The League of Women Voters of St Paul Minnesota put on a forum for 2 House Districts at the same time. This is an extremely lazy practice they have done. There should be separate forums for each House District. The way they have presented it there’s really only 2 distinct viewpoints and they get repeated in the second House District.
The League of Women Voters of St Paul is putting this on with their Roseville Area Chapter.
Moderator: Susan Johnson
HD 66A Candidates:
Rep Leigh Finke (DFL incumbent), Fadil Jama (Republican)
HD 66B Candidates:
Rep Athena Hollins (DFL Incumbent), Greg Copeland (Republican)
As in previous Forum videos I’m going to put in time stamps of when from the start of the video to what questions were asked. Though when I was watching part of this live, the audio wasn’t matching the video. Candidates mouths were moving but the audio was slightly behind or ahead of the video. It was a bit like watching Kung Fu Theatre where the dubbed vocals don’t match the lips of the actors. So I’m going to mark when you “hear” a question is asked by the moderator rather than when the visuals start. Hopefully they’ll have cleaned this up from the livestream.
Also I’ll limit my comments only when the DFL incumbents spew out misinformation, or propaganda that I detected to be different from normal political rhetoric. I will point out when the Republicans say something that’s not correct to, but I suspect I won’t have to.
A note about the set up here is they have put both A & B Candidates of one party at one table and the other party at another table. One would think you would put one district together and the other at another table, or have one long table. Since the LWV have no oversight or standards to conform to, one can never expect them to do anything proper. Maybe the incumbents are sharing the same notes as they can’t function without some help from the other.
When & What Questions Were Asked
0 to 14:40 Introductory music played until the visuals begin. It doesn’t seem like anyone is saying anything nor is the closed captions are started. (Seems as if the recording they are using keeps repeating or skipping and plays the same riff over and over again)
15:37 The camera focuses on the Moderator, but there’s no sound yet.
16:27 the first sound from the Moderator is heard. Yet the volume is low and rises and falls as if some child is playing with the sound dial. Susan reads her script about rules and how they are nonpartisan that no Republican in town believes because of past behavior and how they coddle their candidates by not asking tough questions that might give an advantage to a Republican candidate.
18:39 Rep Leigh Finke is introduced
18:45 Fadil Jama is introduced
18:51 Greg Copeland is introduced
18:55 Rep Athena Hollins is introduced
21:00 Rep Leigh Finke’s Opening Statement (HD 66A)
He mentions that he serves in the DFL House, but while the DFL may be in the majority, the Minnesota State House of Representatives is not called the “DFL House.”
A note the visuals on the recording are some seconds ahead of the audio, so as I noted above I’m time stamping when the audio is heard rather than the visuals.
23:16 Fadil Jama’s Opening Statement (HD 66A)
25:23 Greg Copeland’s Opening Statement (HD 66B)
27:38 Rep Athena Hollins Opening Statement (HD 66B)
29:45 Question 1: Education is on the mind of our audience, many studies have shown that after the pandemic our school age children are scoring historic lows in reading math competency. teacher pay is low as is teacher retention. What can the state do to improve educational outcomes for our school age children?
30:10 Rep Athena Hollins
31:20 Greg Copeland
32:30 Fadil Jama
33:37 Susan Johnson leaves out Rep Leigh Finke. The other candidates point this out to her. Oops. Susan says out loud she had already crossed off Leigh Finke’s name.
33:43 Rep Leigh Finke
Both DFL Incumbents seem to think not enough of your money is being spent on teachers. Rep Finke says we have had a couple generations of underfunding. While Candidate Copeland said the last Superintendent of St Paul Public Schools [Gotthard] left for Wisconsin and said there’s a $100 million budget hole in a $1 Billion school budget. Greg also says that St Paul Public Schools has been failing for a lot longer than since the pandemic as is evidenced by 1000s of students have left the public schools for charter schools.
34:58 Question 2: Next question will go to Public Safety. Police and First Responders are mostly provided by city and county governments not by the State of Minnesota. What role if any should the state take to ensure Public Safety and reduce crime for all citizens whether they are immigrants, lgbtq persons, people of color, non-English speaking people, and all our communities?
