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?
