Politics With A History Teacher Who Still Loves Old Maps

Transcript

Meet The District 21B Candidate

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right. Hey, welcome to the show. I'm Mike Inesela. This is our uh Newsmakers Podcast here on Martin County Star. And we have a special guest today, looking forward to talking to John Wilson. He's running for uh Minnesota State House uh District 21B, correct? That is correct. Okay. I had to look it up. Yeah. So you cover uh Martin County, Jackson, Nobles, Cottonwood, and Watanwan.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Correct. Yeah, and Martin, and just the little portion, this northwest piece of Martin County.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Okay, so basically Trimont.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Yeah, pretty much Trimont and the little portion of Ormsby. Oh, you got Ormsby, yeah. Of course you were. So the Martin side of that. But yeah, it's it's a really small Fox Lake, kind of this direction toward Watmont County. So that'd be I-90 then. Just north of that. Just north of I-90, yeah. Sliver of a deal there. Okay. All right. Well it's right on the we're right on the edge. Yeah, you are. Do you have all of Jackson County? All of Jackson County, uh, eastern count, eastern part of uh Nobles County. Once again, just a little the little sliver of Cottonwood is basically Wyndham in Bingham Lake. Okay. In that area. Okay. Okay. And then um it'd be the western side of Wadwan County. Okay. All right. All right. Is the weird district that we have dropped. Are you knocking on everybody's door? Trying to. Trying to. Yeah. Good luck with that. It's a lot of miles and uh and a lot of doors. But yeah, that's that's been kind of our plan, though, is to is try to get, especially in the the smaller towns early. Yeah. With uh um, you know, kind of the early voting a little bit as I you know, as I ran last time, you know, you don't really know all those little intercies of you know how this all plays out. Right. And um so we've been we've been hitting hard the the smaller towns because most of the time when we did doors the last time, I got a lot of hey, I voted already. Oh, because they did the mail in the oh, I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, and and because like Ormsby and and certain towns, uh little towns uh throughout our area, that that's all they do. They don't have like a polling day. Oh, okay. So they all do all yeah, they all do a lot of townships also do that.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

So something I didn't realize the

Door Knocking And Early Voting Reality

SPEAKER_01 2:10

last time. And you learn stuff, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

You learn fast, yeah.

Teaching Government And The Lost Art

SPEAKER_00 2:13

We were talking, and uh before now you were the the past mayor of St. James, correct? Yeah, and before that, though, and or even still you teach history in St.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

James School District. Correct, yeah. But it's been the last 20 years, uh his history's been my my main main course, ninth grade history. I've taught that every year since I got there in 2006.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

And ninth grade, that's a good year, isn't it? It is a good year, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Yeah, and it's and sometimes, you know, it as yeah, as social studies goes, you have a lot of different disciplines that you that you go through. So currently I've been teaching the government side for the last few years, but it's been geography and sociology and lots of other things. But for the most part, it's been history and government, um, which is my background. You know, I do have a political science degree, so so I love talking politics and love talking government.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

I did too, which is kind of neat. I did too. I loved it, and I was always way into it. Geography, that's something nobody knows anything anymore, do they?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

No, it's uh uh like I said, it's it's been a while since I've I've taught it. And and honestly, I've I probably have not taught it since all of this new technology stuff, but yeah, but yeah, we had uh just kind of a weird summer class we had years ago. Um, and I did it as the old use of the old maps. We had a geography class. I'd have a it was like uh I think I called it like a US travel class or something like that, but I forced them to use old maps. How would you get to California if you had just a map? And I tell you what, kids are and that was even before all the you know, that was even before your you'd use your phone. I mean, we had the GPS stuff, but it wasn't like it was uh you know not as easy to to access that.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

So when we go so places anymore, of course, I finally gave in to technology, and now I use my phone with uh you know Google Maps, yeah. And it's pretty good, it's pretty accurate. At first, GPS was not that accurate. No, but my wife, she goes, I miss the old map. She loves to follow it on the map, you know. Now, I don't know if they make them or anything. I suppose they do.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Yeah, it's uh it's interesting how you know I used to used to get one like uh uh from your insurance company. Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. State farm. Yeah, I don't know if they do that anymore.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

They would even they would even highlight the route for you. Yes. If you told them where you were going.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

You know, and I and me, my sons, we have a standard joke. Uh if dad can get lost, we will, because I'm always taking a shortcut. Yeah. Hey, looky here. Let's cut through this way and we'll end up. We always get about three-quarters of the way there, and a bridge is out. Yeah. And so anyway, yeah. So we have a standard joke, the kids love it. You know. Uh let's talk. Yeah, it is. It is good stuff. Um, I'm looking here at your flyer.

