Paul Thissen: Innovation in Action

Announcement Highlights

2010 gubernatorial candidate visits Pipestone

By Kyle Kuphal

July 29, 2009

The pool of possible gubernatorial candidates has risen to about 25 following Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s announcement that he will not seek another term as governor of Minnesota in 2010. One of those candidates, DFL State Representative Paul Thissen, stopped in Pipestone last Tuesday for a chat with local Democrats…

To read entire article, click here.

Pop picks: Gubernatorial candidates list their favorites in pop culture

By Steve Perry

Special to Capitol Report

July 27, 2009

Editor’s Note: There’s one thing voter guides never get around to telling you: Who among all the
candidates would you most enjoy having a beer and talking books or music or movies with?
Paul Thissen (DFL): “Can I list more than one? ‘Born to Run,’Dave Marsh’s book, is one of them. I
love ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’  I think that’s a great book…

To read entire interview, click here.

Official Announcement (7/23/09)

Thank you so much for being here today, I really appreciate it. And we have invited you – my wife Karen and my family and I have invited you here today to announce that I am going to be a candidate to be the next governor of the state of Minnesota.

You know over the last several months I have been telling a story as I’ve gone around on the campaign trail. A story about my great-grandfather’s work bench. It was built by him over 100 years ago on his farm in western Minnesota. And it’s one of my most prized possessions because it connects me with the six generations of my family that have lived in Minnesota.

As I’ve traveled across the state, I think about this workbench a lot. And I think about my great-grandfather and the choices he made as he built it. He was a busy guy, raising a large family, trying to make a living off the land. And he very easily could have decided to slap something together that would have lasted for a few years. And then patched that up and get through a few more years.

But he actually made a different decision. He decided to take the time and to make the investment to build it the right way.  To build something that would last. To build something that would be there not just for himself, but for his kids and his grandkids and even his great-grandchild, whose life he couldn’t even imagine.

And I think about that story, and I think about the story of my parents, who are here today. Who are two public school teachers who worked a second job, took out a second mortgage, to be able to afford to send me to college.

I think about those stories because I think they have lessons for us in these challenging times. Lessons about the virtues that have made our state so great. Lessons that our current state leadership has too often ignored or forgotten.

I love this state. I am so grateful for all that it’s given to me and to my family. And I believe so strongly in its extraordinary promise. I see that every day.

But I also see that promise slipping away for too many Minnesota families. Unemployment rates are at near-record levels. Families continue to lose their houses to foreclosure. Health care is getting too expensive for more and more families. 240,000 Minnesotans with health insurance pay more than a quarter of their income for health care. That’s unacceptable in this state.

And the answer that our current governor and his allies have given to Minnesota families is simply to say ‘No’. ‘No’ to education. ‘No’ to affordable health care for everybody. ‘No’ to the kind of investment we need to make in innovation and technology and science, to compete in this global economy. ‘No’ to hardworking families who are losing their homes and losing their jobs.

I am running for governor because we need a leader who is going to be willing to stand up and say ‘Yes’ to Minnesota and its extraordinary promise. ‘Yes’ to all the solutions that we know will work. ‘Yes’ to the long-term investments that will stand the test of time. ‘Yes’ to rebuilding the Minnesota that we’ve always known and loved and making it even better. More just, more fair, more prosperous for everybody.

These are really serious times. And they demand a seriousness of purpose. The central issue that is before our state is the gnawing economic insecurity that so many families are feeling and seeing in their everyday lives.

And I understand that challenge. I have been in the trenches, leading the fight and promoting good ideas to make sure that economic security is there for Minnesotans. I’ve heard from parents who are terrified that their children are going to get sick because they don’t know how they’re going to pay the health care bills. And so I authored the Cover All Kids Act. And as a result today tens of thousands of more kids can go and see a doctor or a nurse when they need to, without worry.

The teacher pension issue was raised. I learned and listened to a lot of teachers who dedicated their lives to educating our kids, but who were staying up at night, losing sleep at night, because they were worried that their pension was slipping toward bankruptcy. I stepped in and led the fight to make sure that those pensions were safe and secure, but also to reform the system so that that doesn’t happen again.

