Erin Murphy
Erin Murphy, 56, a six-term legislator from St. Paul, is seeking the DFL endorsement for the upcoming Minnesota governor’s race. Two time incumbent governor Mark Dayton has said he will not run for another term, leaving the door wide open for a bevy of candidates to enter.
Murphy is a Wisconsin native who moved to Minnesota in 1988 to work as a transplant nurse at the University of Minnesota. She and her husband, Joe Faust, have twin daughters who are now adults. From 2001-07 Murphy served as executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association. Besides her work in the legislature, she is also an adjunct faculty member in nursing at St. Catherine.
“It was taking care of patients that led me to politics,” Murphy said. “Nursing is a discipline that requires constant critical decision-making. You don’t get to walk away from a patient just because it’s hard. You have to stay and finish the job. That’s what I am. I am a politician who gets stuff done.”
From 2012 to 2014 she served as the House majority leader, losing that post when Republicans gained control of the House in 2014.
On the issue of education, Murphy said, “I know that we need an education system that prepares every child to be successful and ready to participate in the economy. I am a strong supporter of public schools, of pre-school education. We need to give the teachers and administrators what they need to educate our children. Our economy depends on well educated young people.”
Health care is a hot potato for every politician, but it’s an issue Murphy has lived as a nurse. Murphy has been the DFL lead on the Health and Human Services Finance Committee and she feels that if the state made Minnesota Care available for everyone to purchase, “That would solve a lot of problems for individuals as well as businesses. As a nurse, I saw first-hand the necessity for affordable health care coverage.”
Also on the topic of health care, Murphy worries that we aren’t training enough nurses and primary care doctors to fill the roles of the many medical care providers who are entering the retirement age. “It’s an issue that needs to be addressed now. We need a plan to recruit more people into the health care field.”
Running a balanced budget is important to Murphy. “In 2013 we balanced the budget. Keeping the state’s budget stable so we can plan for the future is important. How we spend our revenues and what we spend them on to best serve the public is important.
“When we balanced the budget we raised taxes on the top two percent of wage earners. I support the higher minimum wage. When we expand the minimum wage it generally means the economy expands because people have more money in their family budget.”
On the issue of divided government, Murphy replied, “I come from a big Irish family. There were lots of divisions and you had to work to find respect and common ground. That’s what we need to do in government, find common hopes. We share a lot of common values and we need to work across the aisle, work together for the public we serve.”
Mining, said Murphy, “Isn’t just important to the Northland. It’s important for the whole state.
“Polymet will probably get their permit. They have followed the laws and will build their mine and retaining ponds. I don’t think the argument should be about jobs or the environment. We need to protect the water, the air, but we need good paying jobs too.
“I think we need to find a better solution to the retention ponds than what is now offered. We need to push ourselves beyond what Polymet is now offering and come up with a better solution to make sure the water isn’t going to be poisonous and pose environmental problems in the future. We can do that.”
Culturally and economically, Minnesota has to do better to lift up whole groups of people who have been left behind, Murphy said. “We can’t afford to let that happen anymore. Despite their hard work, there are groups of people who still struggle to get ahead. There are persistent racial disparities that exist in our society that close doors of opportunity for many Minnesotans. We continue to struggle with underemployment as we see many industries shipping labor, in addition to their goods, to areas of the world where it benefits their bottom line.”
Native Americans have opposed the Enbridge Line 3 pipe line option, and Murphy agrees that the final outcome of a new Line 3 pipeline must be decided in consultation with “our tribal leaders to mitigate disturbance of culturally significant lands, long term effects to water and irreplaceable wild ricing beds, and a perpetual historic disregard for Minnesota’s sovereign nations.”
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