Tax Accountability And Rural Infrastructure

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yeah. All right. So if I was just got this, you know, which I did, and they handed it to me, sometimes, and I understand you only have limited space on these. What do you mean by accountability, accountability for your tax dollars? Because Minnesota's struggling right now. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Yeah, it's uh it's it's a kind of a crazy time, you know. It is. It's uh, you know, I'm on the on the democratic ticket side of the ticket. Yeah. Um, but for my whole life, I have honestly hated taxes. Yeah, everybody else, like everybody else, right? So those are things that you know that I like to talk about is you know, are there ways to be more efficient in what what our tax dollars are? And at the same time, if we are gonna pay taxes, make sure that our rural areas actually get some return on that investment, right? So we're investing in the state of Minnesota to keep take take you know, take care of us. And right.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

And I just don't see it. And to be honest, you know, and to be honest and not give the money away just to all these correct places. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

I'm trying hard not to, you know, but it's you know, and and we got to get back to the basics. I mean we do what do you need? You know, you need roads, you need yep, you know, water infrastructure infrastructure, you need you need those things. It's not wants, you know, you're talking about wants, kind of like you know, obviously, you know, there are certain people that you know may need to be taken care of, yeah, you know, different spots and different things, but at the same time, if a town needs something, you know, if they need water pipes, well, currently in TriMont, absolutely, you know, you probably know our TriMont area, we we've got to get a new water correct filtration system. It's we're in bad shape. And that's why I jumped back in. You know, I ran two years ago, and um, and as you mentioned, I was mayor for a while, you know, for just one term. Um, you know, and I was got your feet wet. Yeah, I've got my feet wet, did some good things, and and uh, you know, after two years kind of being away from it, you know, how you know how are things playing out? Are they kind of going the same direction that I want? And so then, you know, what do you do? Do you go back to some type of whether it's the mayor or the city council or something like that, or do you or do I go back into the house? And and in these two years, it was it was a tough kind of decision. I did not make the decision probably until late March uh to put my hand in the um you know the arena of the the state house. And and this is kind of the the reason why. I mean, Trimont, Butterfield, Alpha, Wilder, etc. You know, they've they've asked for money for different infrastructure things and have gone nowhere. And I feel that I can do a better job of getting that done for everybody. And you know, it's it's hard to just sit on the sideline and think you could do better, right? And and uh we all do, yeah. I mean, that's you know, that's what it was. And and um, you know, so and those are the basic things, you know. If if if we're gonna pay taxes, you know, I want to make sure that you know we get that return on that investment and and make sure we get the things that we need right now, 10 years from now when it's even worse than it is, right? Or more, way more expensive. Oh, way more, yeah, right. That we can't even think about affording it.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

And it's gonna be accountable accounted for. Correct. You know, we we need to have some open books and see where our money's going.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Um, you know, yeah, we don't we have to personally. I mean, you know, we technically with the RS or whatever, we get technically audited and small businesses get audited. Oh my. So why can't the government get audited, you know, professionally in the right way so that we can find those things? You would think that'd be something a simple process and easy.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

I'm not out to to put anybody in prison or you know, I just I just want here to spend my money the right way. Yeah. You you're asking me for X amount of dollars every year, and I pay it, not happily, but I do. And uh, you know, Candy, my wife and I, we we are we have all kinds of taxes because we have property tax. Yeah, we own a uh uh apartment building over here, and our taxes went up when they put the new school in. Yep, like way up. Yeah. I just said, okay, here we go.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

You know, but I expect if you don't get any of that state money from for infrastructure, then it, you know, we're we're the counties that you're just tying the hands of the counties that's but I expect it's it's not their fault.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah, but I expect our politicians to to guard our money the same way I would guard it. Yeah, absolutely. Says here

