn't been able to rise above the clutter," said Cullen Sheehan, who ran Republican Norm Coleman's 2008 U.S. Senate race.
The seat "is certainly not on any Republican watch list and it's not on any Democratic worry list," said Jessica Taylor, senior analyst at the Rothenberg Political Report, a nonpartisan political handicapper.
His supporters say the struggle has been profound.
"It's frustrating to be working so hard, and watching him work so hard, and yet have a hard time getting traction. I believe the message is something that would resonate with Minnesotans -- if only they could hear it," said Pat Barnum, a Bills volunteer and a suburban school board member. A longtime devotee of libertarian firebrand Ron Paul, Barnum says she sees echoes of Paul's limited government mantra in Bills.
