I was surprised to read Wizard Mark's posting yesterday in which she supposedly peered into the recesses of my consciousness and found me not serious about my candidacy for County Commissioner. I felt a little like Sir Gawain the Green Knight who was bedazzled by two evil wizards and forced to reveal the dark secrets of his soul. Actually, our strategy is not that secret. It's pretty obvious. Peter McLaughlin has a solid base of DFL support. That was obvious in the Primary. We have the support of the Green Party and the left, and we hope to win over the independent and uncommitted voters who make up the other 80% of the electorate. We think they will be concerned about issues like Peter's insistence on awarding $300 million in corporate welfare to Carl Pohlad to build a stadium while women and children are being thrown off economic assistance. Then, after that thinly disguised ad hominem attack on my character, Wizard said she wished there could be a serious discussion of the issues. Wizard, I have published two editions of The Challenger, delivered each of them to all 64,000 doorsteps in the 4th District, raising issues like: the Carl Pohlad corporate welfare giveaway; the horrible mess at Lake and Hiawatha that transformed an orderly intersection with a 60 second light to an octopus with 160 second light and no provision for pedestrians or bicyclists; the questionable actions of the County Board in agreeing to burn garbage from five other counties and the city of Shakopee; the raising of salaries and expenses up to almost 20% for the offices of the Commissioners at a time when the rest of us are tightening our belts; the cost overrun of a half a million dollars on the Hiawatha LRT before construction began; the practice of accepting campaign contributions of more than $100 from people doing business with the County; and, finally, the delivery of services by the County in a manner that would be more user-friendly. We have raised these questions repeatedly. We have tried to arrange public debates with Peter McLaughlin. He is at complete liberty to use this forum to respond, or, my newspapers would welcome his comments. You are confident Peter will "give us the particulars on why we should re-elect him." I wouldn't hold my breath. I know you, like myself, are concerned about the possible exit and entrance ramps at Lake and Nicollet. There was supposed to be a final decision on that this month. Some of the more controversial features are a fly-over exit ramp for the employees of Allina and Wells Fargo so they wouldn't have to stop at 31st Street or Lake Street at a cost of $40+ million and widening Lake Street to 8 lanes. Surely we deserve leadership on these issues from the elected official responsible for Lake Street. Since Lake Street is a County Highway, that elected official is Peter McLaughlin. He was supposed to inform us of his decision on this plan this month, now the announcement of his decision has been put off until the middle of November. At that time I expect he will inform us of his positions on any number of issues. Unfortunately, it will be two weeks after the election. Ed Felien, Powderhorn
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