14 August 2008

Republican Area in Minnesota Could Go Democratic in November

Shifts in views, new residents seen changing Southern Minnesota

By Kathryn McConnell
Staff Writer

Rochester, Minnesota -- Although southeastern Minnesota is traditionally conservative, area voters may cast their ballots for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in the November election.

“This area is changing -- becoming much more moderate and liberal,” said Lowell Fredin, a retired U.S. Postal Service worker from Plainview.

Fredin told America.gov that as residents of larger cities move to southern Minnesota -- an area known for its slower-paced lifestyle and scenic surroundings -- the region is becoming more liberal. Professionals seeking jobs at Rochester’s well-known employers, the Mayo Clinic and IBM, also tend to be more liberal. Rochester is the largest urban area in southern Minnesota and the third largest economically in the state.

The majority of visitors who spoke with America.gov at the Olmstead County Fair -- an annual celebration of the area’s agricultural economy held in Rochester -- said they would vote for Obama over Republican John McCain for president.

Jeanine Kubista, who works in advertising in Owatonna, said she will probably vote for Obama because America “needs something different” in its leadership. She said that while she is neutral in her support for America’s involvement in Afghanistan, she wants America’s military involvement in Iraq to end quickly.

Mobile phone company worker Troy Day of Zumbrota is another Obama supporter. Day opposed the United States becoming involved in Iraq and said he thinks the involvement has benefited only large Republican Party contributors, some of whom he believes received large reconstruction contracts.

Farmer Jon Petit raises Hereford beef cows outside Rushford. He said he thinks Obama would end America’s involvement in Iraq and redirect a larger portion of the national budget to meeting needs at home, such as education and health care.

Michael Paine of Waseca likes McCain and thinks he would best support business. Paine and his family operate a small, mobile healthy snack food business that serves community festivals. Paine also said he thinks Obama does not have enough experience to be president and is “just telling people here [in America] and around the world what they want to hear.”

Paine wants the next president to focus on narrowing America’s trade imbalance and on creating more jobs in the United States. He is concerned about what he says is a weakened U.S. economy and believes America has been “selling itself out” to investors from other countries.

Lynn Zaftke, a lending agent for United First Financial in Rochester, said he usually votes for Republicans. He thinks McCain is the strongest candidate because “he won’t raise taxes. Obama will.”

Zaftke is also concerned about Minnesota’s Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken.  Franken has admitted he failed to pay payroll taxes for workers in the past. Zaftke said he does not want that “irresponsibility” to carry over into public office.

Finding alternative energy sources to relieve high gasoline prices and confronting climate change are issues that concern the people surveyed.

Most voters said they believe every individual can do something to protect the environment, such as recycling waste, driving less and using less electricity. They split on the question of whether America should drill for oil off America’s coastlines or in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

Both McCain and Obama favor some form of offshore oil drilling. Brian Davis, the Republican-endorsed candidate for the area’s 1st Congressional District seat, strongly favors looking for oil offshore and drilling in Alaska, while 1st District incumbent Representative Tim Walz, a Democrat, favors developing alternative energy sources such as wind and ethanol.

Dessaliness Similhomme wants the presidential and congressional candidates to talk about how America can provide more support for poverty-stricken countries, especially his native Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

The part-time Baptist minister also said he wants the next leaders to do something to generate more American jobs. As a father, he would like a second, higher-paying job so he could provide better support for his family while continuing to contribute to his home community in Haiti.

This article is part of America.gov’s continuing coverage of seven of the 435 U.S. congressional districts during the 2008 campaign. Each offers a different prism from which to view U.S. politics. For more information, see U.S Elections - State and Local.