Candidate for Lieutenant Governor John Gunyou stopped to check out the newly expanded kitchen at World’s Best Donuts on Wednesday, June 30. The visit was part of Gunyou’s “Main Street Tour.” (L-R) Donut Shop co-owner Stacy Hawkins, John Gunyou, Donut Shop co-owner Dee Brazell, and Grand Marais Mayor Sue Hakes.
John Gunyou, running mate of gubernatorial candidate Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, visited Grand Marais last week, with a different mission than other politicians on the campaign trail. Gunyou, a city manager in Minnetonka, said he well understands that the state and local government relationship is at the lowest point it has ever been. In addition to campaigning for Anderson-Kelliher, or more simply “Margaret,” Gunyou said he hopes to begin mending fences.
To do so, he made an appointment with Grand Marais Mayor Sue Hakes on Wednesday, June 30. The Cook County News-Herald
caught up with Gunyou and the mayor at city hall as they set off on what Gunyou’s campaign has dubbed his “Main Street Tour.”
Asked about his decision to meet with select governmental representatives rather than having a town hall or public meeting, Gunyou said it was not his intention to leave anyone out. He noted that public meetings are often just a forum for a candidate to give a canned speech. “It was wellintentioned. I told Margaret that I want to do something to change the adversarial relationship between local government and the state. I asked if I could meet one-on-one with some local government leaders. I didn’t want it to be a media show.”
Gunyou said that he would work diligently with local government leaders to establish a better way to distribute local government aid (LGA). He said he is still working as the Minnetonka city manager while campaigning, so he knows firsthand the difficulty of running a municipality without knowing what the funding was going to be from month to month. He said the state needs to get past party politics. “There isn’t a DFLway to plow streets or a Republican way to fight fires,” he said.
Gunyou said one thing that would benefit Minnesotans is participation in the early Medicaid enrollment available in the new federal health care law. Gunyou said the federal plan would bring 7-to-1 funding to Minnesota. “For each $100 million that the state provides, we would get $1.4 billion in early Medicaid assistance. This could lead to creation of 20,000 jobs. But this is something that had gotten caught in the crossfire of the current governor’s political agenda,” said Gunyou. He said Anderson-Kelliher would see that Minnesota was part of this program.
Asked if he felt the state should reconsider some of its unfunded mandates—programs and services mandated by the state legislature, but which the county must find money to pay for—Gunyou said the administrative rules that come down to local government don’t take into account the diversity of the state.
The “Main Street Tour” then began with this reporter in tow as the mayor introduced Gunyou to business owners in downtown Grand Marais. It was obvious the lieutenant governor candidate enjoyed the one-on-one interaction with the public, including some teasing from Stacy Hawkins of World’s Best Donuts. As Gunyou got a tour of the newly expanded kitchen and looked at all of the photos of previous visitors to the Donut Shop, Hawkins said if a candidate wanted to be elected, he had to make a stop at the Donut Shop.
To the chagrin of his assistants Jen Fox and Rachel Dakarian, who were trying to keep him on the busy campaign schedule, Gunyou took time to listen to each business owner and person he met at Sivertson Gallery, Lake Superior Trading Post, and Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply. As they encouraged him to head to the car for the next stop, he was still shaking hands and announcing to passersby that he was “running with Margaret.”
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