I heard from a constituent who told a wrenching story of being exhausted trying to support her husband, take care of her husband at home. Her disabled husband. And so I authored the Long Term Caregiver’s Protection Act that’s going to provide financial and respite support to her and so many others like her that so desperately need it.

These are really important issues and as the next governor I will continue and complete that work. But I want to be the next governor of Minnesota for a more fundamental reason as well.

I want to be the next governor of Minnesota because we need a governor who is going to stand up and challenge the political philosophy that has dominated us for too long. A philosophy that tells us that we will all be better off if we’re just left to fend for ourselves, to make it on our own. And in recent weeks we have seen the fruits of that philosophy.

We have seen the human cruelty that results from that philosophy. When Governor Pawlenty with a stroke of his veto pen eliminated health care for 30,000 of the most vulnerable, poorest Minnesotans, we learned what that philosophy will lead to.

You know I was just having lunch the other day with some people. And I met a woman who gets her health care through the GAMC program, the program that was cut. And she is a woman who just went through a double mastectomy, and is receiving treatment and medication to deal with the side effects of her cancer. And she was saying how she fought with all her might to beat the cancer. However, when she’s going to lose her insurance, she’s going to lose her access to medications, and she’s no longer going to be able to keep herself healthy. Cancer couldn’t beat this woman. But bad, mean-spirited public policy — it just very well might beat her.

The reality in this state is that we need to turn things around. Minnesotans get that. I have heard from people in cities. People in suburbs. I have heard from people in small towns all around the state that the decision to eliminate health care coverage for that woman and thousands of others like her has crossed a line. It has crossed a moral line. And those people are right.

Minnesotans are right now asking What kind of state have we become? What kind of people are we, that we would allow that kind of thing to happen in Minnesota?

And the resounding answer is that we cannot continue down the path that we’re on. We need to change things. And that’s what I intend to do as governor.

You know many years ago when we were facing a similar time of turbulent economic and social upheaval, Franklin Roosevelt stood on the Capitol steps in Washington D.C., raised his hand to take the oath of office, and he told Americans that we realize now as we have never realized before that we are interconnected with each other. That we can no longer merely take, but we also have to give. And with that spirit he attacked record unemployment rates and a collapsing financial system with a vision that was built around the common good.

We need that spirit today in Minnesota to take on the challenges we face right now, and the other challenges that are just over the horizon. And I stand before you here today to ask for your support for governor in that very same spirit.

We will make sure that every person in this state has access to affordable health care coverage. We will make sure that each one of us has a roof over our heads as we go to sleep at night. We will build communities where seniors can retire in independence and dignity. We will make sure that we are nation leaders in renewable energy. And do it in such a way that the wealth that’s generated from that doesn’t go outside of Minnesota but stays here, in our state, in our communities. We will make sure that every child has access to the care, and the learning, that they need to succeed. And that will get them ready to go when they get to kindergarten. We need to create high-paying jobs in Minnesota. We can do that.

In these times, like no other, we have to make sure that we continue to think big, to dream big for our state. The conventional wisdom politics, the old tired ways, the ways of distrust, and divisiveness, and personality conflicts – they won’t serve us any longer. We need a Minnesota leader who is going to stand up and again say ‘Yes’ to the great promise of this state.

You know my wife Karen and I are raising our three kids here. One of the things – we met in law school in Chicago – and the one condition I put on us getting married was that we would move back to Minnesota.

But like so many parents across this state, we really so strongly believe, and are saying “Yes’ to this Minnesota that we believe in. A Minnesota that our kids can be proud to grow up in. My parents were public schoolteachers, and they said ‘Yes’ to Minnesota’s promise when they did everything they could to make sure that my sister and I had every opportunity to succeed that we could possibly have. My great-grandfather said ‘Yes’ to Minnesota’s future when he built this workbench – took the time and committed the energy to do that. Minnesota’s political leaders need to stand up and say ‘Yes’ once again to Minnesota’s future.

That is why I’m running to be the next Governor of Minnesota. And I would be honored to have your support. Thank you.

Post-Announcement Q&A