Three rivals for Michele Bachmann's congressional seat found a great deal of common ground at a Saturday night candidate forum in Andover.
Three of the four declared Republican hopefuls — former gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, Anoka County Commissioner Rhonda Sivarajah and state Sen. John Pederson — squared off at a forum hosted by the Sixth District Republicans.
Although "squared off" might be too strong a term for an event where the candidates staked out similar positions on issues ranging from abortion to immigration to the budget deal Congress hammered out last weekend.
All three blasted the bipartisan budget agreement that will avert the threat of a government shutdown for the next two years. All three said they would vote against similar deals in the future if they head to Washington. The agreeable tone continued throughout the debate.
"My priorities are roads and bridges," said Pederson, in response to a question about the Northstar commuter rail corridor. "We're going to have more trains until people in strong districts like CD6 get out and help people in other districts defeat Democrats who want those trains."
"We need to be focusing our limited resources on roads and bridges," said Sivarajah, who called the rail plans a "boondoggle."
"I've never supported rail," Emmer agreed.
What about auditing the Federal Reserve? Absolutely, Pederson and Sivarajah said.
