Think about the rest of the state when you get elected and serve in St. Paul.
That was the plea from a woman Erin Murphy met as she knocked on doors seeking election to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2005.
Murphy sought election to that office in part after helping her mom navigate the health care system a year earlier as she fought and later died from cancer.
“For the last 11 years I have spent my time with people all over the state of Minnesota, in our hospitals and clinics at the beginning because I was focused on health care, but also in people’s businesses, community centers and our forests... getting to know Minnesotans and Minnesota because our politics should be about us and our future and I want to build our future. You can’t do that if you’re not connected to the people.”
Murphy stopped in International Falls last week to learn about Borderland and its residents as she nears the end of the first year of her 2-year campaign seeking the Minnesota governor’s office in November 2018.
She said she grew up in a family that earned its way to the middle class and worries other families don’t have that chance. She’s the daughter of a union auto worker in Wisconsin, and she became a surgical nurse and worked at a large hospital in rural Wisconsin. Murphy moved to St. Paul to work at the University of Minnesota Hospital as a part of a transplant team, and later worked for the Minnesota Nurses Association in several functions, including as executive director, managing budgets and negotiations. She maintains a nursing license today.
Murphy said she took the advice from the woman who answered the door in her first election.
“You can get elected statewide in Minnesota if you concentrate on the population centers, the Twin Cities and the regional centers, but you can’t really govern that way,” she told The Journal Thursday. “I want to be a governor for everyone in the state of Minnesota and I want Minnesotans to know when I am elected I will fight for them and for all our communities and the best way to do that is to be present. And here I am.”
Murphy said she met Thursday morning with local folks at a coffee shop, where they talked about economic development, health care, the relationship between health care coverage and good jobs and small businesses, the train crossing in Ranier, pipelines, mining, agriculture and water.
“We talked about the next election and wanting to make sure we are fighting for the people of Minnesota and not just having another election where we beat the other side, but the issues important to Minnesotans are the subject of the campaign,” Murphy said.
She said the group she spoke with also discussed their desire to ensure that living wage jobs would continue here and into the future. “That affection for International Falls, for this community, for its importance to the rest of the state that was made crystal clear to me,” she said. “And the coffee was good.”
Murphy said people are ready to talk about Minnesota. “I learned early on that my job was to listen and understand what the root of the problem was and to act on it,” she said, adding that the nurse in her doesn’t allow her to walk away from a problem or patient “even if it’s tough, even if it’s scary.”
She said walking away is what’s happening in the political world today, with many elected officials taking a “we can wait” attitude about the state’s infrastructure, transportation, and broadband access.
“When we do that we short change or own future,” she said. “I want to be a part of Minnesota that is pursuing it’s bright future, using a kind of politics to improve people’s lives. That’s what my campaign is all about — the future and what we’re going to do to make sure people want to grow up, raise their families, start their businesses and participate to build our economy to a place where people can live and thrive.”
Murphy points to small communities, such as International Falls, where there’s not enough money to support making improvements to antiquated water infrastructure. She estimates there are now between $11 billion and $13 billion of needs in drinking and wastewater improvements in the state. That work, and other work, ought to be paid for by annual bonding bills at the state Legislature, she said.
“There would be good jobs for people, but also what is more fundamental than their water?” she wondered. “When I think about communities across the state, whether it’s a big city or a small town, they need access to good schools, you need jobs, you need access to health care, you certainly need access to good water. As governor, we are going to put priority on that infrastructure and make sure we do it with good paying union jobs — that’s a place people can come together,” she said.
Murphy said because communities in Minnesota and Minnesotans are diversified, it’s important to communicate and understand the differing needs.
“But there are things that tie us together and Minnesotans are more alike than different,” she said. “We all want good schools for kids, we all want health care we can count on, we want clean drinking water, we want infrastructure that works for us... and we have an interest in our future together.”
