Fresh off Primary Fresh off rimary Fresh oictory, DFL Senate Candidate Goes on the Campaign Road

Fresh off primary victory, DFL Senate candidate goes on the campaign road
By DEANNA BENDIX

That was the message that U.S. Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party brought to downtown Waseca Wednesday afternoon as part of her post-primary tour of southern Minnesota.

"It's exciting to be here the day after the primary. We did very well. We feel very good about winning this race," Klobuchar said, smiling. "We knew that when the primary was over we had one place to go, and that was southern Minnesota."

With nearly 295,000 votes, Klobuchar easily out-distanced her challenger for the DFL nomination, Darryl Stanton, garnering 92.5 percent of the vote to Stanton's 7.5 percent.

During her stop at the State Street Bistro in Waseca, Klobuchar invoked the spirit and memories of Paul Wellstone and Hubert Humphrey and their outstate roots. And, she said, she's running a statewide campaign.

"This is a grass roots campaign like you've never seen before," she said.

And with that, she told a story about swatting flies.

She recalled sitting with a farmer at his kitchen table talking with him while he held a fly swatter. While the conversation went forward, he swatted flies. Klobuchar said it's time to send someone to D.C. to swat flies like big drug companies and big oil companies and "stand up and get something done."

She said the State of Minnesota has never sent a woman to Congress, though she's not running on that. She said her campaign is based on her record and what she wants to do when she gets to Washington.

While campaigning in northern Minnesota a woman at a rally told her she had never voted for a woman, but she had decided to make an exception for Klobuchar. Because, she said, "You just talked for 45 minutes without notes, and our president can't do that."

For her North Star Campaign Tour, Klobuchar said, she needs a compass, and it isn't pointed toward the W in George W.

"I can guarantee I won't be following the Lone Star but rather the North Star," she said. "We're reaching out to moderate Republicans, Independents and Democrats."

Health premiums have gone up 60 percent in Minnesota, and the cost of going to the University of Minnesota or a state college has gone up 70 percent to 80 percent, Klobuchar said. She added, "Your kids, friends and neighbors are going to war, and you feel it in your heart."

"Our North Star Campaign is guided by Minnesota values like hard work." She referred to her hard working uncles who worked in the mines of Ely and didn't get a high school education.

Rolling back tax cuts for those with annual incomes more than $336,000 is one of her goals. Referring to the current administration, Klobuchar said they had turned a $200 billion surplus into a $300 billion deficit. One dollar out of $12 taxpayers pay to Washington, D.C., she said, now goes to interest on the national debt.

"We've got to go back to the pay as you go plan and get rid of discretionary pork barrel spending," Klobuchar said.

Rolling back the tax cut of the top 1 percent to the tax level of the Clinton administration is not radical.

She called for closing down tax shelters for multimillionaires, which would bring billions into the government coffers and would help pay off the deficit. She said the funds could be used to help with college tuition, health care, Homeland Security and the meth campaign.

Klobuchar wants to be on the agriculture committee in the Senate so that she can work on the farm bill and make sure that price supports for farmers are protected.

Her goal is to "even the playing field" particularly when it comes to health care and make it more affordable. She wants to see permanent disaster relief and ethanol developed as an alternative fuel to end dependence on foreign oil and to create jobs.

Klobuchar declared she intends to take on oil companies and take a responsible stance when it comes to war. "You don't go to war when you don't have a plan." She said she realizes they can't pull out of Iraq in two or three months, but she wants to see the transition of the government to the Iraquis.

Klobuchar said she plans to "take on the tough fights" and, though her Republican opponent Mark Kennedy has $1 million more than she has, "he doesn't have you." She said she's 10 points ahead of Kennedy in the Gallup Poll and ever other survey. "We have enough money to be competitive."

She said that while commenting on the difficulty of her campaign, her 11-year-old daughter reminded her, "It's going to be tough. How many times do I have to tell you; it's the US Senate. There's not going to be a short cut."

In answer to a question about how to mobilize youth and help them to understand that they have to be part of the campaign, Klobuchar responded that she has a very young campaign staff, and she believes that to mobilize youth to be out there, it's necessary to focus on the issues that affect them.

"How hard is it for them and their families to afford college? She said Mark Kennedy voted for a $14 billion dollar cut in education dollars, and it's just getting harder to afford college. She favors a plan for a $10,000 tax deduction for college tuition.

Other issues that affect young people are energy, the deficit and war, and a need for a change in foreign policy, she said.

Asked about solutions to health care problems, Klobuchar said the problem is, "We haven't been doing anything about it. We have to stop allowing people from drug companies and health insurance companies to run health care." She said she is willing to take them on.

Electronic medical records and focusing on quality, effective health care has to happen, she said. "Medicare will go bankrupt in 15 to 20 years. My focus is on affordability and taking on special interest groups."

Klobuchar said she is depending on the support of small town people who care about this state in regard to federal fiscal management, farm support, energy independence, affordable higher education, health care and foreign policy.

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