U.S. ELECTIONS | Guide to the 2008 Election
16 January 2008
Minnesota Voters Focused on Immigration, Iraq
Transportation infrastructure, farm policies also concerns
Washington -- The war in Iraq and immigration top the list of issues expected to influence voters of Minnesota's 1st Congressional District heading into November’s presidential and congressional elections, according to a former district congressman.
"The war will be on everyone’s minds ... people want to see progress," Tim Penny said.
Penny, a Democrat-turned-Independent, told America.gov that transportation infrastructure planning, the direction of U.S. farm programs and perceptions of public officials' effectiveness are other issues that concern the district's voters.
Penny now heads a foundation based in Owatonna, Minnesota, focusing on regional economic development and support for philanthropic causes. He also writes and lectures about the role of government. Penny served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1982 to 1994.
Owatonna, a city of close to 25,000 people, is located in the center of Minnesota's 1st District, which borders Iowa to the south. The city is on Interstate Highway 35, a major north-to-south route bisecting the United States from Mexico to Canada. In August 2007, one of the highway's bridges in Minneapolis, 97 kilometers to Owatonna's north, collapsed. That brought heightened concern throughout the state for maintaining roads and bridges.
Regarding the influence immigration likely will play in the upcoming election, Bluestem Prairie, an Internet blog that focuses on Minnesota 1st District issues, reports that some voters see new residents as helping to spur economic growth while others express concern that some immigrants are in the United States illegally.
Bluestem also reports that policies concerning taxes, health care, education, disaster recovery, global warming, aid for small business development and services for older citizens and military veterans are among district voters' concerns.
With approximately 615,000 people, the geographically broad 1st District is growing in population. It is represented in Congress by Tim Walz, a teacher and veteran of the Army National Guard.
Walz, of Mankato, population 35,000, has a strong chance of being re-elected, Penny said. The first-term congressman in November will face one of several announced Republican challengers including State Senator Dick Day of Owatonna and physician Brian Davis of Rochester, population 100,000.
Penny said he is seeing an increase in young voters -- age 30 and younger -- in the district. Religious conservatives are another growing influence, he said.
The late Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone had strong support among young voters. Shortly before the 2002 election, Wellstone died in a plane crash while campaigning against Republican Norm Coleman, who won the race.
In November, Coleman will have a re-election challenge. Democrats Mike Ciresi, a lawyer, Al Franken, a comedian, and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, a professor, are vying for their party's nomination to run against Coleman.
The Minnesota arm of the national Democratic Party is known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party. It was formed in 1944 by the merger of the Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties. It is the party of former U.S. vice presidents Walter Mondale and the late Hubert Humphrey.
