Assistant minority leader in the Minnesota House of Representatives, District 29A Rep. Randy Demmer, a Republican, is seeking his first term as representative for the 1st District of the U.S. House of Representatives.

He is running against incumbent Rep. Tim Walz, a DFLer, Independence Party candidate Steven Wilson and party-free candidate Lars Johnson.

Background

Demmer, 53, has been married to his wife, Kathy, for 31 years. They have three daughters.

Demmer said he has lived in Hayfield for his entire life other than college. After college, he and his wife moved back because they liked the area and wanted to be close to family. At that time, their intention was to start up a farming business.

Since then — on his own and with others — he’s been involved with the start-up of eight businesses, including the farm operation, a self-service car wash, a development rental company, a wind cooperative, a computer and accounting software company and multiple Napa Autoparts stores.

Because of these experiences, he said he enjoys the private sector and has a real appreciation for small towns and the intersection between agriculture and retail businesses.

He served on the Hayfield school board for 10 years and has also been involved with various community opportunities, including church council, chamber of commerce board, Lions Club chairman, Dodge County Corn Growers Association, a senior housing task force and an economic development authority.

He has spent eight years in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Demmer said he decided to run for Congress because he felt he had something to offer.

“I’m not going there to try to further myself, advance my political aspirations,” he said. “I think I’d go there with the right ideas, for the right reasons.”

Health care

Demmer said he did not support the health care bill passed in Congress for several reasons.

He said he thinks the funding for it wasn’t stable, and he thinks it was unconstitutional.

“There’s just a lot of things that I think are functionally wrong with the bill in how it was conceived,” Demmer said, noting it didn’t allow for amendments.

He noted he does support good health care and taking care or people’s needs and said there should be changes.

He said he supports an individually based system that’s affordable. He also thinks there needs to be incentives for health living that encourage people to eat properly.

“There’s nothing in this health care legislation that does anything like this,” he said.

Demmer added that he likes the Mayo Clinic’s health care policy, in that it focuses on quality of care and affordability. He said he thinks there should be individually based policies, serviced and sold by a private-based insurance-type industry that competes for business by providing services better and for less money.

He said he does not agree with excluding pre-existing conditions.

Economy/job growth

Demmer said to help businesses grow and in turn help the economy, Congress needs to pass legislation that creates and fosters a business climate that encourages investment, rewards innovation and encourages new ideas.

He said Congress needs to leave the tax system as it is — as it is a tough time in the economy — not pass a cap and trade bill and find new ways to deal with the burden of the health care bill.

Doing these things would help eliminate some of the risk factors for businesses and would encourage them to grow.

He said future economic recovery will come from small businesses and private enterprise, not more government spending and debt.

Education

Noting that education is a state issue, Demmer said he will support empowering states in the education system. As a state legislator, he said he has tried to push decision making down to the local level.

Regarding the No Child Left Behind Act, he said it has done some good things, including helping states establish their own standards. But he would opt to change the assessments, giving states more authority to determine them.

He said he wants a test that measures progress as opposed to benchmark performance.

What’s next?

Aside from the personalities of him and Walz, Demmer said the upcoming election for the 1st District seat is about what direction people want the country to go.

He said Walz supports a model of bigger government and bigger spending — a more European, socialist type of government.

If people don’t agree with this, they should vote for change, he added.

“If we don’t vote for that change, the continuation of the growth in government will continue,” Demmer said.

Meanwhile, during the next week and a half, Demmer said he will be busy meeting with constituents around the district. At the end of the week, he’s starting a tour of the district and going to try to get to all 22 counties in the 1st District.

“We want people to participate,” he said. “We want people to get out and vote.”