Star Tribune / Pioneer Press

Minneapolis Star Tribune Endorsement 10/25/2008
District 56A: Julie Bunn

St. Croix valley voters did this state a good turn in 2006 by sending [former] Macalester College economics Prof. Julie Bunn to the state House. We hope they repeat the favor this year. DFLer Bunn's knowledge and good judgment about the most complex matters confronting state government will be needed more than ever in 2009.

Bunn, 50, is an intellectual heavyweight, with a Stanford University Ph.D. in economics to prove it. She plunged into the deep end of the issues pool in her first term, and made an important contribution to the 2008 health care reform bill. While she's not done with that effort, she's quite capable of tackling another. Bunn is a tax policy pro who wants to help design a more stable state revenue stream, in order to provide schools, cities, counties and nursing homes with a more dependable fiscal partner.

The incumbent clearly outshines the challenger in this district. Republican Kathleen Lohmer, 54, is a party and antiabortion activist, founder of a home-school cooperative, and former medical assistant. She was appointed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty to the Pollution Control Agency's citizen advisory board in April, though she had no previous record in environmental protection. She wants smaller government and lower taxes, she says, but she also wants to spare nursing homes, Minnesota Care and education from budget cuts. She inspires little confidence that she knows how to bring about that result.

St. Paul Pioneer Press Endorsement 10/23/2008
District 56A: Julie Bunn

(Lake Elmo, Oak Park Heights, Bayport, Lakeland, Lake St. Croix Beach, parts of Woodbury and Stillwater)

People who say they want government to operate more like a business — running toward well-reasoned, well-defined goals, under the discipline of evidence and with clear accountability for results — ought to appreciate Julie Bunn, of Lake Elmo. We do, and we endorse her for a second term.

Bunn, 50, was among the class of suburban DFLers who won for the first time in 2006. An economist, she has established herself in the last two years as an intelligent and demanding (in a good way) legislator who has thought well about what government should and shouldn't do, and how it ought to arrive at decisions. She has endorsements from business and labor, and people from a variety of perspectives speak well of her diligence. She's highly informed about the issues and tradeoffs involved in health care reform, for example, and has a sophisticated understanding of how markets work.

Which isn't to say there aren't arguments against the positions she takes or her political philosophy. Her challenger, Republican Kathy Lohmer, 54, also of Lake Elmo, makes some of those arguments. Lohmer argues for smaller government, fewer mandates, private solutions to problems in the health care system, lower taxes and more accountability in public education. We believe those arguments need to factor one way or another into every race in every election. We're glad Lohmer is making them.

Fortunately, Bunn is sympathetic to arguments about efficiency, responsibility and wringing value from every tax dollar. On the strength of her training in economics and public policy, her ability to apply it, and the respect she earned in her first term, we want to see her back for a second. We trust she will be a thorn in the side of anybody in any party who would rely on mushy reasoning in policy-making or spending.