MN-8: Jeff Anderson runs with Range roots, Duluth experience

Today my series on Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District continues with the first of several posts about the DFLers running to unseat Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8). Today I’ll post two items about the candidates who’ve announced, Jeff Anderson and Tarryl Clark. We begin in alphabetical order with Anderson.

A Duluth city councilor, radio station ad manager, Ely native and active DFLer, Jeff Anderson boasts a strong resume for the run. He’s announced. He’s raising money. He’s been active on the trail. Anderson’s Iron Range roots and Duluth address tie him to two of the district’s most important and historically significant regions, both of which supply most of the DFL votes in MN-8.

Friendly, smart, an experienced speaker, Anderson would adapt well to the role of a congressional candidate. An Army National Guard veteran who’s well-connected to the Duluth business community, he can interact comfortably across a wide spectrum of the electorate.

He faces some challenges. He’s not as well known outside Duluth and Ely. His historic role as Duluth’s first openly gay city councilor is an admirable badge of courage in this traditional district. Nevertheless, in a year that will see a divisive anti-equality constitutional amendment on the ballot, he’ll be forced to talk about his personal life in ways others wouldn’t. That’s not right, but it’s a thing. To his credit, Anderson is acutely aware of the challenge and speaks about it openly in his meetings with DFLers. It’s possible that voters won’t be as concerned with the issue as some believe.

Many know Anderson from his work in Duluth media, though a city councilor always faces an uphill climb for name recognition when running for Congress. Anderson joins Clark as being the only candidates currently raising money at this stage, and among only three or four rumored candidates who are likely to be able to raise the necessary funds.

Anderson’s big advantage is that he’s the only candidate in the mix right now who doesn’t have a complicated story to explain where he’s from and what he’s been doing for a living. In my personal experience, those are the two most important pieces of biographical information to the people of northern Minnesota.

Tony Sterle at A Little Bit of Liberal did an interview with Anderson recently. I’ve talked to Anderson and will be doing a series of formal interviews with all the candidates before the precinct caucuses. I’ll have a post about Tarryl Clark up at noon and a look at other potential DFL candidates Tuesday.

Read Part 1: Redistricting Scenarios; Part 2: Chip Cravaack. or Part 3: The non-candidates. Follow MinnesotaBrown on Facebook or Twitter for news. My book, a humorous primer on life north of the metro, is “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

Comments

  1. You know the abandonment of orthodox Christians by the DFL is one of the reasons it is less successful than it once was. This hostility towards traditional morality makes them much less than they once were.

  2. We have *very* sketchy internet right now on account of the storm, so I’m sorry I couldn’t better articulate why I deleted your earlier comment. It made an assertion that I find offensive and would certain offend many of my readers. Rather than debate such a large scale issue in the comments section of a candidate profile I opted to delete, which is something I do very rarely. Please e-mail me if you’d like to discuss this further. I am very willing.

    To your point, my point is that inclusion of others is not intended to exclude existing people. Since the ’60s the Democratic coalition became the more inclusive party (it used to be the Republicans) and that caused the electoral realignment we’ve seen since. I don’t think either party offers a perfect platform for orthodox Christians. Neither party offers a perfect platform for disaffected Iron Range bloggers, either. So I just went and picked the one I was more comfortable being around. I’m more apt to include than exclude. Personal choice.

  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

  4. I’m not sure what Mr. Grey means by “Orthodox Christians”. I am a Christian and am proud to support a DFLer like Jeff Anderson. Jeff has worked on economic development at the local level, and I know he’s the type of person that brings people together. For a school paper I got to interview Jeff about his work with various nonprofit organizations. Jeff has served on the board of the Northern Lights Second Harvest Food Bank and the Air Show. Nonprofits rely on people who do good outreach to a broad spectrum of people.
    I would hope that my fellow 8th District citizens will at least take the time to meet Jeff, share their stories, and hear what Jeff has to say on the pressing issues of our time.

  5. I think Mr Gray is confusing Orthodox with Fundamentalists…no loss to the Democratic party, IMO. And thank you, Aaron, for removing his slur against gays. I did see it before removal.

  6. There was no slur, there was an objective description. There are lots of pointed pejoratives used towards people sharing Mr. Anderson’s proclivity. I don’t use them.

    And I don’t think you know what either orthodox or fundamentalist mean.

  7. I wasn’t confused. I think your claim the DFL had abandoned orthodox religion was a veiled reference to that “old-time” religion, with all of it’s hypocrisy and rigidity…and I repeat, no loss.
    Hmmm…. you don’t use perjoratives, but managed to use a hateful term,regardless. How clever of you…..

  8. >>I think your claim the DFL had abandoned orthodox religion was a veiled reference to that “old-time” religion, with all of it’s hypocrisy and rigidity…and I repeat, no loss.

    Which “old-time” religion are you referring to?

  9. The moralizers, who make abortion and gays,the centerpieces of their “moral” arguments, based on THEIR interpretions of the Bible.
    The ones who oppose government intervention, except for controlling women and denying civil rights for all US citizens.

  10. >The moralizers, who make abortion and gays,the centerpieces of their “moral” arguments, based on THEIR interpretions of the Bible.

    So you don’t actually have a real religion in mind. Just something to generate bile?

    By “orthodox” we mean those Christian churches who hold to the historic creeds and confessions. All of whom are of roughly the same understanding on this issue.

    But then you don’t understand what “fundamentalist” means either.

  11. “By “orthodox” we mean those Christian churches who hold to the historic creeds and confessions. All of whom are of roughly the same understanding on this issue.”

    In other words, Catholics..Fundamentalism at it’s finest, although that church has been good on social justice…except when it isn’t….re: the two issues I mentioned earlier.

  12. >In other words, Catholics..Fundamentalism at it’s finest, although that church has been good on social justice…except when it isn’t….re: the two issues I mentioned earlier.

    No, Roman Catholics, confessional Protestants, Eastern Orthodox and functionally, though not formally, many evangelicals. The fact that you will apply the word fundamentalist to Roman Catholicism indicates a very poor education in this area.

  13. Speaking as a Christian, more then happy to accept Christians as the DFL seems to have little use for them anymore.

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