35:30 Fadil Jama (Susan calls him Jamal Jama, and corrects herself by saying Candidate Jama. From here on to the end she calls all the candidates, “Candidate last name“)
36:33 Rep Leigh Finke (his first few words are not picked up by his microphone)
He states that crime is down in the State. This is misinformation by the DFL party as well as the Democrat Party at the national level. Prior to the unchecked crime in the Twin Cities, stores like Walgreens would never dream of locking up their merchandise in their aisles. Some Walgreens have moved out of high crime neighborhoods due to rampant theft. Mayors Melvin Carter and Jacob Frey ran for office in 2017 with the idea of defunding the police departments because they believed the cops were racists and there was no more need to have the numbers of cops in each department.
He also says the Minneapolis Police are racists. This is also misinformation.
37:48 Greg Copeland
39:01 Rep Athena Hollins
mentions about “Common Sense gun laws.” This is their attempt at disarming law abiding gun owners while letting armed criminals off the hook. Even DFL Rep Dave Pinto who had his bill of universal background checks passed admitted the Red Flag Law and his bill will not curb violent crimes using guns. How is this common sense if their laws only hassle law abiding gun owners. She mischaracterizes gun owners as “Bad Actors.”
40:05 Question 3: We’ll start with Candidate Copeland. What do think the state should or should not be doing to address Climate Change?
40:15 Greg Copeland
41:13 Rep Athena Hollins, her microphone or the audio cuts out at 41:56 and comes back at 42:01
it’s not exactly misinformation but Rep Hollins has mistaken upgrading building codes to weatherize them to meet climate change. Maybe that’s an ignorant statement. Shocking as she is a lawyer and they tend to be intelligent and has spoken earlier about how she embraces DEI. She mentions a “Polluter’s Pay” Bill. This sounds like a carbon tax on Big Oil. This would also artificially increase the cost of gasoline, and petroleum products which is in just about everything you own, to include the make up she is wearing. She also has a Freudian slip when saying that taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay to mitigate for Climate Change and those who make Billions off of Climate Change should have to pay.
42:34 Rep Leigh Finke (Susan calls him Candidate Finke, even I wouldn’t drop his title)
He agrees with Rep Hollins about making polluters pay. He wants to tax corporations who make fossil fuels (yep increase inflation), and stop subsidizing them (would this mean the State would stop subsidizing E-85?).
Misinformation alert. He mentions that the government subsidizes fossil fuels at higher levels than anything that is clean energy. This is a huge whopping lie.
43:53 Fadil Jama says that clean energy should be an option to consumers. There should be a balance. Clean Energy should not break the budget of Working Families.
44:54 Rep Athena Hollins responding to Fadil Jama (this should not happen as he is in a different district than she is in)
She spews out the misinformation that clean energy is more affordable than fossil fuels. She says we live in the “Wind Belt” [Wind Mills are not able to pay for themselves over their life cycles and the blades are not recyclable]. Would like to add she is incredibly ignorant too about how electricity generation works and how transmission of it is lost over great distances.
45:30 Susan Johnson says if you choose to rebut, please raise your hand and say “Rebuttal” after the last person who spoke.
45:46 Question 4: Oversight of State Programs. Crisis in oversight of Minnesota programs has occurred with fraud and corruption being unearthed in a wide variety of state-run programs including food programs, health care, and transportation. What can be done by the legislature to uncover these problems sooner and at less cost to the taxpayer?
46:16 Rep Leigh Finke (his audio cuts out at 46:44 and comes back at 46:54)
He starts to talk about state grants. The question wasn’t about grants, but rather State run programs which would mean State employees would be running them not a 3rd party.
He mentions that we can’t legislate people with bad behavior. That’s odd as his previous statement about the Polluter’s tax as well as gun bans seems to be an attempt at legislating an end to bad behavior.
47:39 Fadil Jama’s comments need to be highlighted. He said he runs a business and he knows how to set a budget, and be responsible with the money he takes in and how to spend it. At the state level we need to cut wasteful spending. He said his opponent [Rep Leigh Finke] keeps spending without thinking about waste. He said we need oversight because Fraud and Abuse is rampant. He said Minnesota is Ruled by one party and they do not do any oversight.
48:46 Greg Copeland. He comments saying he was contract compliance officer once and he said to do oversight you sometimes have to go and observe what’s going on. He faults Governor Tim Walz for no oversight of the Feeding our Future program.
50:04 Rep Athena Hollins
50:58 Question 5: Metropolitan Council. The Metropolitan Council describes itself as the regional policymaking body planning agency and provider of essential services in the 7 county Twin Cities Metro Area. Our mission is to foster efficient and economic growth for a prosperous region. The Members of the Met Council are appointed by the Governor. Do you support legislation to make the Metropolitan Council an elected rather than an appointed body? Why or Why not?
