Three new polling
places added in Nokomis
by Tesha M. Christensen
Before you head to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 8, be sure to
doublecheck your polling location.
Due to long lines, several new locations were added in the
Nokomis neighborhood. There are now 13 polling locations instead of 10.
Here are the details on the precinct splits:
• 12-6 added 12-11 (south of 52nd St E) with the new polling
location of Trinity Lutheran Church of Minnehaha Falls, 5212 41st Ave. S.
• 12-8 added 12-12 (east of 21st Ave S) with the new polling
location of Roosevelt High School (Gym), 4029 28th Ave. S.
• 12-5 added 12-13 (south of 49th St E) with the new polling
location of Keewaydin Campus – Lake Nokomis Community School (Gym), 5209 30th
Ave. S.
Go to http://vote.minneapolismn.gov/voters/where-to-vote and
enter your address to find your polling location.
TWO QUESTIONS ON BALLOT
Expect to find two questions on this year’s ballot. The first
will be voted upon by all the citizens in Minnesota. If approved, it would
remove lawmaker’s power to set their own pay. An independent, citizens-only
council would be established to prescribe salaries of lawmakers instead.
The second question pertains to the Minneapolis School
District. The school district’s existing referendum revenue of $1,604.31 per
pupil is scheduled to expire after taxes payable in 2016. A “yes” vote would
extend the property tax levy for nine more years. It would increase each year
by the rate of inflation. The money will be used to manage class sizes, and
provide supportive services and activities for students.
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 63A
Kyle
Bragg - R
kylebraggformnhouse63A@gmail.com
Bragg has resided in Standish for 18 years. He has a have a
bachelor of arts in business administration. He has worked in the finance
department at Loffler Companies for 12 years, and is on the Loffler Helping
Hands Team, which connects employees with local charities including St.
Joseph’s Home for Children and Ronald McDonald House.
His first priority, if elected, will be to work on a
s”olution to the crisis of unsustainable rising healthcare costs,” he said.
When open enrollment for MNsure begins in less than a month, residents shopping
for individual policies will have to pay 50-67% higher premiums in 2017; Blue
Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is no longer a provider option, and there
are new enrollment caps with each of the remaining providers.
Another focus will be on education. “The high school
graduation rate in Minneapolis was 64% in 2015 and there is an achievement gap
of about 10% for students of color that needs to be closed,” he said.
He would also work to lower the cost of higher education with
more in-state tuition credits, fee reduction, and scholarships.
Bragg supports legislation to lower taxes for middle class
working Minnesotans and to provide property tax relief with more state aid to
municipalities and counties.
“I will also support efforts to focus spending in the next
biennium to help Minnesota businesses create jobs and enhance research and
development in order to increase production of goods and services which can be
exported to other states and countries to bring more money into the state and
promote economic growth,” he stated.
Bragg has been married for almost 19 years and has two
daughters, ages 9 and 11.
Jim
Davnie (I) - DFL
www.jimdavnie.org
Davnie taught middle school social studies for 17 years.
While teaching he was elected to three terms as his local union’s president and
also served in leadership positions at the state level with the Minnesota
Federation of Teachers and later Education Minnesota. He currently works as a
personal finance educator for Lutheran Social Service.
Davnie was first elected to the Minnesota House in 2000.
He currently serves on the Advisory Board for Camp du Nord, a
family camp operated by the YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities.
Davnie believes that that state needs a system that provides
universal access to healthcare at an affordable price to all Minnesotans. He
supports universal system will create efficiencies and costs savings not
available in our current disconnected approach.
He supports tax policy that fairly spreads the burden fairly
and feels that wealthy Minnesotans should pay at least the same percentage in
taxes as do middle and working lass families. He supports tax policy that
benefits local businesses that help build our local economy not national and
multinational businesses.
Davnie would utilize bonding to build wastewater treatment
plants, secure easements on and around fragile lands and waters, and other
efforts to preserve and improve the quality of Minnesota waters.
He believes we have both a moral and practical imperative to
close the achievement gap in Minnesota. He holds educators accountable but says
we need to balance that with a collaborative approach respecting the
professional insights and skills that they bring to work every day.
He supports bonding for needed public projects – roads,
bridges, public buildings – and enhancing the ability of the private sector to
create jobs through high quality public services, and targeted policies that
enhance the competitiveness of Minnesota firms.
He believes the Legislature must continue its efforts to plan
and build light rail, bus rapid transit, and neighborhood transit options while
keeping fares affordable.
Davnie is married and has two children.
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 63B
Frank
Pafko - R
Pafko grew up in south Minneapolis and graduated from
Roosevelt High School in 1971. After 27 years in South Minneapolis, he now
resides in Richfield.
He earned his bachelor of science in fisheries from the
University of Minnesota in 1975 and worked 34 years for Minnesota Department of
Transportation before retiring in 2012 as Chief Environmental Officer. He is
the Transportation Tsar for the Up and At ’Em radio show and podcast.
His priority issues are improving public education, fixing
MNSure, transportation, tax cuts and streamlining regulation.
Pafko believes that students have been poorly served by the
public school system. “Graduation rates are horrible and test scores continue
to decline,” he pointed out. “We cannot continue to increase funding to a
failed system. Providing education choice and opportunity scholarships will
offer students and parents the financial mobility to choose schools best for
them.”
