The first face-to-face between Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his GOP challenger Scott Jensen was completely lacking in sports metaphors, a surprise given that the two are prone to posing with footballs the way other politicians pose with babies.
But a toss-off question at the end of the exchange in a pole barn at Farmfest – a prediction of how well the Vikings would do this season – led Jensen to, inadvertently perhaps, summarize the event.
“I think Gov. Walz would say the same thing: When we’re up here it’s fun to be on offense, not on defense,” Jensen said. For the previous nearly 90 minutes, the Chaska family doctor pounded Walz for what he said were the failures of the last four years.
“His program of ‘One Minnesota’ has become far less a reality and almost an antonym of what we’ve seen,” Jensen said in his first answer. (Listen to a recording of the forum here.)
“Compromise is a virtue, not a vice,” Walz responded.
Farmfest has become the traditional first forum of state governor races, with candidates dressing down and touting their agricultural bona fides, often by citing the most-recent relative who worked the land. Walz joked to a state FFA officer that he would have worn his FFA jacket but it no longer fits. Jensen grew up just down the highway in Sleepy Eye.
Walz’s first campaign appearance here as a gubernatorial candidate in 2018 was with four other candidates with no incumbent on the stage. That changed Wednesday, and it wasn’t exactly Walz’s crowd. His campaign did bring a few dozen workers and supporters wearing gold campaign T-shirts. And the Minnesota Farmers Union, with a booth just across the path from the forum, tends toward DFL positions. But many of the attendees who overfilled the building leaned toward Jensen, at least based on the applause. A small group of vaccine doubters jeered every Walz mention of the pandemic.
Walz, a former congressman from a Greater Minnesota district, was making his 17th appearance at the agricultural trade show and didn’t shy away from responding to criticisms from Jensen, the GOP-endorsed candidate, who took advantage of a mostly supportive audience.
When Walz touted low unemployment, Jensen talked about inflation. When Walz said there was a place for both large corporate farms and family farms, Jensen said purchase of agricultural land by foreign corporations would happen “over my dead body,” though state law already bars such purchases. When Walz said the state’s COVID outcomes were better than for many other states, Jensen lamented the high death counts in long-term care facilities.
“When you look at them being locked in, that’s not a whole lot different than students being locked out and not a whole lot different from businesses being locked down,” Jensen said. “This whole concept of locking down Minnesota is absolutely an abomination of government overreach.”
Jensen received strong applause when he criticized the clean car rule, a Walz regulation aimed at reducing tailpipe emissions and requiring car makers to offer more electric vehicles for sale. After Walz touted his efforts to increase ethanol production, Jensen said he was confused because Walz had once also touted nuclear power.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan[/image_credit][image_caption]Scott Jensen: “This whole concept of locking down Minnesota is absolutely an abomination of government overreach.”[/image_caption]
Walz went after Jensen as well, accusing him of seeing only negative statistics and neglecting the positive numbers.
“If you’re rooting against Minnesota being at the top, having the strongest state finances and the lowest unemployment … if you’re rooting to see failure, that’s what you’re going to get,” Walz said. “But it’s not the job we’re applying for.”
At one point, Jensen said the early pandemic response that kept many workers at home and increased jobless pay to compensate them was an incentive “to sit on the couch and watch TV.” Walz responded with some anger. “What you’ll never hear from your governor is that Minnesotans are lazy, setting on their couches while we watched 13,000 of our neighbors die.
“Instead of bringing false information, be part of the solution. If you truly believe in our people, invest in our children, invest in our teachers, and don’t you dare call us lazy.” Walz blamed Jensen’s no-new-spending rhetoric for the failure of the budget and tax compromise at the Legislature and noted that tax cuts and spending on public schools and public safety were victims of the impasse.
Farm policy was a major topic of the forum, and the candidates competed to show their support for development in rural towns, building out broadband networks, promoting foreign markets for Minnesota products and responding to pathogens such as bird flu outbreaks. Jensen accused Walz of presiding over environmental regulations that burden farmers, while Walz said Jensen appeared to oppose all government regulation,
“It’s relatively simple. Let farmers farm, let miners mine, let teachers teach, and let government get the hell out of the way,” Jensen said.
Walz said lessons learned from the 2015 bird flu infestation that resulted in the destruction of 9 million turkeys allowed the state to respond better to this year’s outbreak that ended with just 3 million bird deaths.
“You need government when something this big happens,” Walz said.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan[/image_credit][image_caption]Gov. Tim Walz: “Instead of bringing false information, be part of the solution. If you truly believe in our people, invest in our children, invest in our teachers, and don’t you dare call us lazy.”[/image_caption]
Jensen said he questioned the government’s push for certain medical responses and its opposition to doctors trying other responses. Jensen promoted the use of ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug that has since been found to have not reduced the severity of infections. He has criticized state medical practice board members for investigating complaints about his promotion of unproven responses.
“We had cases in Hennepin County and none in other counties and yet it was one-size-fits-all in locking everything down,” Jensen said, leading many to “feel they were subjects under an emperor.
