Despite the bad weather, 68 people who have had enough of a regressive governor showed up at the Rochester Senior Center on December 10th to meet five of the gubernatorial candidates and ask the candidates pressing questions about education, jobs, taxation, the environment and the candidate’s plans to both win and govern with progressives.
Candidates in attendance were R.T Rybak, Paul Thissen, Margaret Kelliher, Steve Kelley, and Mark Dayton.
We’ve all heard candidate’s standard campaign speeches and sound bites before but the Rochester reNEW Minnesota Campaign forum gave participants a chance to hear answers to specfic questions that had not been asked before. The format of the event allowed participants to follow one candidate to hear his or her views on different topics or to rotate to various tables to hear different topics discussed by different candidates.
It is time to renew Minnesota and each of the candidates voiced a commitment to do so. While all of the DFL candidates, those able to attend the forum and those unable to due to other prior commitments, are a positive for Minnesota we will need to narrow the field and the forums give us an opportunity to see what specifically separates each of them from the general vision of renewal.
Now it is time for Minnesotans to do their part in the renewal process and it’s easy to do.
- Check out each of the candidates’ websites to learn more
- Ask candidates questions you have by attending events and/or via e-mail
- Attend upcoming events that reNEW Minnesota will be presenting
- Spread the word about the merits of the candidates and upcoming events
- Vote on January 31st at the Annual Meeting or between January 26-January 28th online for the candidates you believe reNEW Minnesota should support. (You need to be a member of TakeAction Minnesota in order to vote–becoming a member is easy, inexpensive and a great way to be an advocate for change.)
- Attend your caucus in February.
Is the Rochester forum video and/or audio online anywhere yet? I wasn’t able to make it to that particular forum but would like to hear what the candidates had to say, especially Mark Dayton, as he has been Progressive since 1968 and has a long record of doing so much for those groups that are underserved.