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I have developed informed positions because I have done the research necessary to understand controversial, multifaceted issues and I always listen to my fellow constituents to improve them. Please consider my positions and write your feedback on my Contact page. I would love to hear from you!

Here are some of my key positions:


Energy: No New Coal

NO NEW COAL. I will freeze the level of coal consumption and fight for a decrease in the use of this toxic resource that pollutes our water and makes our fish inedible. The EU's January 2007 Energy study proves that renewable wind energy is far cheaper per kilowatt-hour than nuclear energy. Wind's variability can be made up for by energy storage and alternative sources as Xcel Energy is already planning. I will push for the state to expand its renewable energy inventory.

Our energy policy must center on increasing jobs and our competitiveness in the world. We must pioneer alternative energy in order to survive as an economic powerhouse in the world. If we fail to seek new and innovative technologies due to welfare subsidy payments to the old technology, then our companies will lose their ability to compete in the marketplace. Minnesota needs to join a "Manhattan Project" effort to seek cheap, clean, and abundant sources of energy and energy storage. I support the Apollo Project plan to create clean energy jobs in our state.

DARPA, the military agency which also financed the invention of the internet, recently found technology to produce JP-4 jet fuel from algae for only $2 a gallon. Algae, switchgrass, and native plants could produce either "green" gasoline or ethanol without affecting food prices. They would also provide rural landowners with an additional source of revenue for unfarmable land. Algae and switchgrass serve as such an effective carbon sink that the carbon emissions generated from growing, harvesting, refining, and burning it are almost completely offset by the plants' photosynthesis.


Elections: Keep Democracy in America

Minnesota has more lobbyists per capita than most states in the nation. Corporations know that every cent spent on political influence pays back tenfold in pork and lucrative contracts. It is long past time to end the feeding frenzy of corporations looking to make a quick buck at the taxpayer's expense. I believe all candidates should run without contributions from corporations or PACs representing special interests. I will accept no such contributions.

Our election system forces us to have poor and limited choices in candidates. On every level, politicians and corporations set up roadblocks to make our national dialogue inpenetrable and our electoral system unbalanced. We need instant runoff voting, campaign finance reform, public access to the airwaves that we all own, voting day holidays, open debates not run by party elites, and open source voting equipment that stands up to expert scrutiny.

If elected, I would also sign on to the popular vote movement and introduce a bill that would legally bind Minnesota's electoral college members to cast their votes for the popular vote winner. Any Minnesotan voting for a Republican or third party president never gets a vote that counts because of the electoral college. Other states are passing this same legislation because it is much easier than amending the constitution against the wishes of a few states that benefit unfairly from the current system.


Health Care: Make It Universally Affordable

Health care is terribly broken in America. Warren Buffet called it a "tapeworm eating" up all the revenue in America. It's driving our government and private industry bankrupt at a record pace because our system is broken and inefficient.

My health plan can be explained simply. Affordable, high-quality health care is a right, just like equal protection of the law is guaranteed by our Constitution. One dollar spent on health should provide one dollar of care.

Minnesota is sick of "don't get sick" plans. We cannot afford the cost to society and business of plans that have deductibles so high that many can't afford to see the doctor for a check-up when they feel ill. We all pay the cost of "don't get sick" plans by paying the cost in our medical bills for emergency room visits that would've been unnecessary with preventative care. We all pay this cost through a reduced workforce even if we don't pay it through taxes or medical bills. We live in a community and everyone matters.

Our top priority should be to control costs. To that end, I will wholeheartedly support Sen. John Marty's Minnesota Health Act (SF2324/HF2522) to provide a single, cash for services, universal health plan for all Minnesotans. Since this plan is premiums-based and charges on a sliding fee scale, there are no "free rides," nor are there incentives to not work such as we currently have.

Minnesota can provide any health service cheaper than private insurance can. HMOs have overhead figures averaging 20-30% of all health costs because of profits and a huge bureaucracy including overpaid executives. Medicare costs only 3%. This is why our legislators are satisfied with their own care. It is why we can provide better services for a lower price without subsidies. We will also make insurance available for "preexisting conditions" such as pregnancy and autism.

There is ample precedent that our Founding Fathers believed that adequate health care was absolutely vital to our workforce and our economy.


Education: Spend More Wisely, Promote Responsiblity

The most critical factor in school success is the degree to which parents are engaged in the education of their children. This rapport between parents and education can be improved through state policies that give teachers and schools a reason to invest themselves in their school's long-term success. Benefits, perceived job security, and performance bonuses all help attract and retain teachers who will put the future of the school and students ahead of simply earning a paycheck.

Minnesota has had a top education system, but it has declined for many reasons. Our schools must teach content and critical thinking skills including personal responsibility, not simply regurgitation for tests. Our children must learn both fiscal and social responsibility including civics. We must make a concerted effort as a state to address the needs of English learners and must ALWAYS put education ahead of Astroturf for athletics!

Public university must become affordable again. Loan options, such as consolidation loans, are dwindling as our economy corrects the housing bubble and college may once again become a privilege reserved for the rich. Our state must make its commitment per University student more significant. We currently pay much more per inmate in state jails.

Politicians brag in glossy brochures how many dollars they've spent on education, but simply throwing money at a problem is never enough. I have a campaign staff of experienced educators and will listen to teachers in this district to produce an education plan that uses our spending wisely.


