Marty Seifert, a Republican candidate running for governor, stopped in Grand Marais on Wednesday, July 9 on the campaign trail. Seifert said he is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, is pro-life, believes in lowering taxes and downsizing government, and would like to reform the health care system in Minnesota.
Marty Seifert wants it known that he is the only major candidate running for governor who is stopping in all 87 Minnesota counties, and he was winding down his tour in Cook County on Wednesday, July 9 by flying into the Devil Track airport and meeting with a handful of people in Grand Marais.
Seifert is a former Republican Minority Leader and 14-year member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. First elected to the House in 1996, Seifert made a run for the governor’s office in 2010, winning his party’s statewide straw poll endorsement but losing a bruising battle with runner up Tom Emmer at the State Republican Convention. Emmer lost the governor’s race to Mark Dayton by less than 9,000 votes.
After a four-year break from politics, Seifert said he is refreshed and ready to make a run for the governor’s office again. He has spent his time away as a real estate agent in Marshall, Minnesota and also worked as the executive director of the Avera Marshall Foundation, where he organized initiatives like capital campaigns for the Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center.
His past work history also includes four years teaching high school history and government at Marshall Senior High School and he also worked as an admissions counselor at his alma mater Southwest Minnesota State University.
He grew up on a farm doing chores and said he identifies well with people who work hard for a living, he said.
Seifert is focusing on several campaign issues, including reducing tax and regulatory burdens in Minnesota; abolishing three state cabinet departments; halting the development of the Southwest Light Rail Transit line in favor of supporting roads and bridges; stopping the release of sex offenders into Minnesota communities and education reform.
“It doesn’t matter what color a kid is, rich or poor, each child in this state deserves a good education. Right now on average the school districts outside of the metro area receive $2,000 less per student. I want to equalize the whole state and make it fair,” Seifert said.
Under Seifert’s plan he would like to reduce the tax burden on Minnesota businesses and for average Minnesotans by at least 7 percent. If elected, he would like to close the departments of Health, Labor and Industry and Corrections and ask all other state departments to reduce their budgets by 7 percent.
“Really, what I am calling for is a consolidation of those administrative duties. We have a lot of self-perpetuating bureaucracy in our state.
“Minnesota has an old fashioned way of delivering services. One example I can give is to compare South Dakota’s delivery of health care services to their prison population. They use E-Health and save up to 70 percent of what it costs Minnesota to provide mental and physical health service to our inmates.”
Seifert also said Minnesota is only one of six states that taxes social security benefits. “I want that changed. I don’t want to give seniors a reason to leave our state and live elsewhere. We need to get in line with the other states on this issue.”
On the issue of health care, a field he has worked in the last nine years, Seifert said Minnesota has always been a leader nationally in health care, but since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, “It seems like we are being punished. We are lumped in with states like Mississippi who haven’t provided the care that we have. We also need more choices from insurance companies. In Goodhue County premiums for women’s health care right now are the highest in the country.
“We need to open more slots for medical school to get more doctors into the system and also train more nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners can do 70 procedures that were once done only by doctors and do them cheaper than doctors.
“In my hometown of Marshall my son got strep throat and we took him to urgent care and it cost $70. If we had taken him to the E.R. it would have cost $700 for the same treatment. The public needs to be aware of discrepancies like this.”
Campaigning takes money, and Seifert said he will not have as much as Governor Mark Dayton or some of his fellow Republicans who are also in the race.
He said he doesn’t accept money from lobbyists, but added, “Campaigns are fueled by more than money. Ideas, energy, passion and an understanding of what the common person wants from their government fuel them. With my background in the public and private sector and my upbringing, I think I identify better with most Minnesotans than Governor Dayton.”
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