New challengers in House District 19 races

Oct. 28--MANKATO -- Democrats have represented the Greater Mankato and St. Peter areas in the Minnesota House for years, but two Republican newcomers hope to change that.

Rep. Jeff Brand, DFL-St. Peter, faces a challenge from Republican Susan Akland, of St. Peter, in House District 19A while two Mankato candidates new to political campaigns -- Democrat Luke Frederick and GOPer Jeremy Loger -- vie to replace retiring DFLer Rep. Jack Considine, of Mankato, in District 19B.

Akland and Loger face tough odds to get elected in the area. Brand, a former St. Peter City Council member, won his first term as a state representative with 54% of the vote in 2018. Before him, then-Rep. Clark Johnson, a DFLer from North Mankato, won re-election with 53% of the vote in 2016. And Considine routinely captured about 60% of the vote or more in the past two elections in 19B.

Brand

Before he was elected in 2018, Brand spent a term and a half on the St. Peter Council starting in 2012. He co-owns a small business that installs rain gardens, along with serving on various community boards.

Brand serves on several committees in the House and is a vice chair of the House Agriculture and Food Finance and Policy Division. During his tenure, he's helped secure funding to expand the state's farm safety program to include grain storage facility measures, as well as a bill that allows paramedics and other emergency personnel to administer certain kinds of medicine for rare diseases, among other things.

Brand has taken an interest in water quality issues throughout the state. He championed a bill to allow Mankato and other communities to negotiate alternative water quality standards on the Minnesota River with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, which led to further discussions between the two groups. And he hopes to continue working with GOP lawmakers on a water storage bill that could cut down on Minnesota River flooding by restoring lakes and wetlands, as well as promoting soil health along the river.

He's also tried to find ways to encourage farmers to plant more "carbon crops" to leach carbon emissions from the atmosphere and legalize industrial hemp to grow as an insurance crop for farmers.

"I've enjoyed these last two years and I know there are still things left on the table that need to get accomplished," Brand said. "A lot of what we do is based off of partnerships, and I feel like I've made partnerships that hadn't been made before in this district.

Akland

The last time Akland ran for any kind of office was for a position in the high school pep club.

"I ran unopposed," she said with a laugh.

Akland is a retired registered nurse with more than four decades of experience in the field. Though she's served in various volunteer positions at church and at a local hospice, Akland had never seriously considered running for an elected office until last fall.

While watching the news with a group of friends, Akland started opining on state and national issues, which prompted someone to tell her she should run for office.

Akland, who had been trying to find a purpose since retiring and caring for her parents in their last days, said the idea was unexpectedly motivating.

"I knew that was exactly what my purpose is," she said.

Akland said she was motivated to run in part by the national discussion around abortion, which she opposes, and over the nation's growing partisan divide.

She said she hopes if she's elected to restore a bit more civility to the Legislature and bridge partisan divides.

"When I talk about this divide, sometimes I feel like it's all about party," Akland said. "The votes are so often about party lines. My goal will be to say what's right for 19A."

19B

Luke Frederick first thought about running for office shortly after Considine was elected to his first term in 2015.

"He had leaned over to me and said, 'Luke, I'm not going to do this forever, someday I'd like someone like you to run for the seat,'" Frederick said.

Frederick, a Minnesota State University graduate who grew up in Eagle Lake, is a security supervisor at the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center campus, where he works in security for facilities such as the Minnesota Security Hospital and the Minnesota Sex Offender Program.

He's run for union positions in the past, but his campaign this year is the first time he's tried to win public office. He said his mission is to get more people in the Mankato and Eagle Lake area politically active, even if they don't agree with his or the DFL's positions.

"I want to have conversations with every voter out there as I can," he said. "I want to listen to everybody, I believe everybody's ideas are worth listening to."

Frederick's opponent, Loger, has largely remained absent on the campaign trail over the past few months. Loger did not appear at a Greater Mankato Growth forum last month, nor has he updated his campaign financial information past June.

Loger did not return multiple calls for comment.

The issues

Akland, Brand and Frederick tend to agree on several major issues the state will face over the next year or so.

All three agree Minnesotans need to better listen to public health experts on coronavirus regulations, one of the major strategies the state has to curb the virus until a vaccine is made.

Akland has publicly criticized Gov. Tim Walz's peacetime emergency orders in the past, but she said she and her husband, a physician, believe in the science behind the statewide mask mandate and other recommended precautions.