51:39 Greg Copeland (Susan cuts him off, perhaps for going over time)
52:56 Rep Athena Hollins
She doesn’t know much about this issue, and how she would go. She says the DFL Caucus has not determined what their position is on this yet. She’s the House Majority Whip and she doesn’t know? How can that be? Maybe the Met Council is doing exactly what they want it to be doing and dictate to elected bodies what to do when they themselves aren’t elected at all.
[Frankly the Met Council has overstepped it’s original mission and needs to dismantled to it’s original mission, which was to take care of the sewer system across city boundaries].
53:25 Rep Leigh Finke
He mentions it has an incredibly important job. Such as managing the Urban Forest. (What’s that? oh yeah it’s something from his special interest the Urban Tree Canopy group).
54:21 Fadil Jama
55:23 Question 6: Racial Disparities. Minnesota continues to have some of the nation’s highest economic and social disparities between its white residents and residents of color. What do you believe the state should do to address this racial disparity?
55:45 Fadil Jama
56:49 Rep Leigh Finke
He mentions White Supremacy. It’s odd Fadil Jama is technically the only person of color there, and he didn’t mention this at all.
Instead Finke spews the misinformation of inequities and such. His party passed the Fugitive Slave Act, they declared Dred Scott, a visitor to the Minnesota Territory, as property. If anyone needs to pay reparations it’s the Democrat Party which seeks to enslave people with low wages as they usher in foreign invaders to dilute this nation’s sovereignty with Replacement Migration.
57:42 Greg Copeland
59:01 Rep Athena Hollins
She says that Rep Finke showed her notes on how to respond (a violation of rules?). She says White Supremacy is shown in redlining [this is a practice in Chicago where Jews can’t live in certain areas, and Italians can’t live somewhere, etc. It’s not specific to just whites as Rep Hollins suggests in her reply. Can’t they mention that there is no such thing as Race in the first place? It showed up in the 1700s and isn’t supported by science].
She’s attacking Fadil Jama who isn’t in her district (shouldn’t this be against the rules here?). She’s saying people don’t have the same opportunities as others, and yet they do.
She wants free college for people from families that make under $85k. People do have the same opportunities to succeed but they have an equal opportunity to fail too. She only concentrates on the success of some people, yet she doesn’t want to acknowledge those people probably failed at some point. It’s just class envy or as the Bible says, it’s coveting your neighbor’s stuff.
1:00:19 Susan Johnson asks Fadil Jama if he wants a rebuttal
1:00:21 Fadil Jama rebuttal
He says his opponent concentrates on issues of social justice and white supremacy. These only divide us. Then mentions about being a legal immigrant. He said he had to work hard to achieve. There were no roadblocks as they seem to suggest there are.
[He’s black and they are white and yet they describe a society that he didn’t experience which should say their claim is completely bogus].
He goes on to say we should focus on things that unify us like good jobs, safe streets, and a government that listens to us.
1:00:58 Susan Johnson says that one of the rules of this forum is to be forward looking and not personal in nature. (I wonder if she is admonishing Fadil or what the DFLers are saying)
1:01:32 Question 7: The Equal Rights Amendment. What will you do to encourage or discourage the passage of a state ERA?
1:01:44 Rep Athena Hollins
she is for it.
1:02:09 Greg Copeland
He says that eliminating the Religious exemption is not nice. It would eliminate ones religious tradition.
1:03:23 Fadil Jama
He said it did not pass because it is not what the title of the bill is. It is not inclusive, and it violates religious freedom. He believes in the separation of the government and religion. This bill was not inclusive.
1:04:21 Rep Leigh Finke
He is for the ERA. He spews out some misinformation about the Separation of Church and State. He says it’s the most fundamental part of this country. It’s not actually. President Thomas Jefferson said the government would never dictate to churches what they can or can’t do. Yet that’s exactly what this ERA does. It’s not the first time either this State has committed this crime of violating religious freedom. The clergy can serve in the State & Federal government. There is not one founding document that mentions this phrase.
He said if you want the trans people to be oppressed then you will oppose the ERA. This sounds like a threat, possibly slander.
