I met with Bob Hill who is vying for the DFL endorsement to oppose Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) in Minnesota's 6th congressional district (MN-06). Bob is up against another Bob, Bob Olson who switched over from the US Senate race, for the DFL endorsement. Hill is a property tax attorney and long-time Democratic activist. This bit from his bio sums him up fairly well:

Finding in sports the moral clarity he sought, Bob was named All-conference in baseball and held starting positions in basketball and football while at St. Cloud Cathedral High School. As was the custom for scholar-athletes those days, Bob awaited his invitation to join the team of legendary St. John's Coach John Gagliardi. When no letter arrived, Bob took up starting spots as defensive back and linebacker for the Carlton Knights.

"Everyone said, 'You have to take this class."

Whatever dissapointment Bob felt in not being asked to St. John's was obliterated when he walked into Introduction to Political Science. Standing before the class was Prof. Paul Wellstone ...
...
Decades passed before Bob's mom finally admitted the truth: She intercepted Coach Gagliardi's letter so her boy would focus on academics, not athletics. But in typical unapologetic fashion she had only this to say: "If I hadn't done that you never would have met that nice curly-haired professor who made you a Democrat."
(bobhill08.com)

Like so many Minnesotans, he was profoundly influenced by Wellstone's energy, enthusiasm and hard work. Wellstone changed his life -- he'd caught the political bug. He couldn't afford to finish at Carlton, but finished his poli-sci degree at the U of M. While studying law and at the same time working on a Masters, he even had a TV show. They modeled it on the McNeil Lehrer Report in which there was a liberal, a moderate and a right-winger. They didn't know any right-wingers, but the woman who was doing the make-up said "I know a right-winger. He's a nut. He'll say anything ... you won't believe what comes out of his mouth sometimes." That nut was Grover Norquist made famous for wanting to shrink the federal government to a size small enough that he could drown it in the bathtub.

"We'd get into huge arguments even screaming matches on the air," Hill recalled. "One time we were arguing about the role of the federal government. Norquist claimed its role was solely to fund the Defense Department. 'Not even strengthen the economy?' I asked. 'No,' answered Norquist. 'Just defense ... otherwise get out of the way.' This is Bachmann's mindset. She doesn't believe that the federal government should do anything. We need to get back to that Minnesota spirit where we take care of the people's business and make Minnesota a better place to live. Not fund defense and give tax breaks to rich people."

I am impressed with Hill. He told me he's wanted to run for Congress his whole life. He's animated, smart, funny and driven. He's obviously having a good time running for office. He wants the troops out of Iraq and a multi-national peace conference set up. He understands that the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry is at the root of our health care crisis. He expounds upon our regressive tax code. He stated the 'time is now' for a comprehensive metro transportation plan and he share's Al Gore's vision that global warming isn't just a crisis, but an opportunity for the American spirit to find a way to overcome our obstacles.

"American is ready to renew our spirit," he claimed. "I am running on three main themes: competency, accountability and legacy [it's right on the frontpage of his website]. Competency is about representing and delivering for the 6th district. Accountability means always asking who benefits, who decides and who pays. Legacy is about dreaming. America is capable of astounding feats. After JFK gave the speech announcing the nations goal of putting a man on the moon, its rumored that the first call he got was from NASA. The scientist on the phone told Kennedy they could do everything but get the man back in through the atmosphere. 'We haven't got a compound that can resist that kind of heat,' explained the scientist. JFK was rumored to say 'invent it.' We need to start dreaming big dreams again."

He also understands the stark reality of where things are at. He was talking with his eldest daughter, Lauren, and asked her what she thought of his generation: "Your generation hasn't sacrificed a bit for this country" was her flippant answer. Bob elaborated. "And she's not particularly political although she's getting into it since I started the campaign in April." Aside from the few who went to Vietnam, most Americans grasped onto Reagan's Me generation mindset. He believes his generation has a chance to redeem itself in these next few years. He wants to be a part of that redemption.

So ... its time to get to the issues.

Iraq War

"We were misled into this war" Hill asserted. "Things are going so badly that our troops don't know what our mission over there is anymore. We need to get them out of there. We need a strategic withdrawal to the borders and monitor the situation from there. We need a multi-lateral peace initiative to find a solution. I believe that eventually Iraq will be divided into three states -- Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni -- hopefully as a confederation, but possibly separate. It's just incredibly arrogant for us to go in there and install our brand of democracy. We are not the world's policeman and we shouldn't play that role."

