At forum, 4 candidates for governor address social needs

The four candidates who gathered before a room of social workers Friday to stake their claim for Minnesota's governorship wasted no time adhering to a key tenet of campaigning: Know your audience.

Not just working professionals and lifetime politicians, the contenders noted they were like the people social workers encounter every day: born of alcoholic families in poverty-stricken homes, the product of diverse communities who know what it means to be disadvantaged.

To quote one famous former governor, they feel your pain.

DFL gubernatorial contenders Matt Entenza, Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Mark Dayton and Independence Party candidate Tom Horner parted from stumping points largely to play up their backgrounds at a forum held by Minnesota's chapter of the National Association of Social Workers at the University of Minnesota on Friday.

The only major candidate not in attendance was Republican Tom Emmer, whose absence was noted repeatedly by his opponents. "It seems like the standard sentence up here has a verb, an adjective and Tom Emmer," Horner joked. Emmer was campaigning elsewhere in the state on Friday.

The forum touched on topics dear to social workers, such as health care, poverty, civil rights and child welfare. With almost every issue, the inevitable question arose: Can we afford it?

Asked whether the state should adopt a single-payer health care system, Dayton and Kelliher voiced strong support for the proposal, while Entenza said it would be too expensive given the state's deficit.

The discussion of child welfare and civil rights spurred candidates to invoke their backgrounds. Dayton, who is a recovering alcoholic, said he grew up with an alcoholic mother and "I know what emotional abuse is like." Entenza noted that his father was an alcoholic. Kelliher said she was called to "protect the poor and vulnerable" because she "grew up in a very poor situation" on a Minnesota dairy farm that her family nearly lost to foreclosure.

Raising taxes

Dayton and Horner were the most pointed on the subject of taxes.

"Here is my Walter Mondale moment: I will raise taxes," said Horner, noting that he would like to decrease taxes on "job creating activities," such as businesses.

Dayton said he would raise taxes on the wealthy by $4 billion. Couples earning more than $150,000 should expect to pay more, he said, as should individuals earning more than $130,000.