Between writing about the upcoming 6th District race and the race for the Presidency there has been a glaring lack of attention paid by myself to the upcoming United States Senate race here in Minnesota. After some thought and a little research, here are my early perceptions of this important contest to remove wishy washy Norm Coleman from the seat previously held by Senator Wellstone.
The Candidates:
My initial inclination was to support the big name in this race, Al Franken. However, that was before my two brief encounters with the man. The first being at the 2007 Education Minnesota Representative Convention at which a friend and I approached to speak with him as he worked the room of educators. At the time I didn't think much of the fact that he barely looked at us when we spoke and constantly scanned the room. After all, there were lots of people there and as a candidate he was trying to reach as many as possible. Fast forward to last week at the house party of House District 16B candidate Steve Andrews. I found myself speaking with Franken one on one in a far more intimate setting. Literally, in the middle of our conversation, Franken walked away to speak with someone coming down the stairs. Even during our conversation his body language and mannerisms indicated a lack of interest in anything I had to say. Now I can certainly be a boring person, but having had similar incidences occur on two separate occasions tells me that this behavior was not directed at myself but rather was the modus operandi of a man believing he doesn't have to work very hard in order to win the nomination to face Norm Coleman. Therefore, I can not support Mr. Franken for United States Senate! Despite what Education Minnesota says about Al Franken being a "strong supporter of educators" I have seen little in my interactions with him to indicate that he supports me. In fact, if Franken gets the nomination it may be one of the few times that I find someone other than a Democrat to support come November.
I certainly could see myself supporting the candidacy of Mike Ciresi. After perusing his website for issue statements and video I found several things that indicate a candidate in line with my particular viewpoints. The fact that he understands the need for "a surge in diplomacy" to solve the myriad of problems in Iraq and that he is pragmatic in his vow to"support a withdrawal plan that gets us our combat troops out within 8 months" and "a plan to redeploy our troops into training functions and on to the borders of Iraq to interdict people who are coming in from either Iran or Syria."
Beyond the issues associated with dealing with Iraq, I am always on the lookout for a candidate who understands education and can effectively voice the concerns of educators to others within the government. This video indicated to me that Mike Ciresi understands the primary complaints educators have with NCLB. While I don't know that the entire program needs to be scrapped because at a basic level it has sound goals, but Ciresi clearly understands what it is about NCLB that doesn't work. I have claimed all along that testing one group and comparing those scores to an entirely different group does little to prove either progress or failure.
Everything that I have seen and heard from Ciresi has been positive and I would have no problem supporting his candidacy.
I heard Jack Nelson Pallmeyer speak last week at the Steve Andrews event and was impressed with this candidate that I had really never heard anything about. To top it off, he has the support of Blue Man and in my book that is a pretty hefty endorsement. He has spoken with each of these candidates far more than I and anyone who was wise enough to throw their support behind Bob Olson is a reputable source in my book. Pallmeyer has a rock solid liberal stance on nearly every issue I care about and appears to have the passion we need to challenge Norm Coleman and more importantly to once again inspire the electorate ala Paul Wellstone.On the issue of education, Pallmeyer acknowledges that in order to succeed we must invest more resources on books and teachers than we do on guns and tanks.
I support increased state and federal funding for k-12 public education. I support a federally funded universal preschool program for 3-5 year-olds to be paid for with reductions in military spending. I also call for ending tax breaks given by the Bush administration to the richest 1% of US families and redirecting those resources to make college and university education affordable to all students.
This brings up a problem we should all hope to have when choosing our leaders. That problem is choosing between two or more candidates that are both highly qualified to hold the position and inspirational in their message. I cannot honestly say whom I will support on February 5th but between Ciresi and Pallmeyer we have top notch choices. Hopefully people can see past the veneer of stardom surrounding Franken and see fit to choose between these other two candidates.
2 responses to "United States Senate: A Liberal Endorsement?"
Muse,
I agree with your assessment of Franken. In a crowd, talking from a podium, he is great. On the floor, he apparently hasn't mastered the skill of eye contact.
I like Jack. He's real and has a good chance in this delegate race.
My feelings are similar to your comments and thought. Additionally, I don’t believe he is a man of much substance. I listened to his boring radio show on a daily basis. Most of the time, he was just bashing the Bush Administration. His opinion is fine, but that’s most of what he would talk about. There were never any ideas about what he would do to make things better. I understand it’s a radio show, but he knew then that he was running for the senate. He could have at least tossed us a bone. I also noticed that during his show, he seemed to have a lack of focus towards most topics. Again, it’s a radio show that needs to entertaining. However, I want a senator to be focused, and engaged in solving the problems of Minnesota, and America. I don’t believe Al is the person who will do that. These days, government seems like a comedy show already. We don’t need to add to that perception.