Questions for Downey
by Steve Timmer
Sep 25, 2012, 6:30 AM

Asking Keith Downey

On Monday, October 1st, there will be a candidate forum at the Edina City Hall for the candidates for the senate seat in SD49: Melisa Franzen (DFL) and Keith Downey (MNGOP). Here are few questions that you might consider asking of Downey, because he won’t answer them for us:

Since you support the so-called photo ID for voting amendment, do you support a state appropriation for the implementation and continuing cost of the amendment, if it passes? How would you pay for it? Would you raise taxes or cut something, and if so, what? Edina will need forty additional election judges for every election, and it will need to make provision for securing and counting provisional ballots, which of course, will mostly go uncounted, anyway.

If you don’t support a state subsidy to counties and cities to cover the costs, and you prefer an unfunded mandate to counties and cities, how should the local entities pay for the costs of the amendment? Raise property taxes or cut from elsewhere in their budgets? Fire? Police? Inspections? What?

Do you support implementing the recommendations of the governor’s task force on school bullying, published in August, including the recommendation that groups historically the objects of bullying, such as gay and lesbian students, be singled out for protection? The Edina School District does this already; why not make it statewide?

Other than the laughable Republican-sponsored bill from last session that would have drained the state’s cash reserves to nothing (and which the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce trumpets as a reason to vote for you), how do you propose to pay the school districts the deferred amounts owing, now a couple of billion dollars?

And here are a couple more, just for fun:

Are you still Kurt Bills’ campaign chair? Do you support his idea of a return to the gold standard?

Until very recently (and until after we asked you about it), the email contact button on your campaign website linked to the state’s email server.  Did you have a state paid legislative aid sorting the mail for you? Was the LA assisting in your campaign efforts on state time?

Good luck everybody. I’m betting Keith dodges ’em all.

Update: And mirabile dictu, Lori Sturdevant asked the question today (Sunday, September 30th): what about the school shift?

Thanks for your feedback. If we like what you have to say, it may appear in a future post of reader reactions.