Candidate Jeff Anderson is logging 400 to 500 miles each day as he visits communities around the 8th Congressional District.
A Duluth city councilor, he will face fellow DFL congressional candidates Rick Nolan and Tarryl Clark in the Aug. 14 primary. He visited International Falls Tuesday as he prepared to take part in seven Fourth of July parades over the next 24 hours, with others to follow.
“When you run for Congress, it’s more about retail politics than it is about me,” he said of his hectic schedule.
Anderson said he was prompted to seek the 8th District seat after Congressman Chip Cravaack defeated former long-time Congressman Jim Oberstar.
“I was shocked, because as an elected official I knew what kind of partner we lost (in Oberstar),” said Anderson.
As Cravaack began his term, Anderson said it became clear that his style was different from what Anderson believed was needed for the position.
“Chip Cravaack is a nice guy, an honorable man, but we have different philosophies on the roles of government. He is a go-it-alone kind of guy,” said Anderson.
As International Falls renovates its waste water treatment plant and Duluth replaces its water treatment plant, Cravaack indicated they were great projects, “but he felt the federal government shouldn’t have a role,” said Anderson.
“I look at so many things we do in our communities, I know as a city councilor, we need federal help — assistance from Washington,” he said.
“We need a partner in Washington,” he said of the position. “That was the main reason for me running.”
Anderson explained he also saw that one of Cravaack’s first votes was “essentially ending Medicare as we know it. We have an aging population and I don’t believe he represents the values and views of the majority of the people in the 8th District.”
Anderson said knowledge of the people in the district is important.
“Being a partner, bringing people together from all sides — Republican, Democrat or Independence — is important. I have that understanding working in municipal government,” he said.
Anderson notes that of the three DFL challengers, he is the only one who has won an election in the district, as the boundaries are drawn.
“I am the only person that’s been elected in the district and in the trenches and having to faced challenges like cuts to local government aid, decaying and crumbling infrastructure, and faced the horrible economic downturn,” said Anderson. “Having that knowledge, knowing the players and representing people and bringing people together — that’s the style of leadership that defines me from Congressman Cravaack and also Rick Nolan and Tarryl Clark.”
While Anderson said his service as a Duluth city councilor provides him with perspective, it also speaks to his electability, being elected in the largest city in the 8th District.
Nolan has represented places like St. Cloud and Worthington, which Anderson said are very different from other places in the 8th District, such as the Iron Range, Koochiching County and Duluth.
Anderson was born and raised in Ely, and is a fourth generation “Ranger.” A graduate of Ely Memorial High School, Anderson joined the Minnesota Army National Guard, where he served for six years as a mechanized infantryman. During this time he also attended college at Bemidji State and the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Anderson has worked in television and radio for the past 16 years. For the past decade he has worked as an advertising executive for a group of regional radio stations. He also owns and operates a small business in Duluth. Anderson was recognized by the Duluth News Tribune in 2010 as a recipient of the “20 Under 40” award winner. This award honors the work and contributions of people under the age of 40 who help to make the Duluth community great.
Anderson served as Duluth city council president in 2010 and has served as commissioner and former president of the Economic Development Authority in Duluth.
He said he’s personally seen the struggles of northern Minnesotans, with some leaving the area to find work. His father was laid off from the mines in the 1980s.
He has been an outspoken proponent of mining and said he “believes our future relies on investing and nurturing the precious metals mining.”
As he tours the district, Anderson said he hears most about the need for jobs.
His work in the private sector as well as an elected official shows he has created jobs, he said.
“I know government plays a role in creating jobs, is a partner and we need our congressman to help make that happen” he said. “Cities like International Falls have to have the tools and means to lure industry and create industry form within.”
He uses mining as an example that can help create jobs through related industries in other parts of the district. “But we have to move (proposed mining projects) forward with those projects for that to happen and realize economic security,” he said.
Government must play a role in seeing burgeoning industries, such as data storage, come to fruition. That role should include providing for “infrastructure, the nuts and bolts to get that to northern Minnesota. Our congressman has been absent from the discussion and absent from the federal role and I philosophically disagree with that.”
Meanwhile, Anderson said he would have abided by the DFL endorsement, if the other DFL candidates would have. Nolan won the DFL nomination.
But Clark announced early on in the campaign that she would not abide by the DFL nomination for the congressional seat, forcing a primary in the race.
“I said let the 70,000 people decide who is best,” he said and he noted that Oberstar was not a DFL-endorsed candidate in 1974 nor was Gov. Mark Dayton in 2010.
He calls Clark a “political tourist” who has moved to the district to run for office. “Tarryl Clark is more about money and ambitions than the district,” he said.
And he said Nolan served in Congress, but the people of the 8th District last year rejected someone who was elected the same time he was. Nolan was elected to the Minnesota House in 1969, and was first elected to Congress in 1974.
“I am a new 21st century leader ready to solve the problems facing us,” Anderson said. “I am looking forward, not looking backward at the past and I sincerely believe the next generation of prosperity in northern Minnesota is out there, but we need people in the right leadership roles to get there.”
