The residents of Minnetonka House District 48A (northern Eden Prairie and southern Minnetonka) deserve two more years of representation in St. Paul by incumbent Yvonne Selcer.

During the 21 years that my family has lived in northern Eden Prairie, I have personally met with and/or been able to work with all of our Republican and DFL state representatives beginning with Republican Tom Workman in the mid-1990s. They are good people.

Although I have very much enjoyed meeting Kirk Stensrud on several occasions and have more than once considered attending one of the informational, local Republican get-togethers at the Gold Nugget Restaurant, I am recommending a vote for incumbent Yvonne Selcer.

Yvonne Selcer clearly reflects the values of our beautiful swath of geography given her two-session voting record. She is strong for education, small business, voter rights, marriage equality, government clarity and budget accountability. Regarding the later, she voted against an Omnibus Tax bill because there was no companion bill to increase government efficiencies. Yvonne Selcer also voted against Gov. Dayton’s business-to-business tax, a law that has since been rescinded.

Yvonne Selcer reflects the values of her constituents even when they are not aligned with the agenda of the DFL House Caucus. Mr. Stensrud’s campaign messaging and legislative record as a conservative Republican,, demonstrate that he is unable to process community values into good legislation if they are not aligned with the Republican agenda.

Jeff Strate
Eden Prairie
Eden Prairie News, October 23, 2014

Editor’s Note:  Strate produces Democratic Visions, a politically left-leaning cable TV show.

HD48A · House District 48A · Rep. Selcer · Yvonne Selcer

In response to Sen. David Hann’s letter to the editor October 2, 2014, I have heard only good thing from people who I know using MNSure and are saving thousands of dollars. Is David Hann biased in his viewpoint since he works for a company that sells insurance?

I work in information technology and know that when implementing new and innovative systems, issues will arise. What ultimately determines success is having people on board who have the wherewithal to look for the best solutions to problems as opposed to just having “Negative Nellies” who are only good at complaining from the sidelines. I was shocked to learn that David Hann voted “No” a whopping 31 out of 32 votes in the past two years:  “No” to healthcare, “No” to women getting equal pay, “No” to cell phone kill switch, “No” to medical marijuana … He might say he didn’t like certain things about this or that detail, and that is expected, but Hann’s record is extreme … extremely negative.

In contrast, we are fortunate to have Gov. Mark Dayton and our Rep. Yvonne Selcer working for us to solve problems and make positive advances. I remember what the state of Minnesota was before they were elected, when David Hann was the assistant majority leader with Kirk Stensrud as our representative. We don’t want to return to those dar days.

Instead, we now have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, a budget surplus, and progress with wise education and infrastructure investments. Forbes recently upgraded Minnesota from Number 20 to 8 for “Best States for Business.”

We need our governor and representatives to continue moving forward in a positive, problem-solving manner. We don’t thrive when “Negative Nellies” lead the way. We need to re-elect Mark Dayton and Yvonne Selcer.

Tracy Johnson
Eden Prairie
Eden Prairie News, October 23, 2014

David Hann · Gov. Dayton · HD48A · House District 48A · Kirk Stensrud · Mark Dayton · MNsure · Rep. Selcer · Sen. Hann · Yvonne Selcer

I’m disappointed that Kirk Stensrud’s wealthy special interest supporters are trying to distract us from the issues that matter most in this election. Instead of running a positive campaign about priorities like education, job creation and transportation, his allies are resorting to misleading attacks over the construction of a new office building, which Rep. Selcer voted against, misrepresenting her votes on legislative pay — she actually supported taking away the ability of legislators to set their own pay — and misinforming us about Rep. Selcer’s vote to spend money on “government buildings” which in reality included schools — an example being repair of the leaking roof at our Hennepin Technical College.

Why aren’t Stensrud’s allies talking about his former record as our state representative — is it because it included government shut down and shifting over a billion dollars away from our schools to pay bills?

The truth is that we’re smarter than that and we know better. Rep. Selcer is working hard on issues that really matter to us such as job creation and investments in our schools. Rep. Yvonne Selcer is the only candidate in this election we can count on to fight for our priorities over the next two years.

Debra Hoffman
Eden Prairie
Eden Prairie News, October 23, 2014

HD48A · House District 48A · Kirk Stensrud · Rep. Selcer · Yvonne Selcer

Shouldn’t an individual running for office stick to the facts? Shouldn’t our politicians be held to the same standard as our commercial advertisers are?  Two years ago, when Mr. Stensrud was running for re-election, he deceptively used the city of Eden Prairie’s logo and Hennepin County logo in his literature. This error may seem insignificant, but contrast with what would happen if Best Buy used Supervalu’s logo in their ads. The city of Eden Prairie and Hennepin County sent Mr. Stensrud a letter requesting that he immediately stop the use of their logos.

Mr. Stensrud is at it again. His campaign literature falsely claims the Senate Office Building “includes everything from reflecting pools to a workout facility.” This statement is not true. The DFL has requested mr. Stensrud immediately cease the dissemination of this falsehood.

Is simply stopping what you are doing really enough? The falsehood is out there:  the damage is done. Mr. Stensrud should instead make it right. Send out another paid political advertisement to correct your error. That way the people who received this false information will be informed of the truth. Isn’t this what manufacturers who use false statements against their competition must do? If politicians were forced to correct false statements, false statements would be less likely to happen.

People are very cynical about politics for just this reason. Most people don’t know what is truth and what is false, in what a politician says and it’s people like Mr. Stensrud who are turning people off. Mr. Stensrud clean up your act. Send a letter apologizing for your behavior.

John Mallo
Eden Prairie
Eden Prairie News, August 14, 2014

Cease and Desist Action · false claims · HD48A · House District 48A · Kirk Stensrud · Minnesota Senate Office Building

Taking a look back to the Republican-controlled House session in 2011 and Jenifer Loon’s and Kirk Stensrud’s votes, we find they voted for deep cuts for the University of Minnesota and Minnesota’s State Colleges and Universities.

Why is that an issue? It would cause hundreds of faculty layoffs, tuition increases and fewer courses available for students. That would translate into Minnesota having a harder time providing skilled employees for our state’s employers.

Think we’re exaggerating in the need for training? Check this out:

2011 Omnibus Higher Education Bill · Careerbuilder · faculty layoffs · Jenifer Loon · Kirk Stensrud · lack of corporate training · tuition increases