Mark Dayton for Minnesota Governor

I'm voting for Mark Dayton for Governor of Minnesota. Why? First, he cares about the well-being of his staff. He also cares about the people of Minnesota. He would like Minnesota to be back in the forefront as far as roads and highways, education, pollution control and a healthy economy.

Second, he has the experience to put Minnesota back on the right track. He's the only gubanatorial candidate to have been a state commissioner. Rudy Perpich was Governor of Minnesota at that time. He appointed Mark Dayton as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Economic Development in 1978.

Before that he taught science in an economically depressed area of New York City. During those years he was also a runaway youth counselor as well as the CFO for a Boston social service agency. He actively opposed the Viet Nam War. These days even Viet Nam veterans oppose senseless wars. (Or should I say especially Viet Nam veterans?)

In 1982, Mark Dayton was Commissioner of the expanded Minnesota Department of Energy and Economic Development. In 1990, he was elected for the position of State Auditor.

Finally, Mark Dayton was a United States Senator from Minnesota. While serving in this capacity, he was a member of the Armed Services, Agriculture, and Homeland Security Committees. In October 2002, he was one of 23 Senators to vote against the Iraq War Resolution. He was a strong critic of the Bush Administration’s failed policies domestically and internationally. He voted against both Bush tax cuts for unfairly benefiting the wealthiest Americans, and against Republican budgets that turned President Clinton’s surpluses into record high deficits.

While in the Senate, Mark kept his campaign promise and donated his entire Senate salary to the Minnesota Senior Federation to take busloads of senior citizens to Canada, where they could buy cheaper prescription medicines. He also established a “Health Care Help-line,” which helped thousands of Minnesotans to receive the health care their doctors had prescribed or to receive the proper reimbursements from insurance companies for the treatments they had already received.

Mark did not seek re-election and left office in January 2007. Since leaving office, he co-chaired Hillary Clinton’s Minnesota Presidential Campaign and worked on behalf of DFL candidates statewide.

Finally, Mark Dayton is a nice person as well as a qualified gubanatorial candidate. When's the last time we had a nice person in office? One who cares about the people of Minnesota?

I hope you'll join me in voting for Mark Dayton for the next Governor of Minnesota.

Much of this background information was obtained from Mark Dayton's website. I confirmed the information through other public sources.