BY ED FELIEN
Southside Pride asked the DFL candidates in the upcoming election—Phyllis Kahn, Muhamud Noor and Ilhan Omar—these questions. Only Ilhan Omar responded:
If elected to the State Legislature, would you introduce and support legislation to:
1. Establish free tuition at community colleges for Minnesota residents and establish free child care and early education for all infants and children?
Yes. The cost of childcare has skyrocketed in the United States, leaving proper care out of reach for working families and accessible only to a wealthy few. The cost of college has shown signs of the same trend. I support President Obama’s initiative to provide two years of free tuition to all those seeking to further their education, and Governor Dayton’s push to provide universal pre-K and other forms of child care.
2. Introduce a state ombudsman for students who have been subjected to aggressive sales and predatory lending?
Yes. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took an important step nationally toward combating predatory student loan lending by creating an ombudsman on the issue. However, the federal government’s reach is always limited, and Republicans in Congress have been constantly threatening and attempting to dismantle the CFPB. Therefore, I believe we could benefit by providing the same service in Minnesota.
3. Establish Single Payer Health Care for everyone in Minnesota?
Yes. The United States pays more than any other developed country for health care while receiving less. Single Payer Health Care reduces bureaucracy, allows negotiation for drug and service prices, and covers all populations, which is why it’s the commonsense system around the world. Minnesota should apply for an innovation waiver under the Affordable Care Act and work to develop our own, more efficient, broader healthcare system.
4. Repeal cannabis prohibition and review all sentences of nonviolent drug offenders?Yes. Minnesota has been taking important steps forward on marijuana laws by allowing medical marijuana in certain instances, but the state must go further. It is time to end the prohibition of marijuana both nationally and at home. Voters across the country have shown that they want to end this unnecessary chapter of the war on drugs that has incarcerated so many of our most vulnerable citizens.
5. Require genetically modified organisms to be labeled if contained in food sold in Minnesota?
Yes. Consumers have the right to know what is in their food. Deception, even by omission, of the origins of any product cannot be tolerated. When it comes to what we feed ourselves and our children, every detail is important.
6. Prohibit the operation of for-profit prisons in the state of Minnesota?
Yes. Private prisons have driven mass incarceration and imposed large costs on our states. We should not allow the Corrections Corporation of America to reopen the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, nor allow the construction of any new privately-owned prisons. At the same time, we must be aware that private prisons are not the sole reason for mass incarceration and look for other ways to reduce our prison population.
7. Produce high-paying jobs in MN through infrastructure investment?
Yes. Minnesota’s current lawmakers have continued to kick the can down the road on infrastructure funding, as they showed this past session with their inability to pass a complete transportation bill. I will hold our legislators accountable and ensure that our infrastructure is safe, efficient and job-creating through proper funding.
8. Propose a program to attract, welcome and resettle refugees from Syria, etc., to Minnesota?
Yes. Minnesota has always been a welcoming home to immigrants and refugees, whether Hmong, Central American, East African, or from anywhere else. As an immigrant from Somalia myself, and a member of the East African community, I have insight into the politics and process of refugee resettlement and I will work to ensure that Minnesota takes in its fair share of those escaping strife and violence in Syria.
9. Prohibit fracking-related industry in Minnesota?
Yes. We need to develop a clean energy economy nationally, and a major component of that is not continuing to develop fossil fuel resources. Hydraulic fracturing and frac sand mining should not move forward in Minnesota.
10. Provide a path to full restoration of rights for ex-offenders.
Yes. I will work to immediately restore voting rights for ex-felons and reform sentencing laws and the criminal justice system. Over 40,000 Minnesota residents are disenfranchised by laws that ban felons from the voting booth. The unacceptable reality is that this has a huge impact on our communities, especially our communities of color. This impact continues when ex-offenders are released and are unable to obtain jobs and housing. We need to immediately address these issues and ensure that ex-offenders are able to adequately provide for themselves and their families.