Dementia Care And Rural Health Access

SPEAKER_00 9:08

affordable health health care close to home. I don't what do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Well, um, you know, just a personal story. You know, I lost my dad here uh this past April and he had dementia for the last few years. Oh my mother. So once once you get that experience, yeah, you see things, right? You see things way differently than what you ever did before. And that's the truth. Yeah, and and being able to in St. James was, you know, um, you know, I was taking care of him in St. James, and you know, to put him in St. James was there's no place. Oh, there's not, there's not a memory care place in the state. Oh, there's not so okay. Um, you know, so when he was passed, he was you know, the assisted living quote unquote stuff. Yep, yeah. That's you know, that's what we were doing. Yeah, we had home health care, yep, that came in, yep. And um, but it was difficult to find memory care in this area. And at the same time, once that happened, you know, once you know, fortunately or unfortunately, um, you know, he never got to that level because he passed away before that. Um, but you start to look at it, and this is where it you know kind of frustrates me even more is that your parents or grandparents or whoever, you know, worked their whole life, yeah, saved up all of their money, yeah, right, and and had retirements or whatever, um it's poof, gone in like a year. It is when you go to memory care. When it's like, and I understand that they have to get the money and all that stuff, but is there a way that the state can, you know, kind of whether it's the property taxes or you know, whatever it has to be, is there a way that you know we're just simply not gonna lose everything? Yeah, I mean that was that was a thing that that really frustrated me is that if my father would have lived and been a year, his uh whole life of working was gone. Gone, yeah. You know, yeah that just doesn't seem fair I know just because he was falling in in health, right? And and if that's my story and my experience, that's happening everywhere. So so how are we how we what are we really doing, right? I mean, what are we doing here? If if if somebody's gonna work their tail off their whole life and follow the rules, follow everything, and then you get nothing in the end, yeah, yeah. You know, so that that's you know, that's kind of thing, and and it's you know, the way um you know the other side of things, you know, the way things we're seeing with with different you know, hospitals being bought up by you know different, you know, bigger and bigger and bigger, and then once they get bought out, what's the next step? They're start you know downsizing what they have. So now of a sudden, you know, if you need a specialist, a lot of times I hear people from you know friends or colleagues or people that in St. James, they gotta go all the way to Rochester for treatments two to three times a week. You know, that to me that wasn't happening 60, 70 years ago. Yeah, right. I mean, so so what you know, once again, what are we doing here? I mean, you are we all going to have to move to the bigger city or are we gonna keep our rural hospitals open? Right. So, so that's kind of things that that are in my head. Okay, you know, try to find new ways to um you know decrease our costs on on our health insurance and make sure that we have hospitals open that we can go to, that somebody can go have a baby and not have to drive two hours away, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

So not mortgage the house to have a baby. Yeah, absolutely.

Housing Costs And Small Town Regulations

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Yeah, it says here housing people, uh housing people can actually afford. What are you what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Well, as you know, one of the things as as mayor was one of my uh goals as mayor in St. James was to provide more worker hospital, you know, work house type things, right? So so when you start to look at you know the price of of houses, obviously they continue to rise and rise and rise, and then you have property taxes that rise and rise and rise. Right. You know, our our our people that are you know growing up, like my students, once they get to college or whatever they do, are they gonna be able to afford you know of that first house? Because to me, that's the American dream, being able to own your own property. Yep. And I just feel that that is continually getting farther and farther away. Yeah. So it is. Um, you know, and it it's and especially in the rural areas, especially in the rural areas, you know, and if you look at you know, new construction, you know, there's you know it's it's too much money, you know, out here. Um, you know, I I know they they've they've talked about like different um you know, kind of the um I can't think of the the the right word on on what they use, but kind of the union labor type stuff that comes out into this, so that you know increases the the price of housing and things like that. Um, you know, is there a different way that we can look at I do understand that the you know the union workers and stuff because I'm a strong union guy, but at the same time, we may not need a $50 an hour job here compared to the twin cities. Maybe we maybe 25 is pretty good, or you know, whatever that number is, and then all of a sudden everything else becomes affordable as well. So so that's kind of the key. Um, I think the regulations of like the new houses are probably are getting a little bit too out of whack, you know, because you have all these different little things that you know the contractors have to you know put in there that you know, are we getting too far ahead of ourselves a little bit? You know, I understand you know taking care of the environment and other things why they have that. Sure. But once again, that adds to but some especially out in the rural areas.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

