Posted: 05/24/10 22:58
by Dave Mindeman
I had one of those general campaign calls tonight from the Entenza campaign. Just a regular phone bank. They usually ask the same questions..."Are you going to vote in the primary?"...."Who are you going to support?"... that kind of thing. I said yes and I don't know.
So they asked me what issues I considered important. I said I had a couple of questions for them.
I asked, "Is Robyne Robinson going to be the Lt. Governor candidate for the Entenza campaign?"
Answer: (obviously ready for this one) Robyne Robinson is one of several candidates that Matt is considering. He will be announcing his Lt. Governor choice later this week.
OK... here's another one. "Does Entenza support the Minnesota Health Plan that John Marty has sponsored and is promoted in the House and Senate with several co-sponsors? Will he sign the bill if passed?"
Answer: Ummmmmm...the Minnesota Health Plan?
OK -- I understand this guy is just a volunteer, but really, he asked me to tell him what my important issues are....
Well, he probably said the right thing in the next response...
Answer #2: Let me talk to someone else here and I will call you back.
OK -- that's fine with me. Thank you. I wasn't sure that was really going to happen, but, I did get that return call.
Hi, Dave, Matt feels that the Minnesota Health Plan will never pass the legislature in its current form. It doesn't have a revenue method that will pay for it. Matt believes in universal coverage and will work tirelessly to reach that goal.
Hmmmmm....
OK, I said, but if the Minnesota Health Plan ends up on Matt's desk as Governor and it has a mechanism that will fund it, would he sign it?
Answer....yes, I believe so.
Alright...that is the essence of that conversation. We had some discussions about what the Minnesota Health Plan is and we also had some vague talk about the Federal funding option that the legislature just passed. I asked if Ententza would trigger that option as Governor..... I got a vague yes in response, although I think I would still like to hear it stated more definitively.
I'm not sure there is anything concrete to take away from that kind of conversation, but, really, if you are going to engage people in this way, it would be nice to get real life responses.
I'm not blaming the guy who phoned me. Gosh, he's just a volunteer trying his best.
I think we will all be getting a lot of those calls between now and August -- I wonder how it goes with other people.
This poor guy got stuck with me.
