Friday, September 23, 2016 S1
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r’s Guide
Decision time: Early voting options add to Election Day choices
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fter what may seem like an endless election cycle, the time for voters to decide who they want to represent them arrives today and continues until the polls close on the general election at 8 p.m. Nov. 8. This is the first presidential election year voters will be able to take advantage of no-excuses absentee ballots. Beginning today and through Nov. 7, Minnesotans may vote early using an absentee ballot. The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office set up a short video at http://www. sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/other-waysto-vote/ on its website to provide absentee ballot instructions. Voting may be done in person at designated sites, such as the historic Crow Wing County Courthouse in Brainerd, or by mail as voters request an absentee ballot and vote using a witness and then mail the completed and signed
ballots back. The status of the absentee ballots may also be tracked online. The percentage of early voters is expected to grow, which is why the Brainerd Dispatch voter’s guide is arriving Sept. 23 this year. For others, Election Day will still be the final moment to cast a ballot after taking in all the information available through the fall. The Dispatch voter’s guide is designed to give readers a look at candidates in addition to the newspaper’s coverage and candidate profiles available in print and online. Uncontested races where candidates were not opposed were not included in the voter’s guide. Go to www. brainerddispatch.com for more information. Attendance at candidate forums, research and personal encounters will also help voters make informed decisions in what is expected to be another memorable election year.
8TH DISTRICT RACE CAN’T ESCAPE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST Zach Kayser Staff Writer
Round two of the battle for Minnesota’s 8th U.S. Congressional District already promised the same national high-stakes, small-margin fight over a rare swing district — and then Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton got into the mix. Like 2014, the contest this year is between incumbent Democrat Rick Nolan and challenger Stewart Mills III, two men who have spent time as high-level business executives and who live in the Brainerd lakes area. Like many Minnesotans who aim for political office, both of them have a habit of playing up the Garrison Keillor-esque aspects of their life stories. Nolan is quick to talk about his stint as paperboy delivering the Brainerd Dispatch, his exploits on the high school basketball team, or that he ran a pallet-making business. Mills filmed multiple campaign ads at Shipman Auto Parts in Brainerd, which he visited as a youth, plucking parts from the scrapyard for Mills Ford. But their political battles are fought using amounts of money that would be alien in Lake Wobegon. For example, Mills and Nolan’s first dustup in the 2014 election cycle garnered $12.6 million in spending from outside groups. A Star Tribune article Sept. 8 highlighted the danger posed to Nolan’s grasp of the seat. “Leaders from both parties consider Nolan to be one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in the country — a dramatic swing for a congressional district that for decades was a lock for Democrats,” it said. When asked to react to the idea his seat was vulnerable, Nolan didn’t dispute it. “It’s a very competitive district, and you have a candidate and his party spending a tremendous amount of money, and that makes you vulnerable,” he said in a phone interview Sept. 8. Nolan was confident if there was strong turnout, he would win, as Democrat candidates typically benefit from higher turnout
during presidential elections. However, he acknowledged the public’s disdain for the candidates in the presidential race threatened to drive down turnout and take away that advantage. “I don’t think the presidential race as it currently stands is of any great benefit to my re-election efforts,” he said. “If we get a good turnout, we will definitely win. The greatest threat to our success is a low voter turnout.”
No trouble with Trump Unlike other Minnesota Republicans such as fellow congressional candidate Erik Paulsen, Mills hasn’t distanced himself from their volatile nominee, Donald Trump. In an interview at the Dispatch Sept. 6, Mills said the same dissatisfaction and anger that boosts Trump nationally is in force among voters in the 8th District as well. “Donald Trump has a message that resonates in our part of Minnesota,” Mills said. “It’s anti-liberal, it’s pro-American populist. And people are angry. And they’re frustrated.” However, Mills didn’t always feel that way. Although he wouldn’t identify which candidate exactly, Mills said he supported a different candidate than Trump during the primary. The connection between Trump and Mills isn’t just rhetorical, it’s practical: the two candidates have both had the same man working for them as a high-level staffer during various points of 2016. The Mills campaign had three successive campaign managers so far in 2016. One of them, Mike Lukach, left the Mills campaign this summer and became Minnesota state director of the Trump presidential campaign. However, the Trump campaign announced Sept. 9 that Lukach had been pulled as Minnesota director and reassigned to Colorado — a more competitive state — to take an unspecified “senior role.” Mills called the fact that Lukach went from his campaign to Trump’s “a feather in our cap” and later added that “we’re a victim of
our own success.” “That doesn’t say anything other than Mike is a very intelligent, very capable guy, who knows Minnesota — specifically, the 8th District,” he said. However, Mills took issue with some of Trump’s outbursts, naming in particular his attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel for his Mexican descent and on the Khans, a Gold Star family who spoke at the Democratic convention and whose son was killed in combat. “Trump is an asset to me because Hillary is a liability to Rick Nolan,” Mills said. “Forget about the Mexican judges and the Gold Star families and things that I do disagree with.” While much of Trump’s policy positions are agreeable to Mills, it’s his tone that Mills sometimes doesn’t like. “There’s a lot of Trump top-line message that I agree with,” he said. “Do I agree with the bombastic way that he has said everything? No. There were some things that were over the top in my book.” Were there any Trump policy stances that Mills disagreed with? “I’m sure that there are, but none that I can think of right now,” he said.
