Candidates meet in forum before CD 1 rematch

“For those of you that came here looking for a political fight, you’re not going to get one here.”

Ironically, that sentiment came during a forum featuring the two candidates for U.S. Congressional District 1 – and perhaps most surprising, it came from one of the candidates.

U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad, who won the first of two elections pitting him against former Hormel CEO Jeff Ettinger, made the comment during Monday’s forum.

The pair are running in a rematch of the special election in August, held to fill the remainder of the term of the late Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died in February from kidney cancer.

Finstad won that election by a margin of 3.9%, sending him to the U.S. House of Representatives for the final four months of the term.

He and Ettinger will face off again on Nov. 8, this time for a complete two-year term in Washington, D.C.

But back to that comment about politics.

It was in response to a question about the best solution to the student debt crisis.

“I don’t believe it’s the solution that President Biden has put forward under executive order,” said Ettinger, who describes himself as a moderate Democrat.

Biden’s program provides eligible borrowers with full or partial forgiveness of loans up to $20,000 for federal Pell Grant recipients, and up to $10,000 forgiveness to students who didn’t receive Pell Grants.

Instead, Ettinger said, “we should be doing more up-front … with less debt for the students as we design college.”

The federal program, he said, “sends the wrong message to people. Why just student loans? Why not mortgages, why not health care debt, and so forth.”

Finstad agreed, not for the first time during the forum, with at least part of Ettinger’s answer.

“President Biden’s policy was horrible,” Finstad said. “Far too often in politics and government, we lose track of the cost of things. When have we ever really sat down and asked why college is costing so much these days? We should be able to have a cordial, common sense conversation about that.”

A question from the audience about the “broken” political system asked what it would take “to return us to decision being made for ‘we the people,’ instead of all the political in-fighting.”

Ettinger said years ago, members of Congress “typically voted with their party 70-75% of the time. Now it’s 95%-plus. We need an openness to dialogue and working with each other … not a rush to jam things through.”

Finstad, a Republican, said Washington, D.C. “needs to look a lot more like Owatonna. We need real people doing real things, solving real problems in a way that southern Minnesota is just known to get it done.

“We need people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get things done,” he said. “If it’s a Republican or a Democrat – whoever it may be – if it’s a good idea and it advances southern Minnesota and makes this country better, we should have the conversation around it.”

The candidates also found common ground in the issues of backfilling the national workforce shortage with more – and better – options for technical and vocational careers, as well as the need for more affordable housing, but less gerrymandering.

Both hesitated about suggesting the role federal government should play when it comes to shoring up options for day care.

Many of the questions came from audience members, including one who asked the candidates if they would support a term limits amendment for Congress.

Both stopped short of saying they’d support the move, saying it’s ultimately up to the voters to decide whether a candidate should remain in office.

“What I have called for is change in leadership,” Ettinger said. “I think our current leadership – Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell have failed us, in the sense that they are part of the polarization problem. I wouldn’t vote for Speaker Pelosi if I’m elected, and she chooses to run again. I think limits on that kind of leadership would be fine.”

Finstad said the issue provides “an opportunity for creative thinking here … I’m open to a conversation on it; I just don’t think there’s a magic piece of legislation that will solve it.”

There were definite points of divergence, however, when it came to the support of new drilling and pipeline projects designed to bolster domestic energy product, as well as the candidates’ impressions of the Jan. 6 committee findings.

Finstad said that in his stops across the district – which encompasses the southern third of Minnesota – “not once has someone raised Jan. 6.”

Instead, he hears about “family pocketbook issues; the price of gas, the price of food, the supply chain disruptions, the workforce shortages, inflations, 401ks plummeting.”

Finstad referred to it as “another partisan committee” and “political theater.”

“You must talk to a very narrow set of people if that’s never come up,” Ettinger responded, “because I’ve had it come up over and over and over again. I’m not saying it’s the number one issue for people, but it’s something that people are concerned about.”

One of the key points surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was the belief that the results of the 2020 presidential election were false.

“We have candidates in this state that are … saying they don’t believe the election results and we can’t have any confidence in the next set of election results – I think that’s awful,” Ettinger said.

“We’ve already had one race – the special election – and Brad won that race. It never crossed my mind to challenge our local neighbors who are election officials, who go and volunteer, that they somehow manipulated the system and that’s how I got cheated out of a vote,” he said.

“To me, President Trump’s comments and his conduct speak for themselves.”