Advertisement
That belief comes from his 2006 bid to unseat Sen. Steve Murphy for the District 28 seat. Though Drazkowski lost that election with
45.3 percent of the votes, he actually topped Murphy by 143 votes in the 53 precincts of
District 28B, which encompasses the northwestern portion of Winona County, including Goodview, Lewiston and St. Charles, as well as parts of Wabasha and Goodhue counties.
Drazkowski, of Wabasha, says those results are evidence not just of his own appeal, but of his belief that 28B is a GOP stronghold. Republican Steve Sviggum, who stepped down to become a state commissioner, held the seat since 1978.
“It’s a district that definitely leans Republican,” Drazkowski said.
Translating those leanings into a winning campaign means appealing to voters’ “rural values,” he said. Drazkowski, who grew up on a farm in Bluff Siding, Wis., counts those as “honesty, hard work, common sense and personal responsibility.”
Drazkowski also hasn’t skimped on details of how his values would translate into policy. He’s assembled
10-point position papers on agriculture, health care and seniors’ issues.
He called on his Democratic opponent, Linda Pfeilsticker, to do the same.
“I don’t know if my opponent has offered any positions on issues,” Drazkowski said. “I don’t know how somebody can demonstrate leadership without giving a vision for the future.”
Drazkowski’s vision includes a plan to reduce health-care costs while maintaining what he describes as an exceptional standard of care.
“We’ve got, in Minnesota, probably the best health care infrastructure in the world,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we don’t compromise that quality.”
The feat can be achieved, he argues, by reducing mandates and encouraging competition among private insurers. Allowing people to make “cafeteria-style” health choices would allow consumers to opt out of plans that include services not everyone wants to pay for.
“Right now, everyone is forced to buy a Cadillac,” Drazkowski said. Some people “want to buy a Chevy.”
To address southern Minnesota’s ailing roads, Drazkowski backs a $2 billion bonding initiative proposed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Drazkowski says the move would enable the state to repair roads without raising taxes, and beat rising construction costs by securing bids sooner rather than later.
Drazkowski — a former agriculture educator for the University of Minnesota Extension Service — vowed to better fund existing agriculture programs, like the Rural Finance Authority. He would also push for new tax incentives to encourage farming startups.
State environmental regulators must tread carefully when considering a ban on the farm chemicals atrazine, he said. The weed killer, commonly used on corn and sorghum fields, has been linked it to deformities in frogs.
“We need to be able to move toward an agriculture that has less chemicals,” Drazkowski said, “but to yank it out of there right now could be destructive.”
Drazkowski sharply criticized Minnesota’s proposed Dream Act, which would extend in-state college tuition to children of undocumented immigrants who have lived in the state for three years.
He says he would work to prevent all state dollars from going to illegal immigrants, and would back English as the state’s official language.
“I will not support in-state tuition benefits for people who come here illegally,” Drazkowski said.
Drazkowski says all his policies stem from a basic set of personal principles, which he believes he shares with most voters in District 28B.
“I think the road map to success,” he said, “is to be able to successfully connect with the values of the people in the district.”
Steve Drazkowski
PARTY: Republican
AGE: 42
RESIDENCE: Wabasha
OCCUPATION:
Co-owner of online retail site
BACKGROUND: 14 years as an agriculture educator for U of M Extension Service. Unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Steve
Murphy (DFL, Red Wing) for the Dist. 28 seat in 2006.
PLATFORM:
ONLINE: www.draz.com
Tuesday is election day
On Tuesday, voters will choose between Republican Steve Drazkowski and Democrat Linda Pfeilsticker to replace Steve Sviggum as the District 28B representative in the Minnesota House. Sviggum, a Republican, stepped down after 29 years in the House — eight as speaker — to head the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.
District 28B encompasses the northwestern portion of Winona County, including Goodview, Lewiston and St. Charles, as well as parts of Wabasha and Goodhue counties.
Contact Mark Sommerhauser at (507) 453-3514 or at mark.sommerhauser@lee.net.