From Foggy Bottom to Babbitt Nolan’s support of his party’s nominee — former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — is also complex. He voiced support for Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s opponent, as late in the primary process as the DFL state convention in June. Asked how steadfast his support of Clinton was in light of his allegiance to Sanders during the primary, Nolan pointed out how the Sanders campaign successfully pulled Clinton to the left. “The Sanders campaign did a very good job of moving Secretary Clinton in the direction that we found so attractive in Bernie Sanders,” he said. “She has now come out against TPP, she’s come out for reversing Citizens United, and she’s been very good on many other
issues that are important to Democrats, so my support for Hillary Clinton is steadfast.” However, Nolan said Clinton was more hawkish on foreign policy and “wars of choice” than he would like. He directly connected Mills with Clinton’s opponent during his speech at the convention, calling the Republican “a yayhoo not unlike Donald Trump.”
Campaign tenor Mills said the tenor of the 2016 race isn’t worse than the 2014 election cycle and reiterated his promise not to make personal attacks against Nolan. A recent ad put out by his campaign that called Nolan “weak” and “dangerous” was criticising his policy, not Nolan as an individual, Mills said. “If Rick Nolan was just sitting at his (home), would he be weak and dangerous?” Mills said. “No. He’s weak and dangerous in Washington D.C.” Nolan said the rhetoric was similar to 2014, but that Mills had come “right out of the chute” with a negative campaign. During their interviews, the two each spent time talking about positive characteristics, however — Mills talked about his experience at the head of the Mills Companies’ health insurance plan and the insight it gave him on health care, and Nolan mentioned the many constituents his office had helped navigate federal government programs. Mills touted the new campaign strategy centered around “decision points” each week, designed to make the campaign more fluid than the 2014 bid. Nolan said that by Election Day he’d have volunteers “in every township, every village, every precinct, bigger neighborhoods broken down in smaller units, identifying our supporters, encouraging them, offering any help or assistance they might need getting to the polls ...” If the presidential race is any indication, those moments of positivity are to be relished as few and far between.
Minnesota’s 8th U.S. Congressional District Stewart Mills III
Age: 44. Current employment: Businessman. Public office experience: None. Party affiliation: Republican. What do you want to accomplish if elected? “From weak positions on national security to thwarting job growth and economic prosperity, Congressman Nolan is out of touch with the priorities and concerns of folks in our part of the state. In Congress I would put my constituents first and fight to unleash the economic boom in greater Minnesota.” Stewart Mills III Specifically, how would you accomplish your goals? “I continually hear from Republicans, Independents, and quite frankly many Democrats fed up with Washington’s way of doing business where they say one thing at home and do another in D.C. We have the right raw materials here in Minnesota whether it’s our Main Street entrepreneurs, the iron and copper in our ground, the timber in our forests, or the grit and determination of the men and women who’ve lived here for generations. I will be a strong voice for them because the American people – not the government – have the answers to the challenges facing our nation.” What abilities or qualifications separate you from your competition? Why are you the best candidate for the job? “For six generations my family has lived and worked in Minnesota’s 8th District. For three decades I worked at my family’s businesses, Mills Fleet Farm, and Mills Automotive Group, where I learned the meaning of hard work and what it takes to grow jobs and successfully maintain a main-street oriented business. With a simpler, fairer tax code; a smarter approach to regulations; and new leadership, we can make it morning again in Minnesota. As a father, husband, and business owner, I believe our best days are ahead and we must ensure opportunity and freedom for our children and grandchildren.”