“We weren’t following the science. We were making it up as we went along,” Jensen said.
Responded Walz: “It’s wishful thinking that you can hope that COVID wasn’t real and you can take ivermectin and whatever. But that’s not where the facts are. As governor, you have to do that.”
Jensen accused Walz of freezing during the 2020 riots and how he would have sent the National Guard into Minneapolis and St. Paul sooner. Without responding directly, Walz defended the performance of the guard and state police during the riots.
“I served 24 years in the National Guard,” Walz said while standing for the first time in the forum. “That’s a lot more experience than watching ‘Top Gun Maverick’ and second guessing while our men and women are facing gunshots. They performed historically and they performed heroically.”
Future debates and forums, not yet scheduled, will likely be held in the Twin Cities area with a different audience and different issues on display.
“I just want to be very clear about this, having served for 24 years in the National Guard, (as a store clerk) that’s a lot more experience than watching ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and second guessing where our men and women are putting themselves at risk,” the governor said. Admitting, like the police in Texas, the health and safety of the NG was his top priority, not protecting the people they swore to serve.
Glad to see you prefer a leader who sees you, the service person, as cannon fodder. Guess your admiration for Putin makes more sense now.
Oh cool, so we’re in agreement that the police, equipped with body armor and training, should be willing to take some risks in an effort to deescalate situations instead of blowing citizens away the second they suspect that a gun or knife might maybe be present?
As usual, Mr. Tester attempts to pass off incorrect information and false conclusions to manipulate an impression. The actual quote from this story is:
“I served 24 years in the National Guard,” Walz said while standing for the first time in the forum. “That’s a lot more experience than watching ‘Top Gun Maverick’ and second guessing while our men and women are facing gunshots. They performed historically and they performed heroically.”
Mr Tester creates an “admission” where none exists. Walz only states his respect and admiration for those serving.
Aw, and here I would’ve thought you’d be delighted that Walz played the “veteran” card on Doc Jensen, since that’s a tactic so near and dear to your heart, Dennis.
But I see that you also like to play the “my time in the military was more important than yours” game, too!
Seems you are being a good republican and twisting what he said with your last opinion line, nice to know once a BS’r always a BS’r! You know, last go around with the NG, they were on the front lines in Mpls, and yes that was under Gov. Walz, but hey, we’ve been calling BS for a long time out here on this Right Wing propaganda.
For me, the most telling thing Walz said about the NG was when he and Frey were pointing fingers at each other after the riots.
“I don’t think the mayor knew what he was asking for,” he[Walz] commented. “I think the mayor said, ‘I request the National Guard, whew, this is great. We’re going to have massively trained troops.’ No. You’re going to have 19-year-olds who are cooks.”
A other non sequitur.
I suppose one might way the same thing about sailing around in a boat that never saw combat.
There were very few injuries in Minneapolis, not 140 police officers injured in DC. Minneapolis police were overwhelmed and outside assistance came in a timely was throughout the state. This contrasts to DC, where Trump took hours to get more people to the capital and tell his attack dogs to go home. Walz is a selfless leader, Trump is a pretender.
“outside assistance came in a timely was throughout the state.”
I believe the help came to Mpls. in more time than the few hours that President Trump dawdled on Jan. 6th. A lot more time. After hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage.
Dennis, I think you have it wrong here. The subject of the Minnesota National Guard and comparing it to the police in Texas doesn’t really resonate. The NG serve at the pleasure of the Governor, or at least under his guidance. And when called to serve, they do indeed serve the public good.
Sources on the Walz was purely a store clerk for 20+ years jab? Experience as a store clerk to validate your jab at store clerks? Proof of the deceased people the NG didn’t defend in order to protect themselves instead? Or just a crusty old ideologue whom can’t help himself from commenting frequently here parroting talking points from the well of right wing narrative “people’s opinion leaders”?
Here’s a tip from someone whom is old and crusty too soon, when you parrot bullshit, you lose the credibility to call out the other sides bullshit (eventhough there’s definitely a pile on the other side).
If everyone does better by our discourse, our country will be better. That’s how it was set up to work.
“I served 24 years in the National Guard,” Walz said while standing for the first time in the forum. “That’s a lot more experience than watching ‘Top Gun Maverick’ and second guessing while our men and women are facing gunshots. They performed historically and they performed heroically.”
Dennis:
These little things “ ” are used to denote a space between them where you should not take artistic license with the words there in. Example:
“Joe Biden is the finest American President in the last 50 years”…Dennis Tester…
I wonder if Jensen is against all vaccines or just Covid?
I believe that his career as an anti-vaxxer started before Covid.
I look forward to the lively debates.
It will be interesting to see if the media starts to cover for Walz if he starts falling behind.
The media has formed a cone of protection around this thin-skinned dimwit since before he was elected. He’s far more left wing than his media image would suggest. And he’s never faced a real interview.
And here I thought a Trump supporter would regard “thin skinned dimwit” as a compliment, if not an aspiration.
