A few days ago I posted the St. Cloud Times Editorial Board interviews for House District 15A & 15B candidates with some commentary on those particular races and a prediction about who will be given the endorsement. The St. Cloud Times also did interviews for its endorsements in the House District 14A and 14B races.

In House District 14A you have incumbent Dan Severson (R) going up against Rob Jacobs (DFL). This is a race that is absolutely winnable for Jacobs given his more conservative stances on social issues and the manner in which he has been running his campaign. When you couple that with the problems Severson has with blatant racism, spelling, imposing government even on "traditional" marriage, and perhaps being only the body put forward to fill the seat you have a candidate ripe for defeat.

In House District 14B you have incumbent Larry Hosch (DFL) going up against Jim Stauber (R). I haven't written anything about this race or even much about either of these candidates. However, I have met Larry on several occasions and I can attest to his absolute commitment to getting things done for his constituents and for Minnesota. One interesting thing to watch during these interviews is the number of times (especially during the YES/NO questions) Jim Stauber looks to Dan Severson in order to find out which answer is authorized.

I have cut the full interview into the subsequent questions. However, you will have to forgive the same introduction being added to each question so as to give proper source attribution. Also, it should be noted that the above maps come from Politics in Minnesota.

Candidate Introductions:


Question #1: What are your specific plans for education funding?


Question #2: What specifically (taxes? formula? bill? idea?) are you going to do to fix education funding?


Question #3: What are your specific solutions and what approaches would you support or oppose with regards to the budget deficit?


Question #4: Identify the two areas that you would look to for cuts.


Question #5: What is your position regarding the election and appointment of Minnesota judges?

Editorial Note: This seems like a very random question that will have little bearing on the decision most people will have in voting for an individual.

Question #6: What is your solution to overcoming the partisan divide?


This portion is a series of YES/NO questions:


Closing Statements:


My predictions, for what they are worth: In 14A, Rob Jacobs (DFL) and in 14B, Larry Hosch get the endorsement from the St. Cloud Times. Who do you think will be endorsed and why? Who deserves endorsement and why? Who deserves to be elected and why?

Comments

3 responses to "St. Cloud Times Editorial Board: House District 14A & 14B"

  1. Anonymous On October 8, 2008 at 9:52 PM

    Hosch will get the endorsement and the election. His signs are every where, people really like him and any time I have had to contact him, the response was quick and friendly. Hosch is great.

     
  2. Gary Gross On October 9, 2008 at 5:55 PM

    This is a race that is absolutely winnable for Jacobs given his more conservative stances on social issues and the manner in which he has been running his campaign.

    This guy is to the left of tony Sertich on every economic issue in existance. At the last forum, which was hosted by GMHCC at the East Side VFW, Mr. Jacobs said that he didn't trust free markets with regards to health care solutions & that "government has a big role to play" in reforming health care.

    This is the same Rob Jacobs that told transportation activists that he wasn't an expert on transportation issues so he wouldn't pretend to be an expert. This is the same Rob Jacobs who said at the St. Cloud Chamber's Health Care forum that he wasn't an expert on health care so he wouldn't pretend to be.

    Sunday, Mr. Jacobs said that I took his statements out of context. The bad news for him is that I didn't. In fact, one media person & another person who organized the event told me directly that they were stunned at his answer. I asked these people whether I'd misunderstood. The event organizer assured me that I hadn't imagined anything.

     
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