It’s time for all the campaigning to be over so we can move on and try to figure out how the results of this year’s elections will affect our lives. At the national level you have to just shake your head and ask yourself, “How did we let ourselves get to this new low?” I don’t know how you would ever figure out where the candidates actually stand on an issue when it seems to be more about personal attacks than how they are realistically going to deal with the serious issues facing our country. What I do know is we cannot continue with politics as usual. We need to get away from career politicians, we need term limits for congressmen and we need judges who interpret our laws and the constitution, not try to rewrite them.

The local level elections are much more interesting. We have more choices and we have many candidates who see that we need change and they are passionate about it. They see that we need to enforce accountability, mutual respect for each other and that we need to see reasonable results from the taxpayer’s money we spend. They have priorities; they understand we have to fix the needs of the community before we can look at the wants for the future. New and fresh ideas from these candidates will maybe balance the boards and councils they will serve on.

For me actions speak louder than words in all of the elections. I prefer a candidate with a business-personal approach versus a political approach for solving our problems. If you listen closely to the candidates you can tell who will represent your interests and help our community move productively into the future or who is just telling you what they think you want to hear.

Think carefully about the ballot amendment to create an independent citizen run board to set salaries for state legislators. Right now there is transparency in that we can see how they vote on issues like this, but if we vote yes we will lose our control to hold them accountable, because they can just say they didn’t have anything to do with a salary increase, it was an independent board decision. I believe it should be looked at like compensation awards granted by juries and how out of control some of them have become because so few people are making what they think is the right and fair decision.

I believe clean water is the lifeblood of every community in the world. We need to prepare today for the possibilities of tomorrow. I believe it is our responsibility to respect, improve and conserve the abundant supply of fresh water we have, that many others do not. A yes vote for the Watershed’s half cent sales tax renewal will show our support and acknowledgment of how important this issue is to our community.

Get involved, ask questions, be informed and vote! We are deciding our future.

Gary Hagen

Albert Lea