But sometimes, you know, there's there's good and then there's ridiculous. Yeah, it goes on to a point to where you're going, oh my gosh. Yeah. Um, let me ask a couple of questions so we get an idea of what's going

Trans Athletes And Fair Competition

SPEAKER_00 15:02

on. Um boys and girls sports. What do you what's what's your feeling? You're you're a school teacher.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Yeah, yeah. It's and unless I have, you know, two girls. And you have two girls. Yeah. I mean, it's it's um, you know, those are I asked, I'll give you a story. Okay. So um, you know, just a couple years ago and all that stuff was, you know, really starting to hit a lot of times. Um, you know, we had we had a couple good basketball players in St. James and which had been traveling the Midwest in different you know, basketball programs and different uh summer leagues and things like that. And I asked them, I said, have you ever come across someone that is competing? And they nobody ever no, they didn't know. Nobody did. They knew like a uh female that had transitioned to a male, but they'd never seen it the other way. So um I believe that they do deserve an opportunity, but at the same time, if there's a way that they are um competitively better than the female, then we can't have that. So so and then those are you know, just kind of I think it's it's almost like uh it's almost like a case-by-case basis a little bit. So I agree with uh um you know the latest kind of screen court stuff that's been happening. You know, just kind of I think we're we're once again a little bit getting too far ahead of ourselves, you know, and I don't think we really know how this is all playing out. Because I do know it on both sides, I do understand on the both sides, um, but at the same time, how is the competition playing out? I don't think we see it.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

I don't think we see it much down here in the smaller community.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

But the the girls that I talk to, yeah, I mean I they've played basketball against thousands of people.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Well, we have we have a couple of girls on our on our softball team who could play against guys, but you know, but they're they're they're on the girls' softball team and that's where they need to be. Yeah. But you get to the but see you'll be representing our district. Correct. But you'll have a s have a voice. Yeah. You'll have a vote. And when this comes up, it I just think that if we were made by God to be a boy or a girl, then you know, if you want to be, if you're a guy and you want to be a girl, that's up to you. I correct. I I won't stand in your way. I don't I don't agree with it necessarily.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

But there's some biological stuff that that come up.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

I mean I'm sure there are, but and I won't, but at the same time, but yeah, but but girls need to be girls to play the games. Okay. Uh Liz Liz made me Liz told me, ask this question.

Big Power Lines And Tech Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_00 17:37

The power lines that's coming through, you know? Yeah. Those great big ones. Yeah. Your show sounds like mine. I had a doctor one day in here and we were talking, all of a sudden he goes, I gotta take this call. I said, okay. If it's the governor, go ahead. But otherwise um, the power lines that are gonna put through, uh, power on, you know, and these these things are huge. They're huge. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

What's your thoughts? My first initial thoughts are I've I've heard a little bit about the yeah, you know, kind of the health issues that you know people do. Um, you know, and and and other than that, honestly, I've I've not this is the first time I've heard of these, actually. Oh, really? So okay. So I need to kind of bone up. Yeah, yeah, you may want to. But that's but that's kind of the you know, I that's what I've always thought about, like the the power lines. It's like, you know, are they I mean, there was like a uh you know factual movie, and not you know, back 30, 40 years ago, you know, and cancer and you know things like that were about now. Granted, it was a long time ago. It was granted, and these are but we gotta make sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Yeah, these are about 10 times as size. Yeah, these are huge. Yeah. Um, okay. I I didn't know, I don't know that much about it myself. Yeah. We've had a couple of articles in the newspaper, and we have a lot of citizens who are way opposed. Yeah, they've been going. We I I know a little lady, she's in her early 90s, and she goes to all the meetings and she causes them fits.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

She she flatter, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

It's a lot like the data centers. It's you know, it's yeah, you know, they're it's it's gonna take away, you know, a lot of the things that we have right now. And um, you know, so it's like data centers, if it's you know similar to that. I you know, I think it's um more research needs to be figured out, not just throw them out there. Yeah, well, you know, I mean that's that's the bottom line. You know, well, you know, and what are we gonna do? What I mean, what's it gonna do for us?

