For next governor, look to third party

For the past five months, the media has been sounding the death knell of the Independence Party (IP). Despite the naysayers, in a couple of weeks I expect that Minnesota will see us emerge stronger and more focused than ever.

The IP and I are longtime friends. Twenty-two years ago, I campaigned for Ross Perot with my grandparents in Worthington, Minn. I supported Perot because he offered something the other candidates didn't: a plan. His spreadsheets and graphs told me that he had enough respect for voters to give us numbers we could fact-check. The other guys spoke only in platitudes.

That value still guides me today. When asked how I planned to spur Minnesota's economy, I answered — very specifically — that I would like to eliminate Minnesota's business income tax. I respect Minnesotans enough to be transparent with my plan, not to simply say that I believe in happy thoughts, safe streets, prosperity and good schools. (Who doesn't?)

As a team-builder and problem-solver who is not for sale, I would like to restore the office of the governor to serve the people. However, I am sad to say that despite being a major-party candidate and having no legal distinction from the Republican and DFL candidates for governor, I have been excluded from two (possibly three) of the mere five total debates being held this year. In 2010, there were over 20 debates, and the IP candidate was included in all of them.

Since I cannot afford nearly as much airtime as the Republican and DFLer in this race, these debates are extremely important to my candidacy. Please see for yourself if my ideas are worth keeping at the table: Google and watch the Moorhead and/or Rochester debates in which I was included.

Americans are clear that we do not want the two-party duopoly: 58 percent of us do not believe the Republicans or Democrats adequately represent us. Further, 40 percent of Minnesotans identify as independents. The IP is a needed voice in Minnesota.

For 20 years, the IP has given a voice to those who otherwise would not have participated. Exit polling in the 2008 U.S. Senate race determined that 75 percent of IP voters would have stayed home without the IP option. Without the IP, that would mean 330,000 disenfranchised voters in Minnesota.

On a basic level, the IP represents a government of the people. We believe in transparency, honesty, equal treatment under the law and getting money out of politics. In philosophy, we offer an alternative to the other two major parties. We are "socially tolerant," meaning we don't want to run people's lives and we won't legislate morality. On the fiscal side, we are "responsible," meaning balanced budgets, putting needs before wants and not spending money we don't have.

Minnesota needs to clean house. Though 68 percent of Minnesotans wanted the Vikings stadium "entirely privately funded," a shady deal was made behind closed doors to fleece Minnesota taxpayers for its construction. When 76 percent of Minnesotans wanted legal medicinal marijuana, our legislators caved to influential special interests and produced the most restrictive and least effective medicinal marijuana law in the nation. We also have the recent scandal of the "nonprofit," taxpayer-funded Community Action of Minneapolis, where corruption was reported years earlier but wasn't addressed until the Star Tribune exposed the group's exorbitant salaries, massages, spa visits, vacations and other luxuries.

I could go on, but suffice to say: Isn't it time Minnesota shocked the world again?