Reprinted from

  October 14, 2004

Rebecca Otto

Rebecca Otto is our choice in this district, which includes Dellwood, Hugo, Marine on St. Croix and Stillwater. She and opponent Matt Dean, whom she defeated in a hotly contested special election, are similar in terms of the issues they value, namely education, transportation and the state budget. And they surely approach each issue differently.

What tips the balance in favor of Otto is the bipartisan spirit she has showed while in office. Given the paralysis of the last legislative session, she's a welcome voice of moderation who's perhaps too quick to hike taxes for our liking, but also is open to looking at spending cuts and making government more efficient, as well.

While we respect Dean, where he loses us is with his close ideological affiliation with Sen. Bachmann. We find Bachmann's social agenda — and Dean's support of it — out of step with mainstream Minnesota. In particular, we disagree with their call for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which in Minnesota is a non-issue and meant to be nothing more than divisive and distracting.

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