SPEAKER_00 19:30

A few years ago, I was all opposed to AI, you know, and I was like, oh my gosh, it's gonna take jobs. And it and it will. Yeah, you know, it it's going to. A lot of people are seeing that. Same time though, we own a newspaper, and we've seen a lot of ways where I'm going, wow, wow, that was that sped things up. Yeah, that was nice. And uh, you know, and so I can see good, I can see bad. Yeah. Hey, don't horrible. You gotta use it the right way. Yeah, the the the the the buggy and whip industry was pretty upset when the cars came in, but correct. I don't want to go back to that either.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

No, you know, no, it's um yeah, it's I mean, even even in the the school part, you know, it's it's questionable, you know, how kids can use it to cheat and things like that. Oh, but at the same time, it's you know, it's a it's another kids have been cheating my students. Exactly. But I've told I told my students that this is I would use it as another tool. Tool to search things, it can be, yeah, exactly. As long as it's legit and you got facts behind it and it's no different than you better make sure and things like that. Exactly, and you better make sure it's legit because sometimes it gets a little off track. Yeah, yeah, we like we we would ask some silly questions a lot of times. A lot of times, check them a little bit. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Uh it says here on here support law

Backing Police And Funding Rural EMS

SPEAKER_00 20:42

enforcement. Correct. Okay, so you stand behind police. Always have. You don't want to defund them. Nope. Never, ever, ever.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Yeah, I just you know, wait.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Is that crazy or what?

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Yeah, it is. You know, back um, you know, uh, you know, I used to sell cars way back in the mid-90s um in in Fairmont. And um, you know, even as I as I you you watch as and then I was on a school board there in Fairmont. And so you you pay attention a little bit, you know, way back then. I you know, it's obviously the memories are foggy. Yeah. Um, but at the same time, you know, things that I remember talking about in the dealership was you know, sometimes we had some cuts to city government back then. And all of a sudden, people that I knew were in the police department, they didn't lose their jobs, but I knew that people were losing jobs as police officers. And we would talk about it's like, okay, you know, whatever how many officers we had at that time, now of a sudden you don't have two or three. Well, how's that gonna work? Right. So, so I always, you know, in my weird theory mind, if you start to lose officers, that means you have less people to you know go out and things like that, and that's gonna add to the problems that probably we've we've had in the last you know 10-15 years. So if they're Outwards, everything that goes in there, you get into a same neighborhood constantly. You know, what's the mental aspect of it? You know, it's something's gonna you know brew out from that. So so we need more cops.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

We do need more more cops, and we use we use the sheriff's apartment here, and uh yeah, and TriMont. Yep, Truman also, yeah. And uh same with DMS. I think we need to uh make that a you know kind of more of an essential service, it's not an essential service at this point. That means that's what you need of, yeah. I mean, you know, and I it's fairly essential. I mean, it's we're I was uh I was you know that's one of the things I learned. You know, it's like well, you know, because we were at that point, you know, we were struggling as an ambulance department, as a local ambulance department, and you know, the city manager made some great changes, and all of a sudden it's flourishing today.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Oh, good.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

But that's that's what I found out. It's like, well, it's not essential service, so you're not getting the funds, you're not getting the retirement benefits, you're not getting the things that maybe a police are fired. Oh, I see. You know, that that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

So it's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

But then the bottom line is you and I that you know don't break the law. Yeah, knock on wood, we don't have a fire. Right, right. We never need a call cop, we never need a fire department, but we will probably need an ambulance. Some right, some point. So so that's a thing that that uh is also uh you know, kind of my um near dear to heart is is to make sure that we we do get some more funding out here for rural ambulance services, right? Right. Um and uh and find a way to get get to that in a you know central service to you know, because it's gonna be that way if you are a paramedic out here, that you have a retirement, you know, like the fire, like the flu. Well, without it, you know it so that way it keeps it gets you into that. You're not gonna recruit you there.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

You're not gonna recruit these guys, they're not gonna come in. You know, why would I? Yeah, you know, I I can go over here and get that. Um let me ask one more question.

