By Shannon Fiecke, Correspondent 

If the last election was any clue, the race between Republican Mike BeardBeard and DFLer Sue Bruns for state representative could be a tight one.

As the third-term incumbent in a district that leans Republican, Beard Brunscould have the edge. But with Democrat-flavored fervor sweeping the nation and a well-known opponent, re-election is no sure bet.

Two years ago, DFLer Doug Zila ran a tireless campaign against Beard, garnering 46 percent of the vote. The Shakopee incumbent faces an even stiffer challenge from Bruns, a longtime schools advocate from Prior Lake who has been knocking on doors all summer long.

Both candidates are heavily invested in their communities and interested in policy topics with a penchant for statistics that interest them, but like their parties, they differ in political philosophies.

Just as Beard easily cites the outputs and costs of various forms of energy production, Bruns quickly rattles off school funding statistics.

A native of Pennsylvania, Bible college brought Beard to Minnesota. He and his family moved to Shakopee 23 years ago. His has a varied career background, having worked in religious publishing, the railroad industry and, most recently, small-airplane renovation. Beard’s latest project has been doing consultant work for an Asian trading center proposed to locate in Shakopee.

A former city councilor who now heads the Shakopee Downtown Partnership, much of Beard’s work in the state Legislature has been on unglamorous topics like railroads, airports, energy and watershed reorganization.

A former University of Wisconsin statistician and self-described “numbers geek,” Bruns got her political start rallying for a school building referendum and ended up serving 11 years on the Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board. She and her family moved from the Madison area to Minnesota 15 years ago to get a division of their cash-handling business off the ground, but they liked Prior Lake so much they stayed.

Rather than run for re-election to the School Board last year, Bruns decided to continue her advocacy for schools by vying for a seat in the state Legislature.

Asked about their political philosophies in a recent forum, Bruns said she’s a Democrat because she believes government has a role to take care of families and people who can’t take care of themselves.

Beard said he believes in limited government — “moms and dads and churches and neighbors” are responsible for families.

An advocate for female leadership in politics and breaking the gender income gap, Bruns likes to ponder concepts like mandatory paid family leave, so women aren’t economically disadvantaged by bearing children.

Bruns said she tends to be a pragmatist who finds it difficult “to speak to ideological values.” She finds that there are many sides to every issue and, if elected, said she’ll work hard to listen to the community, facilitate discussion and “bring everyone to the table.”

As a board member, Bruns said she “didn’t feel like Mike [Beard] was listening to the needs of our schools” and thought he based decisions more on his ideology and what his caucus or the governor thought.

Beard, who is more likely to work behind the scenes with fellow legislators than pontificate on the House floor, has said he tries to take an open-minded and thoughtful approach to issues.

He considers his view of the role of government to be more limited than that of Bruns.

“I’m a lot more cautious about yielding government power,” he said. “I’m looking for ways to lower the tax burden. I’m not sure my opponent is.”

Education

Bruns has lobbied at the Capitol for schools and says the basic state education formula has not kept up with inflation for 15 years. She believes too much of the burden has fallen to property taxpayers and the current system favors property-wealthy districts like Edina.

She’s an advocate for the “second Minnesota Miracle,” a proposal to modify the school finance system and add $1.75 billion annually to the state’s education funding formula.

Bruns doesn’t believe it’s financially feasible to move to that amount overnight but thinks Minnesota should be moving in that direction.

Beard is skeptical of what cost indexes are counted when education funding is measured against inflation. He points out that under the Jesse Ventura administration, the state took on a bigger chunk of school costs.

Beard said he’d like to see greater flexibility in how education is provided in grade school through high school and an exploration of how, where and when students learn.

“Do we have to catch a bus at 7 in the morning?” he asks. “What if mom and dad work second shift?”

He’d prefer a system where money follows children to the school of their choice, like with early-childhood education and college, so long as certain curriculum benchmarks are reached.

Bruns has said she thinks educators are doing a fantastic job and adapt all the time to new technologies. She thinks Minnesota has been a leader in school choice, and if private schools are to receive tax dollars, they should have to meet the same accountability measures as public schools.

Health care

Beard thinks government interference in the market and its purchasing of health care has caused costs to climb.

To make insurance portable, Beard thinks consumers should be allowed to purchase insurance with pre-tax dollars.

He also said Minnesota should loosen mandates on the sale of medical insurance so people can purchase tailor-made plans, and the state shouldn’t restrict the number of hospital and nursing home beds.

“Where else does restricting supply result in lower prices?” he asked.

Bruns said there is no easy answer to the health care question and all options should be explored, so long as it promotes affordable access. She said she wants to make sure all sides are heard on the issue and whatever action is taken to be implemented gradually.

Bruns said she disagrees with Beard’s citation of Lasik surgery as a procedure that has improved in quality and price despite not being covered by insurance.

“Lasik is not an example of market competition,” she said. “If anything, it demonstrates the problem.”

She also has concerns with freely allowing hospitals to expand, because if they become more market-driven, she thinks the race to attract customers will cause them to implement high-priced improvements that are ultimately passed to the consumer.

Energy

While Bruns is more hesitant than Beard in allowing increased energy production in areas like nuclear or coal, she is less cautious about the government trying to jumpstart alternative energy production.

In a recent forum, Bruns said subsidies for ethanol helped get the conversation started on alternative energy.

“Ethanol may not be the perfect answer, but it certainly is the start of the conversation,” she said.

Beard is not a fan of subsidies or mandates. He points to ethanol, as well as a turkey manure-based power plant in Benson, Minn. (the result of a government alternative energy mandate) as proposed solutions that had negative consequences.

 “We get in the way of ourselves — sometimes with the best intentions,” Beard said.

Bruns thinks the state’s recent renewable-energy mandates are a well-laid-out plan using incremental change and the ability to adjust if needed.

Beard, a member of the state’s energy committee, said he came to regret his vote for the mandates once he better understood the cost to consumers.

Although companies like Xcel Energy were OK with the mandate, saying it had enough escape clauses, Beard said he later was informed that power companies have a guaranteed rate of return, which is why they weren’t concerned about the bill. They could actually make more money from more expensive power, he said.

A skeptic of what he considers global-warming alarmism, Beard said he tries to bring a voice of sanity and reason to the energy debates.

He believes expansion of the Big Stone Plant near Milbank, S.D., is essential to keeping the region’s baseline power going.

He said the coal-fired plant would double its present energy production while emitting half the pollution of the current site.

Bruns is hesitant about such a large investment in coal-based technology.

She said the state must be conscious of consumers’ energy costs but also weigh short-term savings of present power-production methods against the potential long-term benefits of emerging technology, which will lessen carbon footprints.

“I’m willing to listen, but hesitant,” Bruns said of the Big Stone proposal. “It feels like building old PCs.”

Transportation

Bruns has been critical of Beard’s opposition to the $6.4 billion transportation funding package earlier this year.

Beard has long supported a gas tax increase but thought the bill dedicated too much funding to light rail and created an unnecessary entity to distribute transit funds.

Beard voted to move the bill out of the Transportation Committee but ultimately voted against the final bill, hoping more compromise could be reached after the governor vetoed the bill.

Bruns said a great deal of compromise had already been made, with even the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce backing the final version.

“I think that bill was an easy vote,” she said.

 Shannon Fiecke can be reached at (952) 345-6679 or sfiecke@swpub.com.