Better Know a Challenger Volume 3: 37B Rosemount & Apple Valley

Phil Sterner, the DFL endorsee, currently serves on the Rosemount city council. He has an accomplished, 40-year record of community involvement and service. Besides city council, he owns a successful business in Apple Valley, serves on the port authority board in Rosemount, and has a proven record of vision and passion for highly effective government.

Dennis Ozment has served Rosemount & Apple Valley for a quarter of a century, and if it were not for his retirement, this seat would be a nearly impossible pickup for the DFL. Like many old-fashioned Republicans, Representative Ozment has recently had to face challenges from the extreme wing. He easily overcame them all. One of those challengers, Judy Lindsay, has finally won the endorsement of the GOP after numerous prior attempts.

Lindsay has been known for her years on the Apple Valley/Rosemount school board, during which time teacher’s unions have strenuously opposed her. She has testified to the Minnesota legislature that the human rights act should be amended so that it not apply to homosexuals, because homosexuality causes bi-polar disorder. Dennis Ozment said it best. “Judy’s an extremist. Everybody knows my opposition to Judy… she’s just unelectable.” Eleventh Avenue South calls her “the second coming of Michele Bachmann”.

Fortunately for us, Phil Sterner is no extremist, and he is anything but unelectable. He’s a candidate very much like the DFLer we profiled in Volume 2, experienced in complicated state/local funding issues, interested in a high degree of accountability in government, and he supports adequate safety nets but not excessive social spending. Transportation is a major issue for Phil, just like it is for the rest of us in the state, and he does talk about transit as part of the issue. Jobs and the Economy is another area he focuses on.

His campaign is about engaging in a new conversation about what is best for all, not just the few. He believes that it is important for Democrats, Republicans and independents to work together to forge a consensus that helps build stronger communities and a stronger state. And you have to like the conciliatory tone he strikes in talking about the other DFL candidates seeking endorsement: “Mr. O’Keefe and Dr. Walter-Hansen are excellent individuals and I will work hard to take their issues to the Capitol and continue to work with them for our community.”

Phil has some progressive bona findes. He hopes to reduce local property tax levies as a source of school funding, preferring state funding instead, and he’s a strong supporter of early and post-secondary education. He is interested in looking for a solution to the healthcare problem at the state level to “find a way to provide affordable and cost-effective healthcare for all”.

At his core he is a centrist, moderate democrat, who should hold a great deal of appeal to moderate, centrist Republicans who put Dennis Ozment in office each of the past 12 elections. The same can’t be said of his opponent.

Besides her virulent opposition to the “gay agenda” and public schools, and her opposition in primaries to the very popular Ozment, Judy hasn’t even always been a team player for the GOP. She acted as the campaign manager for “Independent Republican” candidate Joyce Pepin in a three-way race against GOP incumbent Arlon Lindner and almost got in some trouble for allegedly claiming her candidate was the “True Republican Nominee” in violation of the false claims of support clause of the Fair Campaign Practices Act.

Given the well known and moderate DFLer in the race, the bad blood between the highly regarded moderate Dennis Ozment and the extremist Judy Lindsay, we might be tempted to think of this district as another slam dunk for the DFLers, but the truth of the matter is more dire. Lindsay will have well-heeled special interests like the MCCL strongly on her side. She has some name recognition from her campaigns challenging the incumbent and running for school board. GOP party leaders are looking to fill the void left by Bachman’s departure to Washington, and Lindsay fits the bill.

Phil can win, and overall, I consider his seat is a likely pick-up. But he definitely needs your help. Let’s keep the GOP looking for that next Michelle Bachman a bit longer.