Klobuchar Brings U.S. Senate Campaign to Walker

Klobuchar brings U.S. Senate campaign to Walker
Dean Morrill, Editor
The Pilot-Independent

U.S. Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar recently returned to Walker, the town where she first decided to run for seat during the 2005 Eelpout Festival while in an ice house on Walker Bay.

Klobuchar and her husband were invited to come ice fishing by her friend Cass County Attorney Earl Maus. "I told Earl I think I have a good chance of winning, and he told me to go for it," she said during the fund-raiser.

The Hennepin County Attorney and DFL-endorsed candidate was back in Walker last week to outline her agenda to more than 70 supporters at the city park. Also attending the fund-raiser and introducing Klobuchar were Walker-resident and District 4B-candidate Ron Berry, District 4A Rep. Frank Moe and District 4 Senate-candidate Mary Olson.

Moe criticized Klobuchar's opponent, Rep. Mark Kennedy, for the deciding vote he gave that raised property taxes more than $4 million in Cass County and $3 million in Beltrami County. "I ask myself, when is this going to stop. It came to me on the way down here, Nov. 7."

Olson, a Bemidji attorney who is trying to unseat first-term state senator Carrie Rudd, R-Breezy Point, said Klobuchar is the person Minnesotans need in Washington. "We need a change. We need a specific plan for economic development in rural Minnesota. We know that our education isn't what it used to be. What Amy has done is answer a question: what are we going to do about it? Where are we going to go? You've given the direction to the party for the kind of change we need and the leadership we need, and we are so grateful to you."

Berry, a retired Walker-Hackensack-Akeley teacher, said there are several reasons a change is needed. "Skyrocketing national debt. No Child Left Behind Act, which teachers know is a great policy. It's not working at all. Medicare Part D. Cost of law enforcement. Stem cell research veto. Denying body armor for our troops. Record budget deficits. Millions of uninsured Americans. The list goes on and on," Berry said as he introduced Klobuchar.

"When you are lost in the woods in northern Minnesota, you need a compass. When you don't have a compass, you follow the North Star," she explained. "I think too many people in Washington right now are lost in their own wilderness. They've been led astray by the Enrons, the Exxons, the Halliburtons, and they need their own compass."

Klobuchar said they need a moral compass, but instead they have been using a congressional compass, and the only problem is it only points in one direction, and that's toward "W," as in George W. "I can promise you this when I'm your senator, I will not be following the Lone Star ... but the North Star."

Her goal if elected, is to make health care affordable for small businesses with tax credits. "I believe that the people in this country should be able to buy into the same kind of health care that members of Congress have, and we should help them to do it."

She also said the country can look to Minnesota for its energy needs. "... From our crops, our corn, soybeans, stock grass, residue from logging; it's endless. We have the scientific know-how here."

Klobuchar said ethanol and biodiesel pumps also need to be increased. "There are 180,000 gas pumps in this country and only 650 are E-85. When you look at a country like Brazil that's completely fuel energy efficient now and they have a pump at every station. That's the first thing we have to look at if we're going to move to energy independence. Putting those standards into law ... and stop giving all these rights to the oil companies."

Closing loop holes in laws that allow tax shelters for billionaires so they can avoid paying taxes is another change she wants make. "There are just a lot of possibilities to do things for the people of Minnesota. That includes changing course in the war in Iraq. I think everyone agrees now we have to do something differently. We have to be honest in what's going on, we need to change course and bring in a commander to figure out the most responsible way to bring our troops home."

Klobuchar, who had to use crutches to get around because of hip surgery she had 10 days earlier, said her campaign is going well. But despite the fact that she currently leads in the poll, she knows the race will get tighter before the election.
She asked her supporters to get out and be her ambassadors and not let the other side slime her.

"I need you to be there to tell the truth, because we've seen what's happened in these campaigns before when the facts aren't out there." There are so many issues that are important in this election, she stressed. "From health care, energy, tax fairness and Iraq. This is an election about one state, one Minnesota. Don't let them divide us geographically."

Firearms is another issue Klobuchar spoke about. "I'm not going to do anything to your guns. I believe hunting and fishing is such an important part of recreation in Minnesota ... our quality of life."

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