"All that is old and already formed can continue to live only if it allows within itself the conditions of a new beginning."
The Apple (Valley) of Independents' Eyes
Posted 11:19 p.m., June 28, 2004
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She looks a little like Cher and talks a little like Hubert Humphrey. But as a politician, she answers to no one. At least, no one in either of the two major parties. And she might be the key to the momentum of Minnesota's fading third-party movement.
I received an email last Monday from the Independence Party revealing that the party was trying to raise $3,000 for Mary Hamann-Roland, the party's Minnesota District 37 state Senate candidate, by June 22 in order for her to qualify for state campaign subsidies.
The email noted that the Democrats were so high on Apple Valley Mayor Hamann-Roland's Senate candidacy that they aren't even going to field a candidate to compete in the upcoming July 13 special election. The election is being held to replace Sen. David Knutson, R-Burnsville, who has been appointed to the judiciary.
Intrigued at the thought of an IP state senate candidate with a fighting chance to win a legislative seat, I phoned up Hamann-Roland's campaign manager, Mike Germain on June 23 to find out how the fundraising had gone. Pretty well, he said. The $3,000 goal was easily surpassed. In fact that mayor's bid had quickly raised more than $10,000.
Several days later, I was on the phone with Hamann-Roland for what turned out to be a 45-minute chat.
Among the things I learned:
(Kiscaden, as you might recall, was ousted from the Republican caucus during the last legislative session's supercharged partisan rancor, and now caucuses with the Democrats.)
- The mayor, widowed 10 years ago, is a single mother who has raised four kids around two terms on the Apple Valley school board and two terms as Apple Valley's mayor (her current term expires in 2006).
- She is a native of Hamilton, Ohio, a Bible Belt community, the fourth of nine children, several of who grew up to be Democrats, several Republicans and several independents.
- She is staunchly pro-public education and takes credit for co-founding the magnet-styled School of Environmental Studies at the Minnesota Zoo, a well regarded, publicly funded institution that she says has been used as a model for public education by the Netherlands.
- She was approached from "high ups" in both the Republican and Democratic parties before she was successfully recruited by the IP.
- She thinks that, in tandem with the Senate's only other Independence Party member Sheila Kiscaden, she can bridge the gulf of partisanship that now separate the two parties, leading this year to the abysmal failure of the state Legislature to even pass a state bonding bill for needed state infrastructure projects.
Tim Penny, the former Democratic congressman who waged a competitive but unsuccessful bid to succeed Jesse Ventura as an Independence Party governor in 2002, is very high on the Hamann-Roland candidacy. In an email note to the Kevblog, Penny wrote:
I am delighted that--though courted heavily by the DFL--Mayor Hamann-Roland has decided to run as an Independent. It is clear, now more than ever, that both the Democrats and Republicans are playing partisan games and important work is not getting done. The election of Mayor Hamann-Roland will send a shock wave through the State Capitol. More important, as a legislator, she will join Senator Kiscaden in giving a voice to the many mainstream Minnesotans who are not being well-served by the two major parties.
-- Tim PennyWith most of the attention on the District 37 race focused on Tuesday's primary contest between the two Republicans in the race--Vic Ellison and Chris Gerlach--we'll use our space focusing on the third-party challenger. What follows are a few excerpts from my Sunday conversation with Apple Valley Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland.
A few notes: You might notice that the mayor has a tendency not to answer question head on.
You might also notice that I don't ask her in this interview to weigh in on some of the wedge issues--abortion, gay marriage, conceal and carry. That was frankly an oversight, and this afternoon I tried to contact the mayor to get her on record about those issues.
I didn't succeed in reaching her, and quite frankly, I'm not terribly unhappy about that. Pinning them down on the two parties' key emotional wedge issues seems not really a very good way to take the real measure of genuinely moderate candidates.
The Interview
Q: Tim Penny says your election would send shockwaves through the capitol. How do you react to that?
A: I had all those different perspectives and different ways that my brothers and sisters thought about life. My mom and dad got us to appreciate that it's OK to think differently, and in fact for any group of people--family or organization or government--you've got to have differences of opinion in order be able to come to the best solution in the end.They really taught me to be solution oriented in the way I think about things and that's why I think my mom and dad were so successful in raising us kids.
When I got elected to school board [in 1993], I found there is incredible diversity of thought. You have to be able to respect one another and work together as a team. You have to be able to work with those differences of opinion to craft and shape the best solution for our community. I was elected twice to school board and then asked to run for mayor off the school board. It was the same thing on the city council. It's about helping to craft the best solution for the people. And look what was accomplished as a team with diversity of ideas and diversity of thought.
So I am excited about the possibility of working with Democrats and Republicans.
Q: Sen. Kiscaden's experience along that line has been very disappointing. Essentially, in my conversation with her during the last session, her feeling is that nobody wants to work with her because of--not despite--the fact that she is a moderate.
A: But you know what? I believe that if you want change to happen, you have to be persistent and you have to keep working at it. And I believe that Sheila and I, because she has the intention--even though she felt like this year she had that experience--I think that together, because there [would be] two of us, we can make that happen.I have worked with the business community and I have strong support from the Chamber of Commerce, much like she does. The chamber and its relationship to the city of Apple Valley is like no other. We have accomplished so much. And I could make a laundry list for you of all of the things that have happened. There wasn't even an Appleby's in Apple Valley when I became mayor. The whole landscape of Apple Valley is changing.