1:05:35 Question 8: Waste. According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency the Twin Cities generates 3.3 million tons of waste each year. Our Metro landfills have increase more than 30% in just one year. What would you do as a State Legislator to address the issue of waste disposal in the Metro Area as well as Statewide?
1:06:10 Rep Leigh Finke (he hoped that Susan had asked Rep Athena Hollins first as she is an expert at this.) [Democrats in general are experts at creating waste hands down]
his audio cuts off at 1:06:21 to 1:06:27
1:07:27 Fadil Jama
1:08:24 Greg Copeland
1:09:40 Rep Athena Hollins (she mentions that Candidate Copeland is right about labeling recyclables)
1:11:04 Question 9: Budget Issues. How do you distinguish between Needs and Wants in Spending or Bonding Bills. What are you Budget Priorities for the upcoming legislative session? And do you believe the state income taxes are too high? If so how do you reduce them? So a big question about money.
1:11:31 Fadil Jama
1:12:33 Greg Copeland (this is an odd sequence as Fadil Jama is not running against Greg Copeland. They are of the same party but different districts. Moderator Susan Johnson should have let Rep Leigh Finke respond and because Fadil mentioned Rep Finke, Leigh might want to respond to him).
1:13:47 Rep Athena Hollins (she agrees with Greg Copeland that maintenance of government buildings and bridges need to be a priority)
She mentions there needs to be a 4th tier of income tax. She says the wealthiest Minnesotans aren’t paying their fair share. This is misinformation. The wealthiest Minnesotans pay most of the income taxes in the state. She says when they don’t pay their fair share the tax burden falls upon the rest of us. She doesn’t grasp the paradox of taxation. When you raise taxes you rake in less revenue than if you were to cut taxes. Wealthy people have more mobility than those who aren’t and they can change their residence very quickly, thus raising taxes on them and spending the money before you get it from them will increase the shortfall in revenue and increase the burden on those of us who don’t have the means to leave the state.
1:15:00 Rep Leigh Finke
He continues the misinformation about taxes. He is for raising taxes on the people who make as he puts it, “too much.”
1:16:15 Fadil Jama Rebuttal to Rep Finke
He said he disagrees about adding a new tax tier. He thinks we could get by with half of the current budget.
1:17:00 Question 10: Gun Violence. Many are concerned with gun violence in our communities. What legislation if any would you support to meet the need for gun safety throughout the State of Minnesota?
1:17:20 Fadil Jama
1:18:28 Rep Leigh Finke
He mentions a number of gun laws passed to include Red Flag and Safe Storage. This is an ignorant statement. The Safe Storage Bill did not pass. In the HD 64A & 64B Forum on Sept 17th, Rep Kaohly Her (DFL HD 64A) said she offered up this bill but it did not pass.
Then he states some misinformation. He said that they talked to Republicans and the 60% Republicans who wanted these bills. That’s a flat out lie. Not one Republican supported these gun control bills.
He then said these are popular bills. He said that he wrote a bill to ban new AR weapons of war [they are weapons in common use in the civilian world and no one takes semiautomatic rifles to war unless you are still using WW2 rifles].
He then states an often used piece of misinformation by Democrats is the claim that the number one cause of death of people under the age of 18 is gun deaths. Actually the number one cause is abortion, then suicide. Mr Colion Noir, a 2A Lawyer has video that debunks this misinformation seen by clicking here. He also talks about the statistics of gun deaths each year, if Rep Finke and other gun grabbers were honest they would admit the stats are pretty low for the millions of guns owned out there see that video here.
[Gun ownership is a nonpartisan activity and people who are gun owners of all political stripes do not support an infringement on the 2nd Amendment. In fact there are quite a number of DFLers who have voted against these bills that Rep Leigh Finke claims are popular].
1:19:39 Rep Athena Hollins
She states that their bills they passed reduce gun deaths. This is misinformation. There are no studies that show this. She doesn’t give the statistics on Veteran suicides or any other deaths due to guns but she says it’s astronomical. The MN Gun Owners Caucus would disagree with everything she says. In fact Rep Dave Pinto of HD 64B DFL has stated in public hearings that his universal background check bill nor the Red Flag Law will curb gun violence.
She states the safe gun storage bill will save lives, that the time it takes to unlock a gun will save a life because it allows time for people to cool off. She said that Law Enforcement doesn’t have to enter a home fearing for their lives. This is misinformation too. There are several cases where Cops enter into a home and shoot the home owner who are unarmed. The most famous case was in Minneapolis where the Interim Police Chief approved a no-knock warrant and Amir Locke was shot to death. People will react to a home invasion and when the Police do not identify themselves they should expect the home owner to believe it is a home invasion.
