Schreyer

defends

self

By KEVIN SWEENEY

Journal Editor

NEW ULM -- Republican legislative hopeful Cody Schreyer defended himself against recent attacks Wednesday night while campaigning at the Flying Dutchmen Motorcycle Club meeting.

Schreyer said a small but vocal minority in the party is behind the attacks and negative comments that have been made in letters to the editor in response to Schreyer filing a campaign violation charge against his opponent in the Sept. 10 primary, Brad Finstad.

Finstad was endorsed by the delegates at the Republican District 21 Endorsing Convention in Wanda in July, defeating Schreyer and a couple of other candidates. Schreyer, who complains the endorsement process was unfairly stacked in Finstad's favor, decided to challenge Finstad in the primary for the open seat in House District 21-B.

Schreyer also says, in a complaint filed with the Watonwan County Attorney, that Finstad made him offers of a political job and assistance in gaining other legislative seats if he would drop out of the primary race.

Finstad denies making any such offer, and said in previous news reports that Schreyer "completely lied. These are false allegations."

To support his claim, Schreyer played a tape recording of a telephone conversation he had with Finstad shortly after the convention. The phone conversation took place after an earlier call that Finstad made to Schreyer after the convention, seeking his support and other Republican candidates' support following the endorsement.

After Finstad answers the phone and Schreyer identifies himself, Schreyer asks,

"I was wondering if you remembered when you called me, last time, after the endorsing, (Finstad: "Yes,") when you were, you know, about a job, and maybe helping me with (Sen. Dennis) Frederickson's position? (Finstad: "Yes,") I was wondering if maybe we could get a meeting together? Maybe, sometime tonight? (Finstad: "Okay.")

Schreyer claims the taped conversation proves that he had more than one conversation with Finstad, and that Finstad admits making the job offer.

Wednesday evening, Finstad said he recalled the conversation and has never denied it or the meeting he had with Schreyer. He also said he never offered Schreyer a job, or assistance in another election in return for dropping from the race.

"The day after the endorsing convention, I called all the candidates to try to unite the party and get everyone on board. I didn't even know at that point that Schreyer was going to run in the primary."

Finstad said he and Schreyer talked about the endorsement -- "He told me he was disappointed with the convention and had a lot of thinking to do," Finstad said.

Finstad also said Schreyer said it was his dream to be in the Legislature. Schreyer said he advised Schreyer that the best thing to do was "finish college, get a job, work hard, and get some experience. I said over my last four years I'd made a lot of contacts and if there was anything I could do to help him, to call me, and if I heard of any job openings I would let him know so he could apply."

Finstad said he told Schreyer there would be other political opportunities down the road, such as when Sen. Dennis Frederickson decides to retire.

But Finstad said he never offered to get Schreyer a job or a nomination. "Anybody who knows anything about that knows I couldn't do that. The House caucus hires legislative staff, and I couldn't possibly deliver a Senate seat."

Watonwan County Attorney LaMar Piper has had no comment about the investigation, other than to say it is continuing and will not be finished until after the primary election.

Schreyer answered other questions about attacks on him at the Flying Dutchmen meeting.

About his switching from the DFL to the Republicans after running against Republican Rep. James Clark in 2000, Schreyer said he decided to run against Clark, and thought the best way to do it was as as a DFLer. "I didn't want to challenge him in his own party," said Schreyer.

Schreyer said he had also had contact with the DFL party in college, working on Mike Freeman's gubernatorial campaign.

He said his positions in the 2000 campaign are the same as he holds now -- pro-life, against tax increases, funding government's basic responsibilities first.

"Republicans were telling me before the last election I should switch parties, and I did shortly after the election. It shouldn't be any surprise that I did."

Schreyer said he is running because he wants to "make a positive difference in this world. I don't have a lot of money. I'm not rich. So my way to make a difference is through politics."

Schreyer told the Flying Dutchmen that he supports road and bridge construction and repair for rural areas, for safety reasons and to help keep business and industry in the rural communities.

Taxes need to stay low for the same reason, to keep businesses in the rural communities instead of heading to low-taxing states like South Dakota.

He supports environmental improvements, and thinks the state should force the Excel Energy Corp. to bring all of its generating plants into compliance with air quality standards by 2010. Excel is currently working voluntarily to clean up three of its plants by that date.

Schreyer said people want "responsible government, with honest, trustworthy politicians. ... People don't need liars put in office."

Schreyer said he would work to make the local party more responsible.

Schreyer denied the accusations that he was "lazy" and didn't contact delegates before the endorsing convention. He said he sent letters to all the delegates, except those who clearly were supporting someone else.

Asked about how he would approach the expected $2.7 billion budget deficit next biennium, Schreyer said the reason there was a deficit was that the people in government didn't work together. He said he was willing to work with anyone to get the budget balanced.

Schreyer said the government, in light of the deficit, should cut out funding "pet projects" for cities. He cited the $400,000 bonding allocation for the Hermann Monument as one example of a pet project.

Government needs to prioritize and fund the basics first, including education, roads and bridges, health care, and law enforcement, he said.

He said he would work against increasing taxes, but he wasn't opposed to the idea of a small increase in the gasoline tax, if the revenues went strictly for road and bridge projects. He said light rail transit projects should be funded by some other kind of user fee.