Voters in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District have the opportunity to send to Congress one of the most talented candidates I have seen in 66 years as a political junkie — starting as an 11-year-old focused on the 1952 presidential race. Tim Walz has been a great congressman and will be a great governor. Dan Feehan is the perfect person to succeed Tim. Born and raised in southern Minnesota, Dan was a student at Georgetown University when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. He entered the Army and served two combat tours in Iraq, leading explosive ordnance disposal teams. After his military service, Dan taught mathematics in disadvantaged Chicago-area schools. He then went on to earn a master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and served in the Pentagon for three years as an acting assistant secretary of defense. Dan is intelligent, articulate and dedicated to service. His opponent, Jim Hagedorn, has spent the last 44 years of his 56-year life in Washington, either as a bureaucrat or a lobbyist. 2010 appears to be the first year he ever voted in Minnesota. That year he apparently rented a house in Blue Earth (the county’s land records show no ownership of real estate by him), but according to neighbors, the only times he is seen there is when he comes to Minnesota from D.C. to campaign. He has challenged Dan’s patriotism, but has never worn a uniform. He believes nothing can or should be done about climate change and the disasters it will bring.  He seems to believe insurance companies can solve all of the country’s health care problems. Hagedorn is lock-step with the man who has given corruption a home in the Oval Office, attacked desperate immigrants, vilified journalists, threatened  international accords that were built over decades and weakened the fabric of national unity that makes democracy possible. The choice this year could not be more clear.

 

Howard F. Haugh

Mankato