Q: Let me ask a question. You chose a party where there is no "there" there. There is no party. Why? Why did you choose the Independence Party?
A: I chose the Independence Party because what it did was it gave me the option to work with all sides. In fact, it has it in there in their mission statement, to be able to work with all parties, to get the work of the people accomplished and to bring a mainstream voice. And I thought, well, that sounds like me.
Q: You're sacrificing financing, you're sacrificing the ability to caucus with the legislative leadership, though you may choose to find a strategy for that. What about those issues?
A: I don't think I'm sacrificing anything. I think what I am doing is I am being honest to the integrity of the people in my community. I am electing not to take that PAC money. You're right, I don't get as much money. But in the end it is the people who will bring me to the state house. It will be the people's voices that will guide me as we make decisions at the state house.
Q: You're running for Senate aren't you?
A: It's the state's house, that's why I say it that way. Just like the municipality, like our municipal center. It's the people's house.
Q: Do you feel you will be combating not just a two-party duopoly but also a press corps that is steeped in the major-party system, understands it and is part of it?
OK, but now listen to me. I think in a different way. My choice is not to combat, my choice is to lead and be proactive. And beyond my words but my actions, my words and actions in alignment, I can be a model for change.
Q: You're in a Republican district. Did that factor into your decision to run IP?
A: Think about this, the Republicans approached me and asked me to run first. The Democrats asked me to run. The Independents asked me to run.
Q: I'm guessing that the real story behind that is that some Republicans asked you to run.
A: You wouldn't believe how high.
Q: I'm guessing that your appeal to Republicans is on the moderate to conservative fiscal side, but that's not the whole story. Hasn't the culture war part of their argument has become sort of the loudspeaker part of their message?
A: And that's where they're going land. That's where they're going to be debating. But I believe the real issues are the mainstream. Because, today, we know we have a $160 million deficit we need to deal with. Let's deal with it. We also know that there were issues in the bonding bill that this region needed to have taken care of. The Minnesota Zoo is a state agency, it's a statewide resource. And if you had a house that is in disrepair, it is your responsibility that that asset is maintained. Your insurance company would let you do no less.So the state agency at the Minnesota Zoo is only being support by 39 percent of the state. Its asset preservation is very, very important for the quality of life as well as educating kids from all walks of life all across this entire state. It's important. Plus it's an attraction. Businesses like to have attractions and entertainment, things that keep their employees happy so that they want to stay in Minnesota or that they're attracted to Minnesota. So the Minnesota Zoo was supported by the governor. It was in the bonding bill, and then there was no bonding bill.
Q: Where do you stand on taxes? Haven't you spoken out against new taxes?
A: You mean a no-new-taxes pledge? I would never do that. What I have said is that government has to be cost effective, economical and it has to be excellent service.
Q: So you've been reading your Peter Hutchinson?
A: Yes. But that's the way I think about it. Think about me. Just in terms of my life. I'm a widowed mom raising four kids, so I'm going to want to have priorities. And I can't spend money just willy-nilly. I have to be prudent about my investments. So priorities are going to get invested in, like my children.My number one priority is education. I believe that the intellectual capital of this state is the economic engine of this state. It's what draws businesses here, and it's what will keep businesses here. So we need to make sure that we have great standards, standards that will make sense for our kids, the whole testing that we do here. I think the testing has to be relevant to the child so that the child learns something. If the child is talented and gifted, then what's the next step for that child? What are the opportunities that we can get this child into?
If the child doesn't understand a particular thing, then the test will help us to see that there are areas that we need to focus on so that the child can improve in their skills. I think that's relevant and that makes sense and that makes education accountable.
We have to adequately fund education. We can't do it with sleight of hand.
Q: So on fiscal policy, taxation policy, what is your emphasis?
A: I think that we have been given, from the federal and state governments, mandates. It's breaking our backs. I think when you mandate something you have to fund it. We lost local government aid, lost a portion of our market value homestead credit. [Apple Valley] lost in the last few years over $2 million.Where does the money comes from? I want to leave everything on the table for discussion. Whether it comes from sales tax or a form of property tax, or a gas tax. I want to leave things on the table. I want to have the dialogue. I want to be able to have the public dialogue about where it best lies.
I want to be able to go and work together, with the governor, with the senators and with the House to be able to accomplish something. You're not going to hear me coming and giving them some kind of negative criticism. But having said that, I have to observe that the work of the people wasn't accomplished [in the last legislative session].
So let's observe that, and let's get on with it, and let's figure out the work of the people. Let's figure out how to be able to raise the money in order to be able to fund the roads-and if it's through a gas tax, if it's through a local county gas tax, if it's through a change in the formula ... which is probably necessary to do, there are many, many ways that we can solve this problem and go back and come to a solution.
Q: What does your candidacy signal about the viability of a third-party movement in this state?
A: I think it signals that the Independence Party is viable, and I think that it signals that there is an opportunity to have unity in this state.
-- Kevin Featherly
