September 7, 2006
-
County Commisioner, District 2
Don’t forget the primary, Tuesday September 12th!
The League
of Women Voters site is often a good resource. You can also check your
ballot there (as well as find out everything you’ll be voting for on
November 7th)
http://www.lwvmn.org/EdFund/Election.asp You may be able to find some more candidate info here:
http://e-democracy.org/wiki/Minnesota_elections County Commisioner, District 2
Well,
I really don’t see anyone that really excites me. Gray seems pretty
good, but I’d really like to know more about his stance on
Transportation issues as well as infrastructure issues. He has some
plans to release position papers on some of these, but that doesn’t
help me today.Of these three candidates, two will go on to the
general election. It is highly likely that those two are going to be
Mark Stenglein (the incumbent for a decade now) and Greg Gray (endorsed
by the DFL and the last three Minneapolis mayors).I see Steve
Wellens as the most obvious “protest” candidate for the stadium tax. I
don’t think I like his take on transit or crime and I didn’t see nearly
enough on infrastructure issues. About the only thing I like about
Stenglein (at least based on his published positions) is supporting
methods for helping people that have been incarcerated work.Given
the choice between these three, I’m probably going to want to see Gray
win in the finals. However, as I beleive that he will move past the
primaries and doesn’t need my vote, I’m going to cast this ballot for
Steve Wellens as a protest vote. I only wish we had STV/IRV so I didn’t
have to gamble with my ballot.Gregory Gray
http://www.grayforcountycommissioner.com/
I wish his position papers were more fleshed out.
*
He is pro-stadium but anti-how it was done. His bolded text in his
position paper on the topic makes sense to me: “I still support a
stadium. However, I do not support the current position of the Hennepin
County board which puts the entire burden of public funding on Hennepin
County residents. Furthermore, I pledge I would never support the
creation of a new tax for a non-essential govenment purpose, without a
vote of those citizens who would be impacted by the new tax.”
* He supports getting more police and getting them out of cars and onto beats where they can interact with the community more
* He supports reducing crime by creating more summer jobs for youth.Steve Wellens:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/6997/HennepinCountyCommissione r.html
A software engineer contractor.
* Focus on bus rather than LRT for mass transit
* Do what he can to reverse the stadium decision without a referendum
* Anti-lawn sign
* Sentencing guidelines for repeat offendersI agree with his anger about the stadium thing. The rest doesn’t really grab me.
Mark Stenglein’s website focuses on public safety and infrastructure concerns.
http://www.markstenglein.com/
* Voted for the stadium w/o a referendum
* Supporter of more cops on the street and a better workhouse program to reduce recidivism
* Most of the infrastructure things he lists are roads.I agree with his focus on reducing recidivism. Nothing else really grabs me and the stadium thing really ticked me off.
BTW:
If I were in Commissioner Peter McLaughlin’s district (District 4), I’d
have a tough decision. On one hand, he supported the stadium thing. On
the other hand, he’s been a strong proponent of multi-modal
transportation and alternative power and been fairly effective at
getting things done. I’m glad I don’t have to decide about him:* He’s a big part of the reason we have any light rail
*
He’s been pushing actually make renewable energy sources such as wind
power available. He managed to get a contract in place that will fuel
at least 130,000 homes in the county with wind power. Part of this
arrangement helps rural farmers get more “productivity” out of their
land.* He was a big factor in making the Midtown Greenway happen.
