Related content: Cravaack garnering support from local union, newspaper endorsements Related content: Race for 8th District Congressional seat heats up
Rick Nolan said he doesn’t think corporations, unions or big organizations should be allowed to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns and elections because they aren’t people. This money, which tries to influence the outcome of the race between Chip Cravaack and Rick Nolan, blurs the line of what these candidates actually stand for.
“I am for unions, collective bargaining and the working men and women," Nolan said in a 30-minute, sit-down interview with a LakeVoice News reporter following a rally at the Eagle Lake Country Club in Brainerd, Minn. "I am no company man. With that, I’m a business man who has to make choices.”
The allocation of more than $7.6 million by outside groups, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, has made Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District an atypical competitive race.
With less than a week until Election Day, Nolan can be seen rallying, shaking hands and even hugging his supporters.
Nolan has spent the last 30 years of his life in domestic and international business. However, he is no stranger to politics. According to the Nolan for Congress website, he was the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 6th Congressional District from 1975 to 1981.
One of Nolan’s main choices in this year's election is to support job creation. Nolan said there are three things he feels will help create jobs in America.
First, stop the wars and nation-building abroad and start rebuilding America.
“A huge priority for Nolan is to save money by getting out of the war in Afghanistan and trimming excess military spending,” said Mark Privvatsky, organizer of Nolan’s fundraising events. “He believes in a strong military defense, absolutely, but we are spending all this money building other nations overseas, while we see roads and bridges falling apart here.”
The second reason, Nolan said, is to create jobs by changing the tax policy in order to give incentive to American companies to keep their manufactures here.
“As a business man, I can tell you that by keeping your manufacturing here, you’re not only saving jobs but creating jobs for the future,” he said.
Thirdly, Nolan said he will stimulate demands by rebuilding the middle class. In order to do this, he wants tax equity. He said this will create tax incentives to keep your manufacturers on American soil.
Michael Pfau, an associate professor of communication at the University of Minnesota Duluth, focuses his research on political rhetoric and said that Nolan’s policies are generally a better fit for the profile of Democrats in the 8th District, especially with this third point. Pfau said that Nolan is somewhat fiscally liberal but not particularly liberal on social issues.
“Nolan is able to focus on fiscal liberalism through his emphasis on, for instance, raising more tax revenue, especially on wealthy Americans,” Pfau said.
Through his fiscal liberalism, Nolan admits that one thing that has always bothered him is that Minnesota sent $67 billion to Washington and only got $47 billion back last year. He said he doesn’t want that to continue happening.
“Once the money has been authorized and appropriated, if it’s for a worthy purpose, I’ll be in there grabbing every dollar I can for the 8th District,” Nolan said.
“Rick is in a unique position because he has been there, and he knows people who are leaders there,” Privvatsky said of Nolan's work in Washington D.C. “He is someone who doesn’t just want to go and talk and make his votes. He is going to roll up his sleeves and make something happen.”
