Candidates tout farm roots and policy

REDWOOD FALLS, MINN. -- Minnesota candidates for governor dripped sweat as they battled each other in front of a lively, sometimes skeptical crowd of about 1,000 farmers Wednesday, just days before voters decide who will survive until November.

Under the big tent at Farmfest, surrounded by hulking tractors, manure spreaders and towering cornfields, six candidates faced off over biodiesel, rural health care, property taxes, as well as livestock and pesticide regulations.

The three DFL gubernatorial candidates -- Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Mark Dayton and Matt Entenza -- once again saved their swipes for the man they hope to face in November, Republican Tom Emmer, while touting their rural bona fides.

For the record: Entenza grew up in rural Worthington; Dayton's great-grandfather and grandfather raised livestock; Kelliher is a former dairy princess who grew up on a farm and whose family still farms. Emmer, a Delano trial attorney who grew up in Edina, proudly told the crowd he has baled hay.

"I did it last fall," he said, adding "I'm not very good at it, by the way."

Down on the farm

"When people are campaigning everyone seems like they are from the farm," said Rep. Al Juhnke, DFL-Willmar, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

Asked about support for biofuel mandates in Minnesota, Independence Party candidate Rob Hahn said he doesn't like mandates, an answer not designed to win friends among farmers.

Dayton won applause for strongly backing agri-fuel and noting that an ethanol spill has never destroyed the Gulf of Mexico. Independence Party endorsee Tom Horner said the state needs to transition away from ethanol subsidies. Entenza, a former Minnesota House minority leader who has stressed clean energy, won plaudits for saying that energy should come from the fields of Minnesota, not "dictators in the Middle East."

Kelliher, the Minnesota House speaker, also declared herself pro-mandates but dinged Emmer in the process.

Emmer, she said, has not supported biofuels. "I'm going to be very interested in his answer today," she said. "He's voted against it in 2008, in 2008 twice, in 2005 and, you know, it is interesting when people say one thing and they do another," she said, to audience applause.

Emmer, a state representative, insisted that "I support any alternative form of energy. I'm not sure where Margaret is looking. I had to ask. Because I'm pretty sure I voted for the biodiesel mandate."

On Wednesday Emmer proposed merging the agriculture work of the Pollution Control Agency and the Department of Natural Resources into the Agriculture Department. That move would not save the state money and, his opponents said, could muddy functions.

On taxes

All three of the DFL candidates and Horner have said they would raise state taxes, in part to keep local property taxes from continuing to rise to make up the gap.

"You know what no new taxes has meant? No new taxes has meant they get shifted on to you," Entenza said. "It's trickled down to property taxes ... the worst possible taxes."

Dayton called taxes "the defining issue between Republicans and Democrats."

"The problem is that people inside government are totally unwilling to reform," he said. "Reduce the size of it. Get rid of the bloat and the excess. Start to put people back in charge of their own opportunities," he said, although he offered no details.

The three DFL candidates will meet once more before Tuesday's election, in a radio debate by Minnesota Public Radio on Sunday night.