Election Guide 2008

Many politicians nationally have been talking about change recently. What do you think needs to change in Minnesota, and how do you plan to address that?
I think that the change that the election in 59B can produce can be electing someone that is not a Republican or Democrat to the Minnesota House of Representatives. I think that one of the problems we have in St. Paul is the fact that the majority of the people there are Democrats and Republicans and they can’t get along and can’t get anything done.
How would you encourage economic growth in Minnesota?

Many politicians have been talking about change recently. What do you think needs to change in Minnesota and how do you plan to address that?
The most important thing is that we get the five seats in the house to overrule the governor’s veto.
I think that the worst thing that has happened is that the governor has just totally stood in the way of progress. That’s the most hopeful change I can see that we would have.
How would you encourage economic growth in Minnesota?

Many politicians nationally have been talking about change recently. What do you think needs to change in Minnesota, and how do you plan to address that?
The biggest thing we need to change is the status of this district and the Legislature in this district. We need to see tuition freezes for students; tuition made affordable. We need to see the tax burden on the lower income class lifted, along with the drinking age lowered. We also need to invest in green energy. Those are the primary things that we need to change in Minnesota that we aren’t going anywhere with right now.

In light of the current economic crisis, what needs to happen to ensure American economic stability in the future?
We need to get tighter control over the federal budget. We can do that by setting spending caps, we can do it by balancing the budget in five years, we can do it by giving the president the line-item veto. We can move very aggressively to stabilize our energy situation. I’m very optimistic we can provide greater fiscal responsibility on the federal level, and move forward on health care and energy.

Michele Bachmann declined to be interviewed for this story.

Many politicians nationally have been talking about change recently. What do you think needs to change in Minnesota and how do you plan to address that?
I think that one thing that needs to change is the taxes we pay here in the state … people are tightening their belts, businesses are tightening their belts and our Legislature is raising taxes year after year without any control over their spending. So I think the bottom line is the control of spending within the state.
How would you encourage economic growth in Minnesota?

In light of the current economic crisis, what needs to happen to ensure American economic stability in the future?
We need to have greater regulation of financial markets, starting with derivative markets. These are the financial instruments that were not publically traded and there is very little transparency in this market involving credit default swaps ... we need to have a publicly traded market, and have transparency, so we need to build and exchange for this and we need to make that a matter of law.

In light of the current economic crisis, what needs to happen to ensure American economic stability in the future?

In light of the current economic crisis, what needs to happen to ensure American economic stability in the future?
Congress needs to get our economy back on track, and that means a combination of things. One, I think it means making sure we have economic growth and we’re able to increase and grow jobs here in the state, and that means making sure we don’t impose any tax increases. Secondly, I think it’s important for Congress to balance its federal budget, learn to live within its means, tighten its belt.

In light of the current economic crisis, what needs to happen to ensure American economic stability in the future?
We have to get back to the basics and restore a focus on fundamentals that the financial system was built around. Encouraging small business and producing jobs, but what has happened is a result of Bush policies. We need to get back to expanding plants and equipment, supporting creation of good jobs using the most fundamental shifts along with reapplying some regulatory framework that we’ve lost.