First Dist. newcomer's stances are clear cut

Dr. Brian Davis emerged from near obscurity about a year ago when he decided to run for Congress.

But despite that inherent disadvantage and his lack of civic involvement, the Mayo Clinic doctor won the Republican endorsement to challenge incumbent Rep. Tim Walz in southern Minnesota's First District.

It was the latest in a string of successes for the Waukegan, Ill., native who went from flipping steaks to becoming an engineer, then a cancer doctor, according to those who know him.

The 50-year-old father of four's first-ballot victory over Rep. Randy Demmer, R-Hayfield, at the First District GOP convention March 29 has brought attention to a man with little name recognition or public service experience.

"We don't know very much about him yet," said DFL chair Brian Melendez. "He has no track record of community service or civic engagement. It's very important to be engaged in the community you are living in."

Involvement in work-related groups, in which Davis is active, does not approach the level of volunteer or civic activities, Melendez argued.

Davis was elected Olmsted County Republican Party treasurer a year ago, but reduced his commitment three months later after he filed to run for Congress. Another person took over the position in November.

Davis still faces a fight in the Sept. 9 GOP primary, where he will be up against six-term state Sen. Dick Day, R-Owatonna, former Senate minority leader.

Davis has championed his political outsider status as a winning mark of his candidacy. And he regularly notes his real-life experience in engineering and medicine as key to his ability to address energy and health care concerns.

"I've always been interested in politics, but have always understood that in our system of government, it's the life experiences that people bring to the table that's valuable to government," Davis said, adding that he has worked in public and veterans hospitals while in school and is a fairly new member of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce.

Humble roots

To balance his image as a doctor at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, where his wife works one weekend a month as an emergency-room doctor, Davis notes that at heart he's a Midwesterner from a humble background, an image touted by other candidates in the largely rural district stretching across the southern part of the state.

In his battle for the endorsement, Demmer noted his roots as a former small-business owner and farmer. Walz is a former National Guard noncommissioned officer and high school teacher from Mankato. The district's previous representative, Gil Gutknecht, was an auctioneer.

Davis was born the younger of two children to a public school principal father and a reading-teacher mother. He grew up in a bookish household with parents who kept him on task, said his long-time friend, Ron Belec.

"They didn't cut him any slack," said Belec, who met Davis when both were teenage cooks at a steakhouse. "Everything was just easy" for him.

Davis' early jobs also included delivering newspapers and counseling YMCA campers. He earned college money by painting house numbers on curbs and later worked as a part-time janitor, doorman and furniture mover while in school.

"I learned a lot prior to going into medicine," said Davis, who will take a leave of absence from Mayo this month.

Both Belec and Davis' wife, Lori Lillienberg, said he's been a staunch and conservative Republican his entire life.

"He's the same guy," said Lillienberg, a stay-at-home parent when she's not working her weekends at Mayo. "He would rile up my Democratic friends."

Questions global warming

Davis has taken conservative stances on a number of issues, including:

• Opposing abortion.

• Opposing gay marriage and civil unions if they provide the same benefits as marriage.

• Favoring eliminating government-imposed standards for automobile mileage and production so marketplace competition can take its natural course.

• Opposing a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq in favor of letting Iraqis vote on the extent of U.S. involvement in the country.

• Opposing social services and amnesty for illegal immigrants.

• Expressing skepticism "that mankind has little if anything to do with global warming." "I don't deny that there are areas where glaciers are shrinking and breaking up, but then there are areas where ice packs are forming," Davis said. "Climate is very variable. And it's very difficult to predict."

According to the DFL's Melendez, Davis is "toeing the party line too much. The things I've heard him say, like about global warming, suggests to me that this guy is a little off-kilter."

Although not in those exact words, Davis similarly characterized what he called Walz's partisan voting record in Congress. That, among other reasons, is why he's running for office, Davis said.

"I have four young children," he said, "and I want them to grow up in a strong and prosperous country so that when they're adults, they can look back and say that my generation did the right thing."

Chao Xiong • 612-673-4391