Chip Cravaack is running for congress against DFL Rep. James Oberstar, He campaigned in Cook County on June 4.
Chip Cravaack made a swing through Cook County Friday, June 4, stopping by the World’s Best Donuts, Birch Terrace Supper Club, Blue Water Café and the Grand Portage Veterans Memorial to meet with Cook County voters interested in hearing his views about United States 8th District congressional issues.
As the endorsed Republican representative, he will face DFL Rep. James Oberstar in next fall’s election. But it almost wasn’t to be.
Cravaack had no intention of running for political office— ever. Until one fateful day when he set up an interview to talk to Congressman Oberstar about the rising national deficit.
“As a citizen I was concerned. After doing some research I discovered that my kids’ tax rate would be double what mine is. It’s like putting 50-pound rocks in my sons’ backpacks and telling them that they have to carry it for the rest of their lives. It didn’t seem right to me, and I wanted to discuss it with him.
“He didn’t show up. I was told he wasn’t in town. Then I read in the paper that he had come to town and met with special interest groups. That’s when I decided to run for Congress,” said Cravaack.
It might turn out to be a meeting Oberstar wished he had kept.
A resident of Lindstrom, MN, Cravaack has an impressive resume. He is a retired U.S. Navy captain and retired airline pilot union representative. Cravaack served 24 years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy and spent 18 years as a pilot for Northwest Airlines. He has worked with NATO and at the Pentagon.
“I was there during 9-11. I lost a close friend that day,” said Cravaack.
Cravaack holds a bachelor of science degree from the United States Naval Academy and a master’s degree in education from the University of West Florida. He also received training at the Naval War College and the National Defense University.
A father of two boys, ages six and nine, Cravaack decided to retire when he came home one day and his three-year-old son didn’t know who he was. “That’s it, I’m done,” Cravaack told his wife.
“First and foremost I am a husband and a father,” said Cravaack, who calls himself a conservative but not necessarily a conservative Republican. “I fit best into the Republican Party, but there are many conservative Democrats who, if I sat down and talked to them, wouldn’t know that I was a Republican, and I wouldn’t know that they were Democrat.”
That’s why he feels Oberstar is beatable.
“Oberstar, Pelosi and Obama have taken the party far to the left. A lot of people who are Democrats don’t recognize the party any more,” Cravaack said.
“Thisis not JFK’s Democratic party anymore. Most Democrats are conservative people who believe in balancing their own budgets and keeping big government out of their pockets and lives.
“Most Minnesotans were against the $862 billion spending bill that Oberstar voted for. Theadministration said it would keep unemployment under 8 percent and create job growth. Yet this massive spending bill inflated our national debt, and unemployment is now hovering around 10 percent.”
Cravaack said, “Right now we are spending $3.8 billion a day in interest to pay for the national debt. Our $14.3 trillion debt equals our Gross National Product output of $14.3 trillion. Greece is at 110 percent of their GNP and we see what kind of shape they are in. If we don’t rein in spending and start growing the economy, start paying down the national debt, we are going to leave our children an awful mess.”
Cravaack is against current cap-in-trade legislation, saying it will kill jobs, raise taxes and do little to curb greenhouse gasses.
“Under the current cap-intrade proposal gasoline will go up 72 cents a gallon, diesel fuel, 84 cents, and electricity will increase 8 to 11 cents per kilowatt. Everything will go up, your grocery bill, your heating bill, it will all rise if this is passed.”
Of the recently passed National Health Care Bill, Cravaack says, “Whatever Congress can break, Congress can fix.”
Of the 2,400-page bill, Cravaack said that there are many loopholes in the health care legislation. “It will take decades of litigation to decide what this bill is and what it isn’t. It will certainly lead to health rationing and I am worried for older people like my 79-year-old father. It’s a bad bill that nobody understands. The only thing known for certain is that it will raise our national debt.”
Cravaack said, “Northern Minnesotans are asking for a representative who will listen to them. Someone who supports pro-growth legislation that provides tax relief to working families and small businesses and grows private-sector jobs. Oberstar hasn’t lived in the district for a long time. I feel he is suffering from “Potomac fever.” He doesn’t get back much. He doesn’t seem to know what the issues of the 8th District are. That’s why I am out campaigning. I want to know what you want from your representative. I will take your ideas to Washington. This is about you. Not about me.”
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