"We have to be cautious especially around our seniors," she said. "I totally believe we should follow those regulations that are mandated right now."

Still, Akland said those regulations need to be tempered with common sense, such as letting people who are outside and spread 6 feet apart choose not to wear masks if they don't want to. And she hopes the state will use prudence in easing restrictions on businesses.

For Brand and Frederick, the regulations are ways to potentially reopen parts of the state if enough people follow the rules. Brand said he recently spoke with Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove with a group of GOP and DFL lawmakers to ask whether Minnesota could ease restrictions on gyms and fitness centers, among other businesses.

"The answer was an emphatic 'no,'" Brand said.

The issue, Brand was told, is the increase in family gatherings and meetings among friends as Minnesotans grow weary of the ongoing pandemic. Brand said he fears Minnesotans will face a tough winter if many can't use fitness or recreational centers when it's cold out.

"Until we can address this situation in a way where people are actually being compliant, I don't know what else we can do," he said.

Frederick said he believes state officials need to turn to public health experts more to address the ongoing virus instead of politicizing the COVID regulations.

"If we have public health experts telling us that the best course of action is a, b, and c, then I'm going to do that," he said. "I'd like to find the experts in their fields to hear what they have to say."

Frederick said he's also concerned over what happens to renters when the state's peacetime emergency order ends, as those who've lost jobs may face evictions unless the state steps in.

Part of the ongoing damage from the coronavirus is the projected $2.4 billion state budget deficit lawmakers will hat to tackle next year. Brand, Ackland and Frederick agree lawmakers will have to make difficult decisions in choosing which state services and programs to cut next year.

Akland said she's interested in looking for potential waste and fraud in state agencies as a way to help balance the budget, though she also believes the state may need to lower taxes on small businesses to help them recover.

"In some ways, helping businesses by lowering taxes early will create more businesses which, in turn, will provide more taxes for the state," she said.

Brand said he doubts the Legislature will look for more tax cuts on small businesses given the $200 million in tax cuts lawmakers passed earlier this year, but he said there could be ways to find savings and more revenue as long as lawmakers were meticulous about what they chose to cut.

"We can do surgery with a scalpel or we can do surgery with a brick," he said.

Frederick said he's open to exploring potential cuts and opening up any untapped revenue for other purposes, but he'd also support taking a look at Minnesota's state tax structure to see if wealthier people or larger businesses need to pay a more fair tax rate compared to small businesses and middle-class families.

"I'm certainly not looking to put more of the burden on the average person," he said.

Frederick, Akland and Brand each said they'd be open to a potential infrastructure bill next year if lawmakers pushed for one, though they have differing thoughts on what it could look like.

Frederick and Brand agreed an infrastructure bill would likely be necessary for the state's economic recovery, though Brand said he'd like to see more public works projects and fewer road and bridges projects included in the infrastructure bill.

Brand accused Republicans of using this year's infrastructure bill to pay for road and bridge projects that should have been paid with dedicated transportation funding, which he said likely needs to be addressed with a potential gas tax increase. And he also said it was vital for the state to take on as many projects as possible given the growing backlog of infrastructure needs and historically low borrowing rates.

"We've got a lot of work that we can do," Brand said. "There's no shortage of projects we can do in our state, but what's lacking is the political will and fortitude to get things done in our state."

Frederick agrees. "The longer we put off on investing in the state, the more it's going to cost for every individual project. If you want to talk about fiscal responsibility, let's invest in projects when we can do so at a cheaper price."

Akland acknowledged she doesn't know as much about infrastructure as she does about health care, but she said the state should use its funding wisely to prioritize projects when necessary.

On health care, Akland, Brand and Frederick slightly diverge. Brand and Frederick are both in favor of a public health insurance option to drive insurance and health care costs down. Akland said she's open to discussing how a public health option could work in Minnesota, but she's not in favor of the idea if it leads to a single-payer kind of health insurance system that she fears could increase taxes for Minnesotans.

"I truly believe in market competition and I believe in portability," she said.

Akland said she would hope the state encourages more market competition for insurance options and health care, which could mean opening Minnesota up to more interstate health insurance exchanges or finding ways to encourage more in-market insurance coverage no matter where Minnesotans traveled in the U.S.

___

(c)2020 The Free Press (Mankato, Minn.)

Visit The Free Press (Mankato, Minn.) at www.mankatofreepress.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.