On the Issues

As a licensed mental health professional, I have spent most of my career working with individuals impacted by serious and persistent mental illness, including many of those whom society often deems to be living in the “shadows” of life. Too often, it is our most vulnerable who are left falling through the cracks, as Hubert Humphrey once stated, "The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life—the sick, the needy and the handicapped." Sadly, our federal government is failing this test, miserably, and it will be up to us here in Minnesota to be our “brother’s keeper,” and make sure we don’t let more people fall through the cracks with the cuts coming from the federal government.

Additionally, people who work for a living shouldn’t have to pay such extraordinary costs for health insurance, and until we have a true genuine universal coverage system, we need to take every step possibly in order to make sure people get the coverage they need, and to make sure hospitals and providers are reimbursed for the care they provide.

Minnesota is home to more Fortune 500 companies per-capita for a reason; we invest in education, and not just K-12, but in Early Childhood Education, Vocational Education, and World Class Research and Development Universities known throughout the globe.

We also know that we are in a period of great change when it comes to education, too many students are falling behind for many different reasons, and making this a partisan fight is nothing but counter-productive to the well-being of our state and it’s economy; we need to be open to new ideas and concepts that allow for us to both meet our students where they’re at, and push them towards being the best educated our country has to offer.

Fighting fraud is something I’ve been familiar with through my work as a healthcare provider for a long time, and it will continue to be a priority. We can do new things that can help stop fraud before it starts by doing things such as:

• Establishing a state database to automatically block those convicted of fraud from accessing state programs and funds

• Requiring more thorough front-end screening including in-person visits and inspections, update our technology and provide ongoing training to continuously monitor our programs more efficiently.

• Strengthening criminal enforcement by leveraging the powers of the new Inspector General Office, and protect whistle-blowers within our agencies.

We also need to modernize our state government’s antiquated data systems, and and allow for more “top-to-bottom” audits of state agencies.

I have spent the last ten years working as a mental health professional inside correctional facilities, both jails and prison; there are very few people who have had this kind of experience and have been able to glean the type of insight needed in order to provide a much needed perspective in St. Paul.

I understand how people land in jail and prison, the systems they go through along the way, and both the good and “broken” parts of our criminal justice systems. I have a unique understanding of what law enforcement professionals deal with day-to-day, and the difficulties of working within a variety environments; we need change, and we need to make these changes together. Public safety is not a partisan issue, and we cannot treat it like one.

Minnesota would benefit from a statewide movement, such as the “Child Care for All” campaign, working toward free or low-cost child care for every family, care for every child from birth through age five, professional pay and respect for early educators, more child care options in every community, and high-quality care that helps all children thrive. 

Whether you see it as a blessing, or a burden, it is up to us here in Minnesota to set the standard when it comes to clean water and agricultural initiatives; as the headwaters of the Mississippi, we know that nobody down-stream from us is going to work harder than those sending the water their way.

Additionally, if we’re going to make mandates, we need to back them up with funding and not pass the costs along to our farmers and consumers.

Minnesota lost too many opportunities to make the right investments in multi-mode transportation options under previous leadership, but this cannot stop us from building a system that works for everyone; we cannot continue to be a strictly car-based transportation society. There are many, many examples of how to do this across the globe, trains and rail can and must work here, and the people of Central Minnesota deserve rail as an option.

We also must continue focusing on making sure we are efficient with our tax dollars when it comes to road infrastructure; currently Minnesota ranks anywhere from 5th to 11th in it’s efficiently standards, and usually in the top 5 for quality.

We must be mindful of overly relying on property taxes, especially for those living on a fixed income, and cannot allow our seniors to be taxed out of their own homes.

We also need to continue supporting those struggling with nutrition shortfalls, rural isolation and mental health access, and protecting folks from scams and fraud. We also need to continue supporting Aging Pathways and Adult Protection services.

I strongly believe the Supreme Court’s 5-4 “Citizen’s United” decision, which opened the flood gates for outside money and PAC’s to influence our elections, was one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever made.

Since races are often very close in this area, voters are often inundated with ads that don’t come from the candidates themselves, but unknown entities and super PAC’s who don’t have to tell us where the funding is coming from; that is wrong, but we can do something about it.

While it would likely take a constitutional amendment to permanently undo the impacts, states are starting to fight back, specifically in Montana and Hawaii, and I believe we can make efforts to stop “dark money” and corporations from spending on our elections, and this will be a top priority of mine.

Once again, we are seeing more and more failures from the federal government and it’s promise to our veterans.

Both of my grandfathers fought in WWII, my father served in the Army Reserves and had over a dozen parachute jumps in an airborne unit, my great uncle spent several years as a POW in Vietnam (including in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton”) after his plane was shot down, I have lost friends who served in Iraq, and I have worked with dozens of Veterans as a mental health counselor. Their stories and experiences will never leave my side, and we owe them more than broken promises.