The Wake

I have to let you in on a dirty little secret.

I’m still voting for Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL – Minneapolis, in the November election. You might be thinking I’m some sort double-talking, loopy liberal whose faulty logic condones Kahn’s July campaign literature heist while adamantly opposing the injustices of an increasingly conservative politics in Minnesota.

“You’re still voting for Phyllis Kahn?” you might say incredulously. “How can you possibly explain that?”

Well, dear reader, here’s how: Phyllis Kahn’s record proves that she is one of the most rockin’ politicians in the state of Minnesota. Kahn is currently serving her 16th term in the Minnesota Legislature, and during her time in Congress, she has authored some of Minnesota’s most important laws regarding public health, labor, environmental safety and women’s rights. And she still finds time to run the Twin Cities Marathon.

Although Kahn is best known as the chief author of the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act, she has also written legislation in favor of public funding for the arts, increased funding for women’s shelters and pushed for gender equality in athletics, improving water quality, preserving parks and regulating radioactive waste disposal. Additionally, Kahn, who earned her Ph.D. in biophysics from Yale, is one of the country’s few trained scientists in elected office. Her insights regarding biotechnology in agriculture and DNA testing could benefit the university’s research interests, while saving lives and ensuring healthier living for generations to come.

And I’m not the only one who’s crazy about her. The Clean Water Action Alliance of Minnesota, Sierra Club, labor groups such as the AFL-CIO, Stonewall DFL Caucus, Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus, and firefighter, police and health care groups all endorse Kahn.

Our current political system isn’t working. It has driven voters to apathy and back, and it has driven outstanding officials to act completely out of character during an election year. Kahn is a brilliant lady who has long earned her respect by virtue of her voting record and her earnest activism. She doesn’t have to jack opposing campaign literature to secure her votes or to rally votes for fellow DFL-ers.

While it would be smug naïveté to dismiss her act entirely, it would simply be a mistake to let this single act of human misjudgment tarnish the record of such an ardent civil servant and altogether remarkable woman in a time when we need her progressive politics the most. There is no other candidate to whom I would rather entrust my personal health and safety, my neighborhood or my vote.

Nikki Schultz is a “U” employee and student. You can send comments to nikki@umn.edu.