Transportation: Repair Crumbling Roads

Lakeville is a massive and growing city that benefits greatly from its interconnectedness. Last year our City Council passed a marvelous busing system that reduces congestion on I-35, providing a longer lane for buses and carpools and a cheaper route to work for Lakeville residents. Yet our incumbent failed to propose an I-35 transit system and fought against this one, even as transportation finance committee chair for many years.

Transportation is an issue I strongly differ with the incumbent on. Ms. Holberg has sought transportation options to avoid paying to fix our crumbling rural roads, opposing every funding bill over the last two years, while she spent over $100 million on the latest Cedar Ave project. I believe we can avoid crippling bond debt while making progress toward completing vital road and bridge repairs which we've put off for almost a decade.


Economy: Create Meaningful Jobs that Pay a Living Wage

The best way to improve our economy is to create, attract, and foster good businesses that provide meaningful jobs. As a philosophy of good government, we must not overly burden diligent employers who follow our laws and labor guidelines. We also must consider a preference for using local business in state government contracts.

Preventing crime and adverse state health and education conditions requires that we provide at least a living wage to our poorest workers. We must adjust and index the minimum wage to the rate of inflation so that it provides enough to feed and house a small family with at least the most meager, nutritious food and safe shelter available. This will also benefit our society by increasing the number of consumers and the quality invested in their finished work.

Henry Ford believed a living wage benefits the whole economy through increased consumer demand. His wage ideas are just as solid now as when he used them to guide compensation policies at Ford Motor Company, the only surviving American auto company from the 1920s.


Taxation: Fairness Matters

Minnesota is a regressive tax state. We charge the middle class a larger percentage of income in total taxes and fees than we charge rich people. Our governor's own budget office produced these statistics in their annual "tax incidence study." We cannot allow poorer Minnesotans to carry the largest tax burden. This must change.

In order to protect hard-working, poor families, I promise taxpayers that I will never allow our state legislators to push most of the costs of state government into gas and property taxes. While the other parties ally with rich interests, I will always look out for the interests of the poor and middle class who pay the bulk of our state's expenses.


Budgets: Balance in All Things

We must work hard to ensure we aren't spending away our children's inheritance. Nowhere is this more true than in government. Our state cannot hide from its debts under bankruptcy, so we must seek balance in our budgets and avoid dangerous debt to give our children a chance to succeed. Our children deserve no less.

We can no longer afford to run government on Tim Pawlenty's credit card. When Republicans were in power, they gaven Americans the message that deficits do not matter by lowering taxes at the same time they made spending skyrocket.


Veterans: Treat Them As Our Own Sons and Daughters

Our veterans need far better care than our federal government has offered. This starts with proper testing for depleted uranium and pathogen exposure and a ban on the use of DU around our unprotected soldiers and all civilians. 99% of all depleted uranium munitions are made right here in the Twin Cities and they are chemical, radiological weapons.

We must also provide an affordable education for our returning combat veterans, so that they may return to gainful employment.


Guns: Keep Them Legal, Keep Them Safe, Keep Them in the Right Hands

I support responsible gun ownership. We must continue to educate and remind gun owners about storing guns where children or criminals are unlikely to steal them. I support hunting and would encourage gun owners to seek greener, non-lead-based shells.


Sunday Liquor Sales: End the Ban

I support legalizing liquor sales on Sunday. Studies have proven that authorizing Sunday sales would increase state revenues and jobs without increasing the level of alcoholism. Every other state in the Midwest allows Sunday sales. Minnesota should join them.


Immigration: Not a Partisan Issue

The only thing partisan about the immigration issue are ineffective, liberty-denying solutions. Most Americans agree that we should be able to defend our borders and know who lives inside our borders. Most Americans also agree that it should be possible for immigrants to move to America if they follow our laws to do so. To that end, I will ask our Federal representatives to vote appropriately.

As an engineer, I know that problems are best dealt with at the root cause. We need to enforce and strengthen employment laws. We must make it possible for scofflaw employers and undocumented immigrants to stop breaking our laws. Current employer fines, even after repeat violations, cost less than an employer saves by employing undocumented immigrants. This situation is unacceptable.

The issue is not that we fail to deport undocumented immigrants. Police say they've deported the same individuals many times. If we enforced our laws against employers and increased legal immigration quotas, there would be no longer be waves of undocumented immigrants entering our country looking for work.

The Minnesota Immigration bill had both acceptable and unacceptable parts. We should not adopt any bill that allows law enforcement to detain Americans and ask them for their identification without even probable cause. That is a step in the direction of terrible policies used in Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa.

Also, we should end NAFTA and reduce excessive corn subsidies that took away about ten million Mexican jobs. These are both federal issues.


Reproductive Health: Find Common Ground to Reduce Abortions

Most Americans generally agree that the number of abortions should be minimized and that parents deserve to know when their children seek abortions. We should help our children make healthy choices with their bodies to ensure that they only become pregnant when they desire to keep the child. This means tackling the root causes of rape, incest, and teen pregnancy. This also means providing "abstinence plus" education and teaching our children about the critical importance of building healthy relationships based upon mutual respect.

I was raised Catholic. While the Church states that abortion is immoral, it does NOT dictate that women or doctors who seek the procedure should be hurt or imprisoned. When we look at nations that have banned the procedure like El Salvador and Nicaragua, we find that abortion is still widely practiced, but that the illegal procedures finance crime. A ban would be ineffective at increasing respect for life.

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