“It’s relatively simple. Let farmers farm, let miners mine”
I agree that this is quite simple. It’s also been proven wrong repeatedly throughout history. If you want to preserve Minnesota’s clean water you can’t act like this.
“It’s relatively simple. Let farmers farm, let miners mine”
And he left out:
In times of a medical pandemic, let people die
It is stunning that when compared to every state that touches our border, Walz guide us to the lowest death rate of all and for that he gets condemnation and outrage. What a bunch of whiners: people lived but had to wear a mask: OUTRAGE!!!
Jensen has issues with the Medical Examiners Board because they are chartered to find incompetent doctors and call them out. And they repeatedly found Scott Jensen and called him out for his incompetence.
By not highlighting Jensen’s extreme and inconsistent positions on abortion rights, Walz missed a huge opportunity. I guess he hadn’t heard the message that even Kansas voters sent loud and clear: They don’t like threats to women’s freedom to choose.
Jensen’s demonstrated medical incompetence (he denies the efficacy of vaccines and masks) should be enough to bar him from any position of responsibility.
With a serious, informed and mature voter, it would.
Thanks for your service Dennis
Contrary to Mr Briebart, I’d expect that any attempts to “debate” Jensen will be largely worthless. As we saw with Dem attempts at debating Trumpolini, a rational, informed person can’t debate a rightwing crackpot who is simply filled to the brim with more nonsense than one can possibly counter.
Add in the fact that in a purple state, the far right candidate has to spend time covering his/her tracks from the independent voter, to deceive them from being able to understand what the crackpot really believes. So attempts to “debate” policy will fail because the far right candidate won’t be honest. Doc Jensen is already covering his tracks on abortion. We’ll see if he does that with his anti-vax nonsense, too.
It will be interesting to see if Walz simply argues that, as someone who has served simply one term of elective office and has no administrative experience whatsoever, the crackpot Jensen is simply unqualified for the position of governor of a state with an actual state government. MN ain’t SD. Basically, one has to be unqualified in order to get through the Repub nomination process these days, because political extremism is the only “qualification” the delegates are interested in.
Walz refused to answer why he let the 3rd precinct burn. Granted, he’s not very bright, but he’s had a while to at least come up with something.
The National Guard stopped the out of control “peaceful protesters “ from burning down another 500 businesses and buildings. All it took was assembling them and the rioters left. Walz making his remark on what you get with the National Guard was interesting. He seemed to suggest they would not be effective, wrong again. Walz has his biggest city burned down on his watch and acted like “oh well, we had no options”, so weak! Walz and Mayors of Twin Cities have to admit there is a crime wave going on, many here at Minnpost claim no, again, what are you going to do? Oh well, is not much of a response.
If Jensen stays focused on Walz and his failures he should do just fine.
Joe must have been Allen Quist’s campaign manager too: Steady as she goes, all is fine…
Of course Walz’s daughter made sure that everybody knew when the National Guard was getting mobilized. Thanks you very much. Why that hasn’t been put out there, is beyond me.
I continue to be amazed, that despite the stated messaging our GOP friends claim will be “unstoppable” come November, that of dreaded inflation and the “gas prices are too damn high”, when it comes down to actual debates, all they have is the same tired pandemic and riot points that literally no one but themselves have cared about for well over a year. You do realize you have to win more than just the like-minded, yes? That everyone else has moved on with our lives?
Catch and release is still the order of the day for crime, especially mostly peaceful leftist protests. And no one trusts Democrats to stop with the useless lockdowns and emergency power grabs once the elections are over.
Psst, Clarence:
The Republicans are the ones who trotted out Victor Orban and proudly pointed out Hungary as conservative nirvana. Here is what you see as our best path forward regarding power grabs:
HUNGARY 2021
In June, parliament adopted a homophobic and transphobic law. Hungary was involved in the Pegasus spyware scandal. The European Court of Human Rights ruled against Hungary’s placement of asylum seekers in transit zones and its practice of pushbacks. The right to freedom of peaceful assembly was restricted until 23 May and an existing state of emergency was extended until 1 June 2022. The government resisted putting in place effective measures to protect judges’ freedom of expression and other rights from undue interference.
Background
Hungary’s Constitutional Court upheld a six-month ban on assemblies and demonstrations in a retrospective decision made in July. A new restrictive asylum system was introduced under the state of emergency. The Equal Treatment Authority, an established human rights protection body, was abolished in January without consultation and its functions transferred to the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights. In September, the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions recommended downgrading the status of the Commissioner from “A” to “B”, in accordance with the Paris Principles, as the office had not engaged with or addressed all human rights issues in Hungary. Hungary took over the Presidency of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in May for six months.
I guess it all depends on who is grabbing the power in your world?
“no one trusts…”
Well, we know that crackpot Jensen already has a lock on the conspiracy-theorist vote, Clarence. That’s not in dispute. But imagining that the entire electorate is susceptible to such fantasies is wishful thinking.