ICE Calls Crime And Community Fear

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Um hypothetical, of course. Uh gentleman gets pulled over for whatever reason, and uh they run the plates and they run the license and they discover he's illegal. Okay. All right, and so they check the database and they they he's done something. Maybe he ran. I don't care. He's been taken into jail with a process and he and they discover that ICE is looking for him. Yep, undocumented.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Yeah, yep. What's your what's your thoughts? Yep, same as you know, I I'm I um I'm strong against ICE, but not for that. So if it is a criminal, if it is a criminal, if it's a documented criminal, that that uh I believe the police and the sheriff should contact the federal authorities and make sure that they're picked up um as as a simple process. Okay, right? I mean, I don't think I don't think um the way, especially for our town in St. James, um, you know, I think there was probably three or four that I that I've heard that were undocumented and and criminals. Sure. Um but the rest that were picked up weren't just fine. They had papers, they had everything.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

And they probably were released.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

They were released at some point, but at the same time, um, it was our our community was scared and they were harassed, and um it was it was a different story than a lot of people maybe understand or know. But but definitely if it's if it's somebody that is um, you know have broken the law, uh, whether it's um you know, obviously some people have been convicted and things like that, but even if it's right, even if it's something that's you know, through the courts or whatever, I think they should be so you stand behind the law.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Correct. Okay, okay, yeah. Because there are some in your party that are just no, we don't care. You know, we don't care what they've done, we don't care who they've hurt. We're keep them free. And I'm gonna I'm sorry, I have trouble. And I know some I know some really fine, I'll even call them illegal aliens, you know. And I I really hate to see them have to go back to a terrible, terrible country.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Yeah, there's gotta be a different I mean obviously that's a federal um the immigration thing. Yeah, I mean, it's the same time that I think the state can um you know give some um some options for them, whether it's you know immigration uh lawyers, you know, trying to you know make sure that, you know, because I think as far as I know, uh Kaivu and and uh Worthington are the only immigration lawyers basically in this whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Oh yeah, there wouldn't be much down here, I wouldn't call and it's and it's a need.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

So I mean it's like so they're um you know, so they're so that could be you know ways, you know, for education, you know, find ways to get them um so that they know how to be that would be good.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 26:46

I mean, there's there's ways that I think we could open the door a little bit to um you know to help them and tell the federal side of things so they get okay, what are we actually gonna do? Because there hasn't been real immigration law for so long.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

And I understand and I understand. We're down here in southern Minnesota, it's pretty quiet.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

And you know, yeah, it's it is it is you know, and to go back kind of the um my personal story is this is what's frustrating about uh how all of these things play out. But um, you know, I do have um you know people with heritage from Mexico in my family.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

And um it's you know, when you get a a text from your niece uh for your her grandfather's funeral to ask if ICE is still around in St. James, because her husband is nervous to even come there when he's a professor at Waldorf University, fully citizen. You know, that that to me is is not how things are supposed to go either. So yeah, no, I guess like these these two these two extremes are like crazy of what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

It seems to me, though, you brought something up that just kind of sparked. Someone like that, yeah, right? A professor at Waldorf University, I mean, obviously respected, and now we had one down in in uh Iowa last year who was a high school principal or whatever, but anyway, forget that for a second. They should have some kind of a sticker on their license. Yeah. Maybe that that they've been cleared by ice that they can just show. I don't know, this thing's way too hard, obviously. Uh you know, it just seems like we we make everything so darn hard.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

It's that's what I mean. That's the extreme stuff of you know, one extreme to the other. And um and and that's you you you shouldn't be afraid. No.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

You know, at the same time, if you are illegal and you are committing some crimes, maybe you better be afraid. Absolutely. But uh anyway, yeah. Well, uh

Being A Centrist Under Party Pressure

SPEAKER_00 28:46

primaries. I know you're not you don't have to worry about the primary. Correct. You you you're running unopposed until until you you and Marge get into it. But are you guys gonna have any debates?

