I am voting for Peter Perovich in Senate District 35 this year because I find him a much better fit for this district and this state. Peter and his family have long-time roots here in the Anoka and Ramsey communities, he grew up around the educational challenges facing Anoka-Hennepin school district, and as an adult has focused his attention on the modern challenges of balancing our environmental concerns, our love for our lakes, rivers and streams, and the interests of the hunting and fishing communities throughout the state. I see Peter Perovich as an “Abeler Democrat,” to coin a phrase; Peter would not be tied to party dogma, he would be open to collaboration with the Senate Republicans to legislate solutions to the gridlock that we face in St. Paul, and he would be willing to take hard votes based on his own fine principles, not just those of his party and his supporters.
Many of us union members in Anoka, Andover, Ramsey and northern Coon Rapids have endorsed Peter Perovich because of the positions his opponent, Branden Petersen, has taken against our collective bargaining rights in supporting a Right to Work amendment, against government and government workers, and especially against teachers – in particular against the great people we have teaching and providing classroom support in our very own schools. We hear Branden Petersen railing against “bad teachers” and insisting on better performance evaluation processes. Which teacher made Branden sit in the corner when he was a young boy? He sure has it out for these hard-working professionals – and he is not a trained and educated teaching professional himself.
I don’t understand Republicans like Petersen who want to get elected to serve in our government, but whose real purpose is to tear away at the government itself, and the public employees who make our state and communities efficient and successful in these trying times – people like our teachers, our police, our child support officers, our parole and correctional officers, our snow plow drivers, our forest rangers and fish and wildlife protectors, and the office clerical staff that hold together the nuts and bolts of every school and office building around the state.
I don’t understand Republicans like Petersen who voted to change the homestead credit in 2011. You might be lucky, and your property taxes didn’t go up. Anoka County and many of our communities are holding down their property tax collections, but not all communities can do so. Throughout Minnesota, that Republican change shifted more of the property tax burden to homeowners and away from commercial properties. Homeowners in many communities have seen the same or higher taxes despite lower home valuations. Peter Perovich and a DFL legislature will work to restore the market value homestead credit.
I don’t understand Republicans like Petersen who voted in 2011 and again in 2012 against raising revenue, but to make the budget balance, shifted educational funding down the line, further hurting our schools and educational system. Peter Perovich believes in investing in our schools now, and not using any fancy budgeting gimmicks to balance our state budget on the backs of our schools. Perovich is committed to reversing the short-sightedness of Branden Petersen and his Republican colleagues, and will work to legislate paying back our schools the monies they are owed.
I’ve watched both local debates between Peter Perovich and Branden Petersen, sponsored by the area mayors and the League of Women Voters. Branden Petersen is ambitious. He’s a young man in a hurry, and Petersen is carrying a set of principles for our future that scare me. He called Minnesota a “sovereign state” in the Anoka debate. Minnesota isn’t sovereign, but Republicans like Petersen have introduced legislation to make us sovereign – to enable us to reject federal legislation they don’t like, as they want to stymie as best they can, such programs as Obamacare, Medicaid, and laws protecting women’s reproductive rights. Help stop this ambitious young man’s political career here and now, and elect Peter Perovich to the Minnesota Senate for District 35 on November 6th.
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