After debate ARUC endorses...

The election for State Senate District 15 is 9 days away. Last night there was a "candidate forum"...I love how these things are being called anything BUT a debate to loop in people. Sincerely, this catering to the lowest common denominator has to stop. End same day registration and cater to the people who are interested and consequently somewhat informed. If you have to fool them to pay attention they should not be voting anyway.

I digress...

The St Cloud Times has a write up about the debate. Sadly, and it pains me deeply to say this, the entire paper is on the same low quality level as a bad campus paper.

Again, I digress...

It's hard not to get off topic when the St Cloud Times is the source being used...so...vacuous...and...painful...to...read...must...keep...going...

What I found interesting was the way the paper painted the candidates. Ochsner is the "principled conservative", Clark claims to be the "results-oriented moderate" and Becker is the "way for voters to change...a partisan, special interests-dominated culture in St. Paul"

First I will deal with Becker. I love this "anti-special interest" mantra for what it is...humorous. EVERYONE is a special interest. Every group is a special interest. To deny special interests access is denying the rights of people of like minds to band together to make their voices heard. Individuals alone cannot organize well enough to have their voices heard. What are special interests? Certainly every industry of business (and they deserve to have a voice since people are constantly trying to undermine the ability of a business to survive). The League of Women Voters and the Rotary Club are special interests. Senior groups are special interests. Unions are special interests. Pro-life groups are special interests. Anti-life groups are special interest. Pro death penalty groups are special interests.

Basically what Becker is telling us is either:
1) He has no beliefs strong enough for anyone to get behind him. He is wishy-washy and/or unprincipled. These people are very dangerous to anyone who has a belief system. He will agree with you until his whims tell him otherwise.
OR
2) He does not support anyone to have access to the government. Individuals are weak on their own and will have little impact on anything in government but they can be heard by him. This means also that he is unable to get the whole story about an issue. Who better than two competing interest groups to give you the whole story on an issue? Just like the media...if you want the REAL story you have to read the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal (or read the New York Times and play opposite day with it).

I'm going to guess the latter based on this:

"Government is dominated by special-interest groups, party leaders and elites," he said. "The 'F' words that I want to say are that I have the freedom and flexibility to represent the people of St. Cloud."

I'm certain the campaign will say he means he can work with both sides of the aisle. That is spin. I think it actually is saying 'flexibility to decide anything on any issue.' We learned from Jesse that this mentatlity is dangerous; Republicans are learning from Pawlenty that this mentality is dangerous.

Becker is a BAAAAAAD choice for any race. He is left-leaning and thus is not necessarily representative of the St Cloud area.

Next is Clark. I love how liberals try to run from their ture selves. Here we have a pro-big government, cookie cutter tax-and-spender lying to the public in presenting herself as a moderate. She actually defends taxation and the taxation of this state is beyond defense. Only the hardest of left-wingers can actually say there is not a need for some tax reform in this state. Clark is one of those:

The people are the government, and taxes are the way people come together and decide their priorities, she said.

"The role of government is doing things perhaps we can't do on our own, but that we've decided together we want to do," Clark said.

Not giving anyone hope except the bigger-government lovers. And they are NOT moderates. They are liberals.

Clark may be good for some district, but it certainly is not representative of St Cloud.

Finally is Ochsner. Always Right, Usually Correct fully endorses Dan Ochsner in this race. He is a conservative and while we disagree on the Northstar (polar opposites in fact) we agree on our top priority for the state government: reform and shrinking the government. Among his top priorities are tax relief...permanent tax relief and pro-growth (which means necessarily pro-business).

St Cloud needs a pro-business representative to make them grow. Ochsner teamed with Mayor Kleis can do for St Cloud what (pains me to say this) Norm Coleman did for St Paul. I have no doubt that any other candidate from this race will lead to a net negative for the city because they will be both anti-business and unwilling to work hand-in-hand with the new Mayor.