Knockoff Naomi

A few extra candidate commentaries for Minnesota. I'm no Kritzer, but I'll do what I can.

Lakeville and Credit River

Jackie Craig, MN Senate

No relation to Angie, that I know of, but makes it easy to remember two votes in one.

Jackie is the most perfectly Lakeville person I've met. Total sunny-disposition professional-yet-still-found-time-for-the-PTA type, and a really complex mix of policy positions -- but all of them good.

She's really nerdy about access. Access to schools by fully-funding K-12 at the state level so counties can stop raising local taxes. Knocking on every door of every party during her campaign so no one gets left out of having their concerns heard, not just door-knocking people from the party she's running on the way I've seen a lot of other candidates do.

She's focused on the economy and schools like you'd expect to see in the suburbs -- but in common-sense ways that protect the state of Minnesota, like doing one-time distributions of wealth in the lower brackets (and to local businesses that struggled during the pandemic), not permanent tax cuts in the upper brackets ... seeing as the surplus itself is one-time (a few years ago, it was a deficit).

On the other hand, she's not afraid to do permanent things when she sees them as important for being humane -- like ending Minnesota's tax on social security income.

Erin Preese / Greg Clausen, MN House

Erin in the east; Greg in west. I think.

I got to meet Greg -- he's a understated, cool guy. So much so, I didn't actually realize he was an incumbent sitting representative until I started writing this up.

Carly Anderson and Kathy Lewis and Andy Lundblad, ISD 194 School Board

I wrote at length about ISD 194. You get to pick 4 ... I guess I'd probably pick Kim Baker as my 4th to keep some of the others off the ballot?

But definitely vote for Carly Anderson, Kathy Lewis, and Andy Lundblad. They look super qualified and forward-thinking.

Bigger races