Pafko labels MNSure and Obamacare as “abysmal failures
imposed on Minnesotans solely by Democrats.” Increasing costs and decreasing
choices will deny Minnesotans health care, he said. “He would reduce the MNSure
tax on premiums, combine the individual market into groups, provide tax
exemptions for premiums, and try to get an exemption from Obamacare and
resurrect the successful MnCare program.
“Funding needs to be increased for roads and bridges to
maintain our investment, improve safety and reduce congestion,” said Pafko.
Before raising taxes, he would transfer existing vehicle related taxes toward
improving roads. One mile of LRT costs over $125 million per mile, he pointed
out, while adding a freeway lane only costs $5-10 million per mile. “Cancel
overpriced trains and use transit dollars to fund an improved bus system. Lanes not trains!” said Pafko.
He would also pass the vetoed bipartisan tax cut bill, which
gives money back to small business, student loan holders, and education savers
and exempt Social Security payments from state income tax.
Pafko is married with two children and six grandchildren.
Jean
Wagenius (I) - DFL
jeanwagenius.org
Wagenius earned her bachelor of arts from George Washington
University in Washington, and went to work as one of the first women in
management at the local telephone company. Next she attended the Jane Adams
School of Social Work at the University of Illinois and did her practice work
in Chicago projects.
Wagnius returned to Washington to work during the day at
Peace Corps Headquarters and at night as a volunteer leader of a city community
center that served teenagers in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city,
Wagnius became convinced that the best strategy for children is to make sure
that they are successful in the very first years of school and that they can
read by the end of second grade at the latest. She has put her conviction into
law by securing the first state funding for all day kindergarten and teacher
training designed to have children read by the end of second grade.
When the family moved to Minnesota, Wagnius promptly became
involved in DFL politics. In 1985, a group of neighbors in south Minneapolis
asked her to run for an open seat in the Minnesota House. She has since served
15 terms.
Wagnius was a staff attorney for the Minnesota Court of
Appeals prior to being elected. She earned her J.D. from William Mitchell
College of Law.
Current committee assignments include Capital Investment, Job
Growth and Energy Affordability Policy and Finance and Ways and Means.
Wagnius does not accept political action committee (PAC)
dollars for her election campaigns, and started the “No Perks Pledge” in the
Minnesota House.
She has authored numerous laws that require manufacturers to
reduce or recycle the toxins that get into air and water, and has worked to
protect groundwater.
Wagnius believes people have a right to be safe in their
homes and communities and has authored numerous bills making our criminal laws
tougher and easier to prosecute.
She advocates for transportation funding that includes bus
and rail transit as well as roads rather than a “roads-only” policy.
Wagnius has been a consistent coauthor of bills to increase
the minimum wage, and voted to pass the Woman’s Economic Security Act, a
package of legislation designed to close the gender pay gap and level the
playing field for work women in the workplace.
STATE SENATE DISTRICT 63
Ron
Moey - R
Moey has been a lifelong resident of the district. He graduated from Roosevelt High School
1962. He attended Mankato State before joining the U.S. Navy; he was stationed
on Okinawa in a Drone Squadron.
When he returned home, he married Betsy, and worked in auto finance at
Northwestern Nat Bank. Then he
went on to start a drain cleaning company, “Ron the Sewer Rat,” in 1973, and
was there until he turned it over to son, Lee, five years ago. He also has two daughters, Linnae, who
works with Fish and Wildlife, and Laura, a 911 operator for the city of
Minneapolis.
The main concern he has for the state is that “healthcare is
out of control and no longer assessable to anyone other that the super rich or
super poor,” said Moey. “We must make healthcare competitive, and eliminate
governmental over control.”
He also believes that Minnesota must be competitive with
other states to have companies stay and expand here. He supports keeping
regulations and taxes under control.
Moey would promote the state’s resources, and make Minnesota
a tourist destination.
“Every child
deserves a good education,” said Moey. “We must do more to promote trade
education.”
He added, “We must stand up to the federal government and
take back the states responsibilities.”
Patricia
Torres Ray (I) - DFL
patriciaforsenate.org
Born in 1964 in Colombia, Torres Ray moved to Minnesota in
1987 where she learned English, worked various jobs, and completed her
education. She earned a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from the University
of Minnesota and a master’s degree in public affairs from the Humphrey
Institute.
Education is one of her top priorities. She supports full
funding of quality childcare for working class families, and believes that
closing the gap between students of color and white students should be the
state’s top priority.
With a goal to make health care more available to all
Minnesotans, she supports strategies aimed to eliminate health disparities,
fund initiatives to promote safe and healthy communities, and universal health
care coverage for all children, such as in the Minnesota Children’s Health
Security Act, which she has worked on since 1996.
She promotes initiatives that will protect natural
ecosystems, promote toxic waste reduction, fund the development of alternative
energy, help reduce dependence on dirty coal, and reduce airport noise.
Torres Ray supports the expansion of public transportation,
and believes that Hiawatha Corridor Light Rail Transit is a valuable asset to
the district.
She support investments in affordable housing to ensure that
low and middle income working class residents are able to access stable and
safe places to live, and seeks legislation to end homelessness.
Torres Ray believes that investments in education, research,
and infrastructure promote economic development much more efficiently than tax
giveaways to industry.
She lives in Longfellow with her husband and two teenage
boys.
This article appeared in the October 2017 edition of the Longfellow-Nokomis Messenger.
