Select A Candidate change #1
After only a week, I'm making my first change to Select A Candidate 2006. Usually, I end up having to make a few changes with every version because candidates -- hey, get this -- tend to change their positions.
I think this is the earliest I've had to change and the issue is the stadium. The candidate is Steve Kelley, running for governor. And the answer in question was one he gave on MPR in March.
To the question of what we should do about the stadium issue(s), the answer -- then -- was:
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"I support limited public role in the Twins and Vikings stadium. Gophers stadium is public and we should support that. I see the state role as 'limited.'"
In the answer to a question from Gary Eichten, Kelley said "education and health care" come first and he wouldn't put the stadium ahead of those. (Listen in RealAudio)
Let's take it from the end. First, the Senate doesn't appear to have done anything on health care and education -- anything substantial anyway. The bill guaranteeing health care as a right is dead in committee. The bill mandating health insurance coverage by large employers (the WalMart bill) hasn't taken a breath since early March. On education, the DREAM act -- dead in the House -- didn't even get a companion bill in the Senate.
I say that because I want to be sure I'm not missing any technicalities on the original answer; that maybe some significant steps have been addressed on health care and education that I wasn't aware of, that makes stadiums jumping ahead something to ignore in the original answer.
Nope.
So now we focus on the word "limited." Kelley is author of the amendment that replaced the Hennepin County tax for a baseball stadium, with a metro-wide half-cent sales tax that throws the Vikings into the list of beneficiaries.
I have no guidelines here, but by the power vested in me as the creator of Select A Candidate, I declare expansion of the sales tax by a half-cent, the number of counties by 6, and the teams getting the cash by one does not count as "limited." And we haven't even talked about the fact yet that the question regarding voting on a tax increase isn't a question of "they elect us to represent them." It's a question of taking away something via legislation that is granted by present law. That, regardless of how you feel about the referendum question, is an expansion of government power by simple definition. So "limited" is no longer a valid term for purposes of this question -- you can't limit something by expanding it.
So the original answer is thrown out as no longer valid. The replacement will be:
I support a half-cent increase in the state sales tax in the seven-county metro area, the proceeds of which should be used to help build stadiums for the Vikings and Twins.
Keep in mind I have no opinion on any candidate's opinion, but the hard part of Select A Candidate is keeping a proper connection between the actions and the words.
Now it's possible that Kelley's goal here is to actually sink the stadium by attaching amendments he knows the House will never accept. And he'd get credit for that before the Select A Candidate panel of judges. After he says that.
Ain't politics grand?
(Update 9:55 a.m.) The Kelley campaign points out the following two points:
1) "The sales tax would also pay for a network of light rail. Sen.
Kelley is a huge proponent of light rail and sees this
legislation as a possible avenue toward creating a modern
transit system in the Cities."
2) "By financing the ballparks Steve