Liberal in the Land of Conservative

A while back I had the opportunity to exchange a few emails with some local representatives in order to find out about their priorities for the upcoming legislative session. Representative Hosch (DFL) made it clear that his primary focus is improving health care and that it is from that that other problems and issues could be addressed.

He currently is working with Representative Seifert (R) and Representative Thissen (DFL) to, as I understand the legislation, provide oversight to rural health care cooperatives whose goal is controlling costs and improving access to vital health services.

Typically, I am of the opinion that we need large scale reform of the health care system whether through single payer or universal health care. However, I am also a pragmatist and realize that if the choice is between fixing part of the problem or fixing nothing because we can't come to an agreement over the solutions, then we need to be fixing the parts that we can agree upon.

A little over a week ago I introduced what I hope will be a regular feature here on Liberal in the Land of Conservative: an examination of the legislative priorities of various state representatives and senators in the area. Moving forward, my hope is that this will also be an examination of whether or not those priorities are being accomplished.

Since beginning this blog journey I have not spent much time discussing Larry Hosch in House District 14B despite having met him several times and being impressed with his commitment and his intelligence with each of those meetings. Hosch has risen quickly and this session will be serving in the role of Assistant Majority Leader. Yet another reason to be proud of a DFL that not only promotes the brightest but also people that may not be purely in line with the rest of the party. With the weeding out of the Republican Party, we in the DFL must welcome diversity of opinion be they conservative, independent, or liberal Democrats.

Larry returned my email about legislative priorities and it appears as though his focus will be primarily on health care.

With a fix in health care, according to Hosch, we will be freed up to do other things on the wish list.

This is but a brief snippet of the goals Hosch wanted to relay to me and I am hoping to have further discussions via podcast with him to allow him to provide further details.

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.

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

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?