It'd Be a Horrible Mistake to Elect a Republican in 50B

We have a special election in Minnesota tomorrow!  The MN House seat for District 50B is up for grabs, as long time Democrat Ann Lenczewski has decided to retire.  The district is in Bloomington, covering the southern and eastern part of that city, hugging the Minnesota River from Hwy. 100 to 494, and it includes the Mall of America. Residents of 50B, for goodness sake, vote for the Democrat, Andrew Carlson to replace her.  It'd be a horrible mistake to elect a Republican to represent 50B.

The guy who is running on the GOP side is Chad Anderson, a guy who, on his website, labels the well liked Representative Ann Lenczewski's departure not as retiring, but as a "resignation."  Part of me wonders if the GOP is running Chad solely because his name might confuse Democratic voters in the district, as there are some similarities.

Bloomington is a great city with a dynamic social and economic make up.  District 50B is mainly middle class working families, most of which are 50 and younger, with a larger percentage of African American and Hispanic population than many districts in the state.  We can start right there with reason number one why you don't want a Republican representing you.  The GOP in Minnesota hate African American and Hispanic voters.  HATE them, something you can see for yourself in the way they have treated the minority populations of the state, even allowing the racist Representative Newberger to openly insult African Americans on the House floor.  Electing a Republican is saying it's okay to ignore the Blacks and Latinos in the community.

Chad's website is the usually GOP mumbo jumbo.  He's for gutting the public education system, vague calls for good paying jobs with little details on what he means, and, of course, return the budget surplus to the taxpayers, which really means "we're going to give the wealthiest Minnesotans all of the surplus money, and to get you to go along with it, we'll give everyone making less than 250K $10, EACH!"  If I may, maybe Chad should elaborate on the following things:

• Are you for a $15 an hour minimum wage?  You're trying to be the Representative for a lot of workers who make far less than that.  $15 an hour at 40 hours per week for a year is $31,200 before taxes.  Wouldn't you agree, Chad, that would be the bare minimum needed to support a family?
• Since your district is serviced by light rail, where do you stand on light rail expansion?  Are you for it, or are you like the rest of the GOP, who have not only vowed to never expand it, but have even eluded to shutting down the system we already have in place (which means for your district!)?
• Since the state demographer reported the vast income disparities between white and African American workers in Minnesota, and since your district will have a large African American population, what is your plan to equalize the incomes for African Americans?  Right now, most Republicans insist this is not a problem they are concerned with.  Do you disagree with them?
• Speaking of returning the surplus, considering most tax breaks and government refunds over the last 30 years have gone to the wealthiest Minnesotans, would you be for all refunds from the budget surplus only going to Minnesotan's who make 75K or less a year?  If no, why not?  Wouldn't that tax refund immediately stimulate the economy?  Haven't the wealthiest Minnesotan's gotten their fair share of tax breaks already?
• During the legislative off season, most speeches from Republican Speaker Kurt Daudt and the MNGOP have been delivered in rural Minnesota and have railed, HARD, agains the Twin Cities metro, talking about how they get too much funding, how the metro area needs to give all the money back to the rural parts of the state, and how the Twin Cities metro needs to be put in their place.  How do you feel about your party's official platform?  Are you for District 50B's funds being shipped off to rural districts?

The main question Chad has to answer is simply this, are you going to be another Kurt Daudt lap dog?  We know he told all freshman House members they had to do what HE told them to do, no questions asked.  I think the voters in 50B should know if they're going to have a Representative who will represent the district, what's important to southern and eastern Bloomington, or will they have a Representative who will only do what Kurt Daudt tells him to do.

Pass this along.  If you are in 50B, vote tomorrow, February 9th!  Make the right decision for a powerful, INDEPENDENT, voice who will represent the district.  Vote Andrew Carlson!