The first Madia-Paulsen debate

About 200 people attended the first debate between DFL-endorsed Ashwin Madia and the Republican candidate Erik Paulsen. David Dillon the Independence Party candidate was also invited. The debate was sponsored by the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce and held in an auditorium on the General Mills campus in Golden Valley, MN. While I could have figured out where to go from the signs, I just followed the Madia volunteers in their blue tshirts. They were all over the place. I saw no Paulsen volunteers, only his paid staffers.

Moderator Dannette Coleman asked questions about healthcare, free trade, energy, card checks, taxes, education and global competitiveness. Nothing about Iraq or anything Republicans don't like talking about. This should have been a pretty easy debate for Paulsen. Venturing into corporate America is really an away game for Ashwin. The Chamber rarely endorses Democrats and corporate America is notoriously Republican. The atmosphere was subdued, but I think that had more to do with an 8:00am start than anything else.

While Paulsen wasn't as scattershot as he was on his WCCO interview, he used his time to trot out the usual Republican talking points while at the same time asserting how moderate he was. However, he had no real comebacks against several of Ashwin's charges. The Republican platform, judging from Paulsen's performance today, is card check lies, earmark bans and "Drill Here, Drill Now" lies.

Ashwin was as eloquent and visionary as everyone who has seen him have come to expect. He's also unflappable. The only thing Paulsen (and Republican with a minor twist Dillon) used as a sustained attack on Ashwin was the card check lies. Ashwin deftly handled every attack.

Republicans claim that the sole purpose of the EFCA is to prevent secret ballot elections for union votes. Numerous members of the media have judged their claim as a lie. After attacks on his support for the Employee Free Choice Act which he characterized as "important to prevent intimidation by anyone," Ashwin reminded the audience that the media, like WCCO, have stated that their secret ballot claims are lies and that any reasonable person knows that the EFCA is about guaranteeing that there would be no intimidation. Paulsen won't let that stop him. Ashwin did mention that maybe Republicans believe that if they repeat the lie often often, people will believe them.

When Ashwin accused Paulsen of slashing the education budgets while he was Majority Leader, Paulsen could only claim that he'd won an award from somebody for being so pro-education, he really cared about education and that he'd raised and educated four kids. Duh? Those kids went to private school. Hello? You care? I care more about your record in the State House that what you'll say in a campaign debate.

Paulsen also had no response when Ashwin reminded the audience that when Paulsen and the Republicans kept cutting taxes at the Capitol, property taxes were raised at the local level to cover basic expenses like education. In fact, Republicans were responsible for raising people's property taxes and short-changing our education system.

On taxes, Ashwin rhetorically asked the crowd if after the Bush tax cuts of 2001, "is the economy better now?" Paulsen, on the other hand, wants to extend the Bush tax cuts, spoke against this Democratic Congress whom he asserted have proposed the largest tax increases in the history of the country and claimed that higher taxes mean less business growth. So, Erik, now that corporate taxes are lower than they've been since ... I dunno ... forever ... why is the economy in a recession.

On transportation, Ashwin explained that "everything is all tied together. We need a new way of doing energy." It means building light rail, improving national security through a comprehensive national energy plan emphasizing solar, wind and green technology as well as incentives for consumers that "might in the end save the planet at the same time." Paulsen rolled out a few tired Republican talking points on funding transportation, but spent most of his time defending himself against the Republicans throwing out the 6 who bucked the party and voted for the transportation override.

In Ashwin's close (he went last), he said that "some people think that doing more of the same will get us out of the problems we have." He was referring to the economy, but it could have applied to Paulsen's stand on transportation, education, Iraq, global climate change or you name the topic. Like the rest of the debate, Paulsen had no comeback.