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Yeah, I would uh you know, a couple years ago, I think we had three or four of them. Did you so you know I'm looking forward to um you know being able to do that. Okay, that'll be fun. Be able to have, you know, you know, I've the right now it's it's little things like this, you know, to get through the mess out a little bit. But um because that's the key. I mean, that that's you know, I think you know, this time around I want to make sure people know that I'm a centrist, you know, and and there's gonna be things that there's there's a centrist in the Democrat Party? Yes, there's things that that uh on the Republican side that I will agree to, and there are gonna be things on the Democrat side.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Okay, let me ask you then. I said this to somebody else the other day, and and is it possible though? Because when the party, and I don't I don't mean this badly, okay? Um but I'm a realist. Yeah. When the party, I've seen a lot of people go into office, Democrat or Republican, and they're I'm gonna be a centrist, I'm gonna vote my conscience, and then the party gets a hold of them and says, Oh no, you're not. Yeah you know, we need your vote because that's gonna that's gonna break the tie. Can you do it? Even when you're look at John Fetterman, he's he's uh I was so opposed to him you wouldn't believe it. And now I'm going, what a breath of fresh air.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Yeah, and now we need more of that.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

And there's still and there's still not everything I agree with him on, but I'm just saying though, but he voted.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Well, no, but I'm gonna you and I differ politically. Yeah, I'm gonna look at it, you know, both sides differently. Absolutely, and that's how it should be. Because I would represent this district.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

That's that's what not St.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Paul.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

That's what well that's what I'm hoping. You know what I mean? Yes, exactly. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. I want you to to to represent this district because we don't have a St. Paul uh mindset down here.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

And and you know, on on both sides, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

I mean that that I think that's I mean, that's why I'm in the in the race because I feel that we need to find that that common sense. And um, but I'll leave you with a story. Yeah, go ahead. I'll like stories uh that why that I could be uh to go through that. So so I was I was a baseball player in high school, okay, and played at Grandview College catcher, okay, as you can tell.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

But uh um but throughout high school, I I stayed away from alcohol and drinking like you know, because in high school, you know, you have your parties, you're you're an athlete, right? Yeah, yeah. So I want to stay away from that. Yeah, um, so that was just something I didn't do, yeah, right. So then you go to college. Well, obviously, what's the oh it's different? You don't have the rules, you don't have those so things are different, right? So you don't have mom. But my mentality is still the same, you know. I'm nervous about uh those types of things. So we're at a baseball party once, and I'm sitting playing cards in the corner, and on the other side of the house, um, people were you know doing shots and different things like that, and I wasn't gonna have any part of that. And uh because it scared the death, it scared me. Like, how's that gonna you know? Is it gonna work? Yeah, yeah, you know. Um, so anyway, so uh it got so bad that they're calling my name over and over and over again to come over and do that. So you talk about peer pressure, yeah. Oh so 100% peer pressure, freshman in college, on the baseball team, right? So, how you know what would you do, right? So I kept saying no, they finally gave up. Yeah, well, shockingly, the next day they're still my teammates, so so it's always my peer pressure, you know, story to my students. You know, there are ways that you can still say no, yeah, and people are still gonna like you, right? And and that's how I'm gonna legislate, you know, it's that's how it's gonna be. I you know that I know there's gonna be pressure for different things on different cultural, especially cultural stuff, right? Yep, but I want to make sure that my constituents back here, yeah, that's how they want me to vote, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:39

If that makes any sense, it makes total sense.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

And I hope that's that's what it is, you know, because I I truly believe that um that I am a centrist, that's the way I've always been. Okay, you know, anytime I come across uh and I've I've voted Republican many times, and uh, and I always just in my head I just kind of laugh about you know, if I put the R by my name, these people would love me. But because I put the D behind my name, yeah, they won't even look at me. Oh, I absolutely until they figure out like, hey, this guy's gonna vote for us and work for us, yeah, and he's not gonna just take the the Democrat side or I noticed that about I noticed that on your flyer.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Yeah, I couldn't find if you were an R or a D. Yeah. And I actually had to go on Google to find out because I was like, okay, so because I I really wasn't sure, you know, what we were coming into. And I thought but I'm I thought I'm gonna judge him based on on what he has to say, you know, and who he is. Yeah, I like St. James. Yeah. I I that's a great town.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

It is a great town. I love the lake, so it's yeah, it's it's a wonderful town.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Yeah, it is a wonderful town. Yeah well, good luck. I do mean that.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Yeah, I'm gonna be today and you're more than welcome.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Yeah, um, and we'll look forward to talking to you again. Yeah, yeah, anytime.

Final Thoughts And Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Yeah, all right, folks, that's it for uh this this version uh Newsmakers Podcast. I'm Mike Innis and talking with uh John Wilson running for District 21B. I had to look it up. District 21B. We'll look forward to talking to him again.