Tom Baakk and Rob Ecklund. They took their masks off for the photo.
Minnesota State Senator Tom Bakk (District 3, DFL) and State Representative Rob Ecklund (District 3A, DFL) stopped by the newspaper on Tuesday this week and agreed to sit down for a quick interview.
The two gentlemen were here in the county delivering political signs and setting up ads to run in the newspaper when they agreed to take a few minutes out of their day to discuss current events. Of course, those events are dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has reached into every corner and crevice of our lives.
“The biggest issue for the state,” said Bakk, “Is getting our arms around the pandemic. My advice to everyone is to follow the recommendations of the CDC and state health department. Wear your mask and keep your social distancing. I don’t like wearing a mask any more than anyone else, but if we all sacrifice a little, we can get through this. It’s too bad it (the pandemic) happened in an election year. It’s polarized the country.”
“I just heard a report on MPR about the vaccine,” said Ecklund. “Forty-seven percent of the people said they would take the vaccine and forty-three percent said they wouldn’t take the vaccine if and when it comes out. Can you imagine? How do we beat this virus if half of the people don’t want to get vaccinated?”
Opening the border between Canada and the U.S. is essential, said Bakk, “But that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen until January 2021, at the earliest. Norman Deschampe (former Grand Portage Tribal Council leader who passed away last year) told me that 90 percent of the business to the casino came from Thunder Bay. It’s very important to get that border open.”
Ecklund said his International Falls home and Canadian sister-city of Fort Frances are dependent upon each other. The grocery stores in International Falls really miss their Canadian shoppers. “We need to get that border open. It’s important for both communities in the Falls area.”
Neither Tom nor Rob enjoys ZOOM meetings, but that is the tool they have to use to work at their legislative jobs and to do fundraising for their campaigns.
“I like meeting people and discussing the issues with them in person,” Tom said. “I’m doing a ZOOM fundraiser next Monday, and I’m not looking forward to it. It’s hard to ask for contributions when you can’t look at someone and say thank you.”
Working online is also a challenge, said Rob. “I rely on looking at people’s faces to see their reactions to a proposal or plan. You can’t get that through ZOOM. You see a few faces, but not all of them.”
Coming soon, the legislature will convene for a fifth stand-alone extra special session, which is something new for Rob, and Tom said he doesn’t remember ever going into this many extra sessions either. Because of the sessions’ remote nature—with legislators attending meetings through ZOOM—it’s been tough putting bills together, said Tom. “It’s especially hard right now because of the upcoming elections. Everyone is looking for a “Gotcha” moment rather than working together to solve problems. It’s not so bad up north, but in the Twin Cities, some of the campaigns are especially negative.”
Working across the aisle with their Republican counterparts is important, said Rob. “I have some pretty good friends on the Republican side that I can reach out to and work with. Not right now, though, not until the election is over.”
Cobbling together a budget is going to be hard, said Tom, especially when the state doesn’t have much money. “Our May numbers were gloomy. On December 1, we will get our post-election budget numbers and then we will see what we have. You know how it goes at home. When you have money, you just spend money. When you don’t have money, you have to look at what’s essential and spend your money on that. A downturn like we are facing absolutely makes you look at what’s important. It makes us a little more accountable, and that’s not a bad thing.”
While COVID-19 has dominated the present, there might be a “silver lining” in all of the bad news caused by the coronavirus. Tom noted people who had never worked from home have discovered that they can work from home. And, added Rob, “Here in Cook County where you have the gold standard of Internet, people from the cities are finding they can do their jobs here and live here.”
As far as the small businesses go that have been drastically affected by the pandemic, both gentlemen said they would continue to work hard to help business owners.
There was also talk of deer hunting and gathering up all of their political signs that will have to be taken down once the election is over.
Before they left, Tom Bakk repeated, “Wear your mask. Follow the rules. The sooner we get this (pandemic) behind us, the better off we will be. We have done hard things before as a country. We can work together and get through this.”
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