Jim Graves has been running for Congress against Michele Bachmann, one of the most notably pro-life members of the House, for three and a half months. In that time, his campaign manager said he's seen voters bring up abortion only twice.

Before this week, abortion, the hottest of America’s hot-button social issues, has been on the back-burner ahead of this fall’s elections. That changed on Sunday when Todd Akin, the Republican candidate for Senate in Missouri, told a journalist that "legitimate" rapes rarely result in pregnancy. The comment ignited a firestorm around Akin, whose own party now insists he drop out of the race, and it led politicos on both sides of the issue to dust off their talking points for the first meaningful time this year.

Most anyone will tell you the abortion issue isn’t going to be a game changer come November (outside of Missouri, at least), and most candidates have distanced themselves from the issue, even while it’s still in the headlines. Those who are talking about it, though, are Democrats running for the House, including those in Minnesota, who quickly note that most of the chamber’s Republicans sided with the now-toxic Akin on a string of abortion votes taken this session.

On Thursday, Brian Barnes, a 3^rd District DFLer challenging U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen, held a press conference trying to tie Paulsen to Akin and Bachmann. Paulsen voted for the controversial H.R. 3, a bill that would ban federal funding for abortions except in some cases, including rape (originally the bill covered only “forcible” rape, but the word was removed before the House voted on the bill). He voted to defund Planned Parenthood and repeal or defund the Affordable Care Act three times each, and to restrict taxpayer funding for abortions on a handful of other occasions.

Data: Congressional votes on abortion
See how the Minnesota's congressional delegation voted on 13 measures relating to abortion that came up during the 112^th Congress.

In fact, of the more than a dozen measures House Republicans have brought up related to abortion, Paulsen and Rep. John Kline have supported all of them. Republicans Bachmann and Chip Cravaack voted against only one, a 2011 budget agreement that included limits on abortions in Washington, D.C., but mostly because they opposed the overall spending levels in the bill. Rep. Collin Peterson, a moderate Democrat, voted with Republicans nine times on anti-abortion measures.

Barnes, running as a pro-choice Democrat, said, “I can’t imagine voting against the best interests of my wife, my daughter or any other woman.” But he acknowledged he’s using abortion as a launching pad for a broader argument against Paulsen, one based on his overall voting record.

“This is more of the tip of the iceberg to expose the fact that Paulsen votes on the extreme edge of the party,” he said. “This district has a real proud tradition of being moderate … that ended in 2008 with Paulsen.”

Still, most candidates have shied away from the issue, even with it in the headlines. Graves, for example, is keeping the focus on job creation. In Cravaack’s 8^th District, Democrat Rick Nolan’s opening general election foray was on Medicare, not abortion.

Outside groups make it an issue

Even if most candidates aren’t going to bring up abortion, the deep-pocketed political action committees supporting or opposing their campaigns have worked to keep it in the headlines, at least for now.

“It’s kind of my job to make sure it’s an issue,” Scott Fischbach, the executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, said. “The issue of abortion is always bubbling right underneath the surface in all political thought in the country.”

MCCL is supporting the delegation’s pro-life Republicans and is on good terms with Peterson. Outside super PACS, meanwhile, are working to use the issue against them, at least right now.

San Francisco-based CREDO Super PAC announced Thursday that it had added Bachmann to its list of targeted candidates, citing first her support for H.R. 3 and Akin. Bachmann endorsed Akin before his primary, and her campaign declined comment on his current predicament this week.

CREDO is also targeting Cravaack, and the same things for which MCCL praises him — voting to defund Planned Parenthood, etc. — are among the group’s biggest complaints about him. Spokeswoman Malinda Frevert called him “the Todd Akin of the Minnesota 8^th District.”

Again, it goes beyond abortion. Thursday night, the group held a vigil for victims of domestic violence, and Frevert knocked Cravaack for supporting a version of the Violence Against Women Act she said is weaker than one passed in the Senate.

Republicans focus elsewhere

Republicans have been less inclined to make abortion an issue. Paulsen’s campaign declined comment on Barnes’ charges, and though MCCL’s Fischbach said Rep. Tim Walz’s pro-choice voting record is out of step with his rural 1^st District, Republican Allen Quist campaign manager Julie Quist said their focus will be primarily be on the national debt.

“He is not going to be focusing on anything that doesn’t haven’t direct correlation to that,” she said. “That is the reason he’s running.”

Nationally, presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate, Ryan, have disavowed Akin and called on him to quit the race. Unlike the hard-line Akin, the Republican ticket oppose banning abortions for rape victims, though the official Republican platform will include the ban.

But most voters don’t care (or know, frankly) what exactly is in a party’s official platform, unless it becomes an issue like abortion has this week. Kathryn Pearson, a University of Minnesota Congress and campaigns expert, said next week’s Republican convention, and the Democratic one the week later, will give both parties the chance to refocus on the campaign’s overriding issue, the economy.

“The conventions will, to some extent, change the conversation,” she said. “The parties can talk about what they want to talk about, and both parties are going to spend a lot of time talking about the economy, which is what voters care about.”

Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dhenry