Star News - Tuesday, 28 October 2008
"Crop of legislative candidates better than most"
Peppin an easy choice
Rep. Joyce Peppin, R-Rogers, was an easy choice for endorsement in the race for House District 32A.
The energetic legislator who has brought home tornado relief funds for Rogers, helped the Maple Grove hospital project leap a tall moratorium hurdle and constantly seeks cost-saving governmental reform, has proven she can work well while serving in the majority and the minority in her first two terms. She is needed back in St. Paul to continue her work for her district and the state.
Peppin is effective in part because she is willing to work across party lines. She demonstrates you don’t have to agree with colleagues on everything to work together.
She has been the chief author of an increasingly popular proposal to lift the ban on consideration of nuclear energy, and will be well-positioned to resume the effort in 2009.
This smart legislator, who was the only one of 134 legislators to have an M.B.A., also supports the plan to develop renewable energy technologies so that they provide 20 percent of the region’s electricity generation by 2020. She is focused on growing base capacity.
Peppin is a believer in good, open government. She plans to work with Rogers this year to see if some of the money in this past year’s transportation bill can’t flow to the Rogers area.
She has already had conversations with Mike Opat, who is a Hennepin County commissioner and a key champion with the Northwest Corridor Partnership looking at bus rapid transit between Rogers and Minneapolis. Constituents won’t have to worry about Peppin trying to pull a fast one.
She said she would never throw something on them or increase a tax without getting their input and support first.
Peppin, who took a bus to work at US Bank in Minneapolis during a six-year stint in the private sector as a public relations manager, says having a rapid bus route could be a huge boost to her area.
Peppin actually voted against the transportation bill that the governor vetoed only to be overturned. She thought the bill was too much, and said it was not a compromise.
Our team likes that she went for the levy cap, because it was a compromise that forced local governments to sharpen their pencils just like the state and families. At 3.9 percent, it was not too stringent of a cap.
On matters of education, we’re happy she takes offense to the lack of equitable funding in the state and is also a reformer.
Peppin is a vocal supporter of Q-Comp, which would reward the best teachers, and she would like to add alternative pathways to licensure for teachers.
Peppin doubts there is money available to improve ECFE programming and/or add all-day, everyday kindergarten, but she open to the fact that both programs have merit.
Her opponent, Grace Baltich, would serve as more of an attack dog on the issue of equity in school funding. The Hanover woman who grew up with her father in a wheelchair from multiple sclerosis is passionate about seeing more equity in school funding. The social worker by trade would also be a stronger supporter of preventative measures when it comes to programs like ECFE. But, overall, Peppin makes for a stronger candidate.