Brad Finstad

Back in the days when the US political scene was on fire because of the proposal for the Affordable Care Act. Tim Walz was our CD1 representative at the time. Instead of hiding from his constituents, he rented the biggest auditorium he could find (John Marshall, seating capacity 1,928) and held a town hall. He didn’t limit attendees. He stood on the stage with a mic, and he put two microphones in the audience so constituents could line up and ask questions or voice concerns. He was our representative and it was important to him to hear what we had to say, whether we agreed with him or not.

Once again, we are torn about many issues – from tariffs to wars to voting rights and much more. Instead of connecting with as many of his constituents as possible, our current CD1 representative, Brad Finstad, is doing photo ops and unannounced telephone “town halls” where he does most of the talking and the questions are screened. Most recently, he embarrassed himself by bragging about sending a letter to the MDE about curriculum concerns with the Rochester Public Schools – concerns that he would have learned were unfounded had he bothered to talk to RPS before sending the letter.