GOP Governor Forum

    Tuesday, January 26, a GOP governor forum was held at Bemidji State University (BSU). Students and members of the community were encouraged to join, and they sure did. Even though some showed up fashionably late, the whole room was eventually filled and more chairs had to be added.

    As people gathered in slowly and candidates mingled with the crowd, introducing themselves and handing out business cards. Booths for each candidate were set up around the room.

    The Beltrami County Republicans and the BSU College Republicans hosted the forum as moderators and asked the six governor candidates questions in which they each received 60 seconds to answer.

    “If you don’t like what you do, find something else to do. Because life is too short to be miserable,” said Bill Haas, resident and former mayor of Champlin. It was the start to a night full of wise words of wisdom and common sense.

    One of the many issues covered was the ever-so popular topic of how to reconstruct the economy.  Phil Herwig, a fierce candidate from Milaca, said he wants to sell off some Minnesotan land in order to save money. Haas, however, believed it’s all common sense and Minnesota needs to take the lead and build more nuclear plants.

    Leslie Davis, founder and president of Earth Protectors, claimed that he has the money budget plan inside his book, “Always Cheat,” which exposes Jesse Ventura.

 

    “You can’t pay debt with debt in order to get rid of debt,” said Davis.

    Throughout the forum, Davis constantly mentioned his money budget plan, and how most people don’t even know where their money comes from.

    Tom Emmers, resident of Delano and former representative, wasted no time winning over the Beavers' hearts and wore a BSU hockey jersey, claiming everyone should support the Beavers. Following this attempt to win students’ hearts, he went on to mention that he believes if Minnesota starts voting Republican now, and the party is elected in 2011, more and more Republicans will begin to be elected around the nation.

    Marty Seifert, a young and confident candidate, claimed he is a “bottom-up type of guy,” meaning he believes the people come first, and then the government.

 

    A candidate who agreed with Seifert on this perspective was Sen. David Hann, who went on to say that the government owns too much property, and “we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.”

    Hann, Seifert and Herwig said they want to cut taxes, declaring that the government does not grow the economy, the people do. However, the latter two candidates did a fine job of beating around the bush when an audience member asked them to give a percentages for the amount of taxes Minnesotans would be paying, and how many cuts they would make. Neither had a straightforward answer, and neither had exact numbers picked out.

    One brave student asked what each candidate would do to lower the costs of college tuition. The first to answer was Haas, who said he believes that students should not be required to take electives (liberal education requirements) because they are, “a waste of time and money.”

 

    Davis couldn’t have agreed more with Haas. "It doesn’t take four years to learn what you want to learn,” said Davis.

 

    Emmers may not have specifically said what Haas and David did, but he gave the idea that the tuition students enter college with should be a set tuition; “No surprises.”

    Towards the end of the forum, audience members were allowed to ask one or two candidates a question. While Seifert and Emmers received the majority of the questions, Herwig and Haas were asked multiple questions about affirmative action by three American Indians.

 

    The three, together as a group, asked them if they believe affirmative action should be allowed during job hiring’s. Both candidates stood by their answers all three times and said the most qualified people need to get the job. Haas remained calm, but it seemed like Herwig was almost yelling at the audience members and pointing his fingers.

     “Affirmative action doesn’t work! People need to have skills and knowledge!” said Herwig. After the third affirmative question was asked, everyone could see the frustration growing on Herwig’s face.

    However, the third question was aimed at Davis and Hann, who won over the crowd. Davis claimed he’s all for the rights of the people; not for affirmative action, but respect. And Hann said he believes people need to follow the law and make sure everyone has equal opportunities. It may not have been the exact answer the askers were looking for, but they were the only ones clapping and cheering during Hann and Davis’ answers.

    It was a night of campaigning. Throughout the forum people could be heard agreeing with the candidates with, “Thank you!” and “Yes, finally!”