Healthcare crisis

"We need to get the burden of our healthcare off our employers," he said. "It's damaging our competitiveness. How many innovative, smart people are languishing in dead end jobs praying they don't get fired, because they don't want their kids to go without healthcare. The health insurance industry, the HMOs are the problem. The doctors don't want to be told what they can and can't do ... they want to practice medicine."

He asked if I'd seen Michael Moore's SICKO, yet (I haven't). He said it's great for the way it describes how awful our healthcare is even for people with insurance. He pointed to the Japanese model and the Massachusetts model as examples of possibile solutions. While he's not against the single payer system, he hopes he sees each state allowed to figure out their own individual solution.

Transportation

"Here's an example of what's so wrong about Michele Bachmann's lack of any approach to transportation," Hill explained. "The St. Croix bridge would cost $427,000,000 if we started right now. If we took that $500M and finished the NorthStar Corridor, finished Hwy 610, expanded Hwy 494 and began drafting a comprehensive metro-wide transportation plan, our $500M would go a lot farther. Michele won't deliver on transportation. This is exactly what a Representative is supposed to do. The people in local and county governments in the district know she's unreliable and won't deliver any transportation money that the district so desperately needs. It's going to take 30 years to fulfill any comprehensive plan and we need to get started now."

Job creation

"I agree and support Al Gore's view that global warming isn't just a crisis, its an opportunity for job creation," he enthused. "Who holds the patents to the solar panel? Americans. Who bought them out and is making them? The Germans. We need to harness our innovation and spirit and overcome the global warming crisis by building a green economy. We have everything, but the spirit to do it."

The Wetterling campaign

I asked Bob about what he's learned from the Wetterling campaign. We talked about this for a while. She was waylaid by the DLC consultants who had her waffling in the wind, triangulating on every position. We both ranted for a while about the DLC and their pernicious role in Democratic Party politics. Suffice to say, he won't be listening to them as they don't understand the district's politics. Secondly, all the local candidates complained that they couldn't coordinate with the Wetterling campaign. He recognizes that 11 DFLers beat Republicans for State House and Senate seats despite Wetterling losing. He vows to work hard to support the local candidates.

The ad created by the DLC consultants was the worst part. He ranted about how obvious it was that it was from DC and completely out of touch with 6th district voters. "I'm a property tax attorney," he expounded. "I'm going to go after her on taxes, but I'm going to mention that she was a tax collector for the IRS and that I can't be bought by big business interests like she has." I trust him on this. His ads will probably be funny and he's a tax attorney whereas Wetterling was a child advocate and shouldn't have even gone there.

Michele Bachmann

"I know that the Stearns County voters, where I was born and raised, had no idea who they were voting for," he said. "They didn't know her and bought the negative campaign she ran against Patty. I'm just going to point out how out of touch her values and behavior is. She can't and won't deliver what the 6th district most needs. The Stillwater voters know her and don't support her. She is getting large donations from insurance industry, HMO, pharmaceutical company and many other big business PACs.

"Also, she insulted my Pope. I'm a Catholic and she and her church call him the Anti-Christ."

He talked quite alot about her. He just talked about all the stuff that the most excellent Dump Michele Bachmann blog has been documenting. She's a neo-con nutjob. Don't believe me. Don't believe either of the Bob's . Just check out the DMB blog. They've got all the facts.

Bob Olson

"I know Bob Olson and he's a great guy," answered Bob Hill very diplomatically to my prod to get him to talk about his competition. He did confess one thing. "He was supporting me before he got into the race. I'm not focused on him, he's a nice guy and I've got nothing against him."

Fundraising

Bob has raised about $200,000 and has about $160K cash-on-hand. "I'm running very lean right now. Bare bones operation until around the New Year when we begin to kick into high gear."

The future

Bob Hill will be holding a number of town hall meetings on Iraq, healthcare, energy, education and transportation. He's getting out there and meeting with the people. He's been handing out Bob Hill for Congress kazoos and they've been very popular whereever he's gone.

"Keep an eye out," he said. "We've got alot of innovative stuff coming up in this campaign."