Rick Nolan
Age: 72. Current employment: “I am honored to serve as Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District Congressman on the Agriculture, Forestry, Transportation & Infrastructure Committees. Prior to returning to Congress in 2013, I spent over 32 years in business as the owner, president, and CEO of Emily Forest Products, president of the US Export Corporation and president and CEO of the Minnesota World Trade Center Corporation.” Public office experience: “Former Chairman, Mission Township Planning Committee; 6th Congressional District U.S. Representative; Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman and chief sponsor of legislation creating the Presidential Commission on World Hunger (1975-1981), former member of Minnesota State House of Representatives representing Morrison County (1969-1972). Party affiliation: DFL. What do you want to accomplish if elected? “Protecting Social Security and Medicare from privatization; opposing bad trade agreements; advancing mining; protecting the environment; promoting tourism and timber industries; improving Veterans’ care; reversing Citizens’ United; Stopping ‘nation building’ abroad and endless wars of choice, using the trillions saved to invest in jobs, education, people and rebuilding American infrastructure.” Specifically, how would you accomplish your goals? “I’ll continue to work with both Republicans and Democrats to find common ground and get things done. I will continue to refuse spending time
at Congressional call centers, “dialing for dollars.” I intend to go to Washington on the people’s business, not political fundraising. My priority and focus will be on creating jobs, business opportunities, and quality education and community services. I’ll do this by securing funding for highways, Rick Nolan airports, harbor facilities, trails, housing, education, and socials services that we depend on in the Brainerd region, and throughout the 8th Congressional District. What abilities or qualifications separate you from your competition? Why are you the best candidate for the job? “I’m proud to have been named one of the “Ten Most Effective Members of Congress” (No.1 in the Minnesota delegation, and No. 2 of all Democrats), a distinction I attribute primarily to my decades of community service and self-made business experience. There’s a lot to be said for going to work each day to solve problems and working together to fix things, regardless of party affiliation. With people’s support in November, I will bring this mindset of collaboration and effectiveness back to Washington and continue to serve the people of the 8th Congressional District and the Brainerd region.”
Brainerd City Council at-large (Elect two) Jan Lambert
Jan Lambert
Age: 62. Employment: LPN at Essentia Health for 26 years. Public office experience: “I haven’t held any public office but have served on committees.” What do you want to accomplish if elected? “I know that the city of Brainerd has an abundance of untapped potential and I will work to see the industrial park be utilized by bringing in the business that would broaden our tax base and tap into the city’s assets such as the Mississippi
Riverfront.” Specifically, how would you accomplish your goals? “Use the tools that already in place. Do a lot of learning and listening. Communication is very important.” What abilities or qualifications separate you from your competition? Why are you the best candidate for the job? “I think I am the best candidate for the job because I have passion for the city of Brainerd to reach its fullest potential. This will be big challenge and will be hard work but I feel I have the time to do this.”
Dale A. Parks
Age: 60. Employment: Retired after 32 years at Crow Wing County Social Services. Public office experience: “Four years representing Brainerd Ward 4 (southeast Brainerd) 2010-2014. Served as both vice president and president of the council the last two years of my term.” What do you want to accomplish if elected? “I would like to balance the annual budget while being aware of the need to invest wisely in the infrastructure and assets of the city. I would help redevelopment of downtown, work to help fill industrial parks, Northern Pacific Center, and Brainerd Industrial Center.” Specifically, how would you accomplish your goals? “I would work with the city administrator and the Facilities Committee to help plan for the future and present infrastructure needs and the means to finance them. I would work with BLAEDC and the Brainerd Chamber to help bring industry and business into Brainerd to help reduce unemployment and increase our tax base. In addition, I would work with Brainerd Restoration and Brainerd HRA to help secure grants for redevelopment and planning for downtown Brainerd. I would also be
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involved as necessary with the development of Brainerd Oaks to help increase home ownership in the city of Brainerd.” What abilities or qualifications separate you from your competition? Why are you the best candidate for the job? “I have previous experience on the Brainerd City Council including being the vice president and president. I Dale A. Parks have additional experience as the current president of both the Park Board and The Center (Senior Center). I am currently on four other city committees (EDA, HRA, Planning Commission, and Transportation). I have been able to keep my thumb on the pulse of the city through my participation on these committees. My 14 year experience as a supervisor for Crow Wing County gives me experience in overseeing budgets and personnel management. I also have three plus years of experience on the Personnel & Finance Committee.”