Tag: Dean Phillips

Third District forum in Edina focuses on campaign finance reform

The following article by Kelly Smith was posted on the Star Tribune article August 28, 2018:

It was the first policy forum that DFLer Dean Phillips is holding as he challenges U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen in the west metro congressional district.

3rd Congressional District Candidate Dean Phillips Credit: Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune

Campaign finance reform and outside spending have emerged as contentious issues in the west metro’s Third Congressional District, where DFLer Dean Phillips is challenging U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen.

Phillips made campaign finance reform the focus of a Monday public forum in Edina with Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, a national political action committee (PAC) that’s targeting Paulsen and 19 other Republicans in Congress.

“We have to get our system back to you,” Muller said. Phillips is “people-powered, not special interests-powered.”

View the complete article here.

Dean Phillips will listen

To the Editor:

Dean Phillips says, “Representation begins with listening.”

He wants to listen to me! And all of the constituents in Congressional District 3. I am a citizen of Plymouth and I work on any campaign that I believe in. I have no job title or positions with campaigns. I am simply one of your neighbors who believes in speaking up. I try to go out and attend (free) voter forums like Phillips had Aug. 21, so I can learn about who I am voting for and where they stand on issues (not just what party they are associated with).

Phillips seems very accessible to me. I believe the representative’s job is to represent. Many do not. It is always interesting when a congress person is not running for re-election that they start to ‘speak their mind’ more freely. They should always be doing that. That is their job. To represent me in Washington. Continue reading “Dean Phillips will listen”

GOP Legal Troubles Boost Democrats’ Anti-Corruption Message

The following article by Ally Mutnick and Zach C. Cohen was posted on the National Journal website August 22, 2018:

DFL challenger Dean Phillips and Rep. Erik Paulsen greeted each other at the end of Tuesday’s Third Congressional District debate in St. Louis Park. Credit: Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune

Dean Phillips, a Democrat running for Congress in a suburban Minneapolis battleground district, had just opened and closed a 75-minute debate by railing against the corrupting influence of money in politics, the hallmark issue of his campaign.

Shortly after he got off stage, he read the news that three Republicans close to President Trump were indicted on, convicted of, or pled guilty to charges of financial fraud or breaking campaign finance law.

“Making the argument through anecdotes or through my experience is one thing,” Phillips said in an interview Wednesday. “But when the news headlines bear the facts in a much more bold and public way, it absolutely supports the contention.”

View the complete post here.

Constituents in Trucks Getting Coffee: Andrew Zimmern and Dean Phillips

Phillips has more integrity for refusing PAC money

To the editor:

I remember watching Erik Paulsen’s campaign ads in the 2010 election cycle, in which he lectured his daughters from a whiteboard, called himself “a numbers guy,” and promised to “protect our wallets from politicians.” These promises seem preposterous in 2018, after Paulsen voted for a bill that will increase the national debt to $11.7 trillion by 2027. As a mom of three kids, I’m not comfortable with shifting our nation’s burden from corporations to our families now and in the future. Paulsen was a powerful advocate for this bill, and now we all pay the price.

Paulsen had gone more than six years without holding a town hall. In May, he acquiesced and held three small, ticketed town halls. I did not win the lottery to attend these meetings, and suspect I’ll never have the opportunity to tell him face-to-face what I think of his cavalier attitude toward the national debt. Continue reading “Phillips has more integrity for refusing PAC money”

Rep. Erik Paulsen and Dean Phillips face off in first debate for Third District seat

The following article by Jessie Van Berkel was posted on the Star Tribune website August 21, 2018:

The debate at a St. Louis Park hotel quickly grew testy, with both candidates attacking the other almost immediately.

DFL challenger Dean Phillips and Rep. Erik Paulsen greeted each other at the end of Tuesday’s 3rd Congressional District debate in St. Louis Park. Credit: Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune

U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen and DFL challenger Dean Phillips clashed over health care, tax reform, immigration and other issues, trading barbs Tuesday in the first debate of their increasingly heated fight for a Minnesota House seat.

The debate at a St. Louis Park hotel quickly grew testy, with both candidates attacking the other almost immediately. Paulsen, a Republican, referenced Phillips’ personal wealth when he said that people who are not millionaires should be able to run for Congress, while Phillips pressed Paulsen to reject campaign donations from interest groups and hit him for voting for most of President Donald Trump’s agenda.

“I’ll stand up to my own party,” Paulsen said, whether that’s protecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, opposing “misguided tariffs” or pushing for a vote on immigration legislation.

View the complete article here.

Dean Phillips Releases First TV Ad: “Coffee and Conversation”

Ad highlights Phillips’s experience as a business owner, and his mission to get people talking again

Excelsior, MN – Today Dean Phillips’s campaign for Congress released its first TV ad, titled “Coffee and Conversation.” The ad highlights Dean’s background as a business owner who takes care of his employees, including at Penny’s Coffee where they voluntarily pay a $15 per hour minimum wage. It also features Dean’s Government Repair Truck, a 1960 International Harvester milk truck that he drives around Minnesota’s Third District in an effort to get people talking again.

“I approach public policy the same way I’ve helped build businesses – by soliciting ideas from everybody, by being innovative, collaborative and always finding ways to do more with less,” said Dean.

“And since representation begins with listening, I’ve spent the past year and a half traveling the district in my Government Repair Truck, having thousands of conversations with people of all perspectives and backgrounds. From those conversations, I know there is so much more that unites us than divides us. We must listen to people again — not the special interests that have corrupted Congress.”

Transcript of “Coffee and Conversation”:

“I love coffee and conversation. I’m Dean Phillips, and I started Penny’s Coffee to build a better business. Where we pay a livable wage, and where people have a place to just talk. I think we need more of that in Congress, so this is my Government Repair Truck. I’m running for Congress because if we are ever going to address things like the cost of college and healthcare in this country, we’ve got to start listening to people, and not the special interests. I approve this message because change starts with coffee and conversation. And everyone’s invited.”

The ad can be seen here.

 

We want voter-centered representation

To the Editor:

Since my first vote in 1972, I’ve witnessed money increasingly erode our democracy. This year I’m relieved to see so much excitement for Dean Phillips. His decision to refuse PAC or special interest money recently made the New York Times. Phillips knows we must restrain the use of “big money” (set loose by the Citizens United decision) in order to bring back balance and accountability to our government.

The Minnesota Way Pledge proposed by Phillips included the People’s Pledge, which works to limit negative, personal attack ads. Incumbent Paulsen suggested this in 2016; in 2018 he’s no longer interested. By agreeing, he could have spared Minnesota much mudslinging by outside groups. Instead, Paulsen chose to keep his big money contributions.

Constituents are eager for a candidate who will be responsive to voters because that candidate chose to fund his campaign the Minnesota Way – no money from PACs, Federal lobbyists or Congress members. Many Third District folks support Dean Phillips with their small dollar contributions. They also proudly march with Phillips at local parades as well as phone bank, door knock and more. Continue reading “We want voter-centered representation”