Better Know A Challenger 17A: Cambridge, Isanti, and Saint Francis

Jim Godfrey is challenging four-term GOP incumbent Rob Eastlund in this rural district. Jim is an Education Minnesota member and a teacher with a strong union background.

This district, like so many others in our state, is trending blue quickly. The State Senator and the other Representative from SD17 are both DFLers. The incumbent’s margin of victory has been steadily decreasing. This race had the 3rd smallest margin of victory for a GOPer in 2006, and it is a key chance for a pickup, particularly as the state GOP wastes resources trying to elect extremists in place of the override six.

Like many of our challengers, Godfrey is focused on affordable healthcare, quality education, and environmental stewardship. He has collected an impressive collection of endorsements from local civic leaders including State Senator Rick Olseen, State Representative Jeremy Kalin, the 2006 17A candidate Melissa Jabas, local radio station owner Colleen McKinney and members of the armed forces.

Jim is a real moderate. He believes in progress, not politics. His endorsers know that he is not out to raise taxes on wage earners or small businesses. Jim and his supporters share the values of hard work and self-sufficiency; they agree that neither big business nor big government ought to dip into citizen’s pockets solely to improve their bottom lines.

His opponent, who has no campaign website, claims to be a moderate, but his record does not support this claim. Voted against the keep bridges standing bill. Voted against the property tax relief bill. Voted to require ID cards for voters. Signed the no-new-taxes pledge. Has a 26% rating from the Sierra Club. By virtually any measure, Eastlund has religiously followed dictates from Pawlenty and Seifert

A recent article penned by Eastland reflects upon the 2008 session with characteristic lies and equivocations that we have come to expect from anyone towing the GOP party line.

He claims “we were able to balance the state budget and eliminate the $925 million deficit without raising your taxes.” Subsequently, he points out that “there could be a deficit between $1 and $2 billion next year”, that because of the property tax cap there will be “at least a slowing in the growth of your property tax bill starting next year”, and then, regarding the transportation bill, he says “The bill raised the gas tax by 8.5 cents, increased metro area sales tax by 0.25 cent, and increased tab and registration fees on new vehicles. This was a massive tax increase”.

Further, Eastlund talks favorably about the k-12 and nursing home funding increase (which was less than inflation) and about providing tax credits to Minnesotans who do not have health insurance, but later in the article, he positively brags about defeating tax increases which would have eliminated future deficits and advocates cutting these same “entitlement” programs.

Using only information furnished by Representative Eastlund, we find that he neither eliminated the budget deficit (but rather pushed it off to next year) nor managed to avoid increasing taxes on district residents (as property, sales, and gas taxes increased). He takes credit for things he hasn’t done. And he’s really two-faced about healthcare and education funding. But facts never get in the way of a good GOP spin job.

In short, his article shows that Eastlund is the kind of guy who will tell constituents what he thinks they want to hear, and who doesn’t think that his constituents have the reading comprehension skills to realize when he contradicts himself. The people he serves deserve better from their State Representative. With Jim Godfrey, they’ll get the kind of moderate and pragmatic representation they deserve.