Readers write for Tuesday, Aug. 3

Thank you for your ringing endorsement of Margaret Anderson Kelliher in the DFL primary for governor ("Kelliher merits nod," editorial, Aug. 1). The reasons you gave are the same reasons that so many volunteers are working hard and giving money to her campaign. You highlighted her leadership and ability to find consensus among groups with differing opinions, which is exactly why so many of us are convinced we need Margaret as our next governor.

KATHLEEN S. AHRENS, MINNEAPOLIS

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I am pleased to see the Star Tribune's endorsement of Kelliher. As owner of a successful small manufacturing company, there is one more important facet of information that was left out of the editorial: Margaret supports small businesses, and in particular manufacturing -- the sector that accounts for one in seven Minnesota jobs.

As speaker of the House, Margaret toured my company and answered questions from our employees. She is a thoughtful person who listened to our concerns. She understands the need for workforce development and health care.

It's about time that we have a governor who understands the struggles of the small-business owner and the importance of good-paying manufacturing jobs.

ELIZABETH ABRAHAM, CEO, TOP TOOL CO., AND CHAIRWOMAN, MINNESOTA MANUFACTURERS COALITION

Your Kelliher endorsement paints a rather rosy picture of her tenure as speaker of the House. Touting her ability to "forge consensus among people of various backgrounds and partisan persuasions," the editorial goes on to say that she offers a different style of leadership to Minnesota, one of collaboration and spotlight-sharing.

Having graduated from a public school district here in Minnesota, I've seen the effects of this leadership. I've watched as Gov. Tim Pawlenty has delayed hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to our state's schools. I've watched as hardworking, enthusiastic, effective young teachers have lost their jobs because districts could no longer afford to pay them. And I've sat in classes so large that through no fault of their own, teachers just couldn't get around to giving each student the help they needed.

Even with all of her consensus-forming abilities, Kelliher couldn't stop this from happening.

We as Minnesotans deserve better than this. We need a strong, principled candidate who will fight for us. And for us DFLers, we need a candidate who has the best shot at winning the general election, not just winning the historically meaningless DFL endorsement. To me, Mark Dayton embodies all of these qualities, and that's why I'm supporting his candidacy for governor, for a better Minnesota.

MICHAEL DOMINGUES, PLYMOUTH

Pardon the pun, but there isn't a nickel's worth of difference between Dayton, Matt Entenza or Kelliher. Their policies can be summed up as either tax-and-spend or tax-and-then-spend.

DAVID TEICHER, PLYMOUTH

How poetic: A letter from Paddy Carpenter, from France, asking Americans to give up their guns (July 30). What sweet music to Adolf Hitler's ears.

ROYCE L. HEFFELFINGER, REDWOOD FALLS, MINN.

I continue to find it very sad that people totally blame President Obama for the poor economy and everything else that is "bad" with our country ("Economy, wars take toll on president," Minnesota Poll, Aug. 1). If the Republicans and others who disapprove of the president's job performance had their own ideas and solutions, that would be one thing. But all they do is criticize the Democrats and the White House, with no new ideas of their own.

I concur with J. Brian Atwood's thesis on immigration ("Our state was (and is) made by immigrants," Aug. 2). For many years I have been assisting teachers in a Hopkins elementary school. A few years ago I had a recent immigrant from the Philippines who spoke little English. By the end of his first year I wrote his parents a note that they should save some money, not just for college, but to augment the Rhodes Scholarship he was bound to receive. This is a great nation, and it will continue to be, as long as we welcome the foreign-born to our shores.

BARRY BONOFF, GEMINI GROUP ENTERPRISES, MINNETONKA

Katherine Kersten's Aug. 1 column provided us with the shocking revelation that liberal journalists supported President Obama over Sen. John McCain in 2008 ("Media bias: Where do they sign up?"). I am eagerly awaiting a followup on whether that was true among the conservative journalists at Fox News, but something tells me I shouldn't hold my breath.