1:20:30 Greg Copeland (Susan Johnson cuts Greg Copeland off at 1:21:50, a bit early, 40 seconds left in the 2 minutes he was allowed to answer)
He was talking about the lack of School Resource Officers in the schools. He mentioned about how there were a couple of murders in his neighborhood that had nothing to do with safe gun storage.
1:21:55 Question 11: What News Sources do you rely on? and how do you get information about the multitude of issues facing our citizenry which Minnesota Legislators can address?
[What kind of question is this?]
1:22:26 Rep Leigh Finke
Not misinformation but an attack on Republicans when he says that when the other side are not up on what is being said they are not doing their jobs. He also states he is a big believer in the 1st Amendment and freedom of religion. This is a lie as he wanted to remove the religious exemption from the human rights policy in the last session. He wanted to make it easy to tie up Religious organizations like Churches, Temples, and Mosques in lawfare and to silence them with an avalanche of lawsuits.
1:23:20 Fadil Jama`
1:24:31 Greg Copeland
1:25:50 Rep Athena Hollins
1:27:04 Moderator Susan Johnson states that Closing Remarks will begin.
1:27:15 Greg Copeland (HD 66B)
1:29:30 Rep Athena Hollins (HD 66B) (her audio cuts out at 1:30:42 to 1:30:53)
She states that Gas Stoves are slowly poisoning families who use them. This is misinformation. She wants people to transition to electric stoves. She says gas stoves are leaking. This is a huge lie. If this was truthful there would be a lot more gas explosions in the state. She wants to do this to protect the most vulnerable from extreme weather brought on by Climate Change.
1:31:51 Rep Leigh Finke (HD 66A) (his audio cuts out at 1:32:16 to 1:32:21)
He wants to close down Stillwater Prison. He says there are Republicans who want to do this as well.
1:33:47 Fadil Jama (HD 66A)
1:35:52 Moderator Susan Johnson wraps up the end of the Forum by thanking the candidates, those that attended, and voters. She states to Greg Copeland that there can be no rebuttals on closing statements
Susan Johnson gives out some misinformation as well. She states that we live in a democracy, and we don’t. We live in a Republic where those with a minority opinion have rights to appeal the majority. In democracies it is mob rule.
Note to Readers:
I, Publius Jr, hate having to make comments after the candidates above. Usually I like to let the viewer make up their mind. Yet the DFL, the left wing media often will say Republicans and Conservatives spread misinformation about the issues. So in this forum which was poorly run and very poorly recorded I had to point out when Reps Leigh Finke & Athena Hollins were outright lying, or spreading misinformation of their own.
If you didn’t know who Rep Leigh Finke was up to now, he is responsible for making Minnesota into a Transgender Sanctuary state. He was instrumental in changing Pedophilia into a sexual orientation. He helped pass gender affirming care for minors, which is really child sterilization. He also got Governor Tim Walz to sign a bill that puts Tampons into Boys Bathrooms in Public Schools. This is why he is called Tampon Tim.
Rep Athena Hollins has been in office for 4 years and no one knows who she is? She’s not doing as well as the career politician she replaced then, Rep John Lesch. She wrote the bill for Banning Conversion Therapy which is actually counseling for those people who want their minor children to not identify as LGBTQaTOz. Often times the clergy are targeted in these bans, which violates Religious Freedom in the state. If you want to know more about these sorts of bans, click on this story I wrote last year about a man arrested for telling people about his conversion from being a homosexual to being a Born Again Christian in Malta, his name is Matt Grech. “Repenting from Being LGBTQ+ and Talking about it Might Land You in Jail.”
This election is very important as it might determine what your future might be. You might end up living in a Communist state run by the handlers of Kamala Harris & Tim Walz. Your religious freedom will end and your property seized. Future elections will only have 1 person on the ballot and it will be mandatory you vote for that 1 person only. Or you can vote for Donald Trump to become the 47th President of the United States and you’ll be able to afford groceries, gasoline, and be able to pick what kind of stove you want. Donald Trump wants to secure the border and deport anyone here who didn’t come to the USA legally. While you’re at it vote for every Republican on the ballot, which in this case is Fadil Jama in HD 66A, and Greg Copeland in HD 66B. ~~ Publius Jr.