Powers announces 2010 challenge of Kline in MN CD#2

The plans have been filed, the site’s been cleared, supplies ordered, the foundation has been set, and now Dan Powers, a former construction worker and small business owner, is assembling the materials to build a campaign in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District to challenge incumbent U.S. Representative John Kline.

Tuesday morning at the State Office Building beside the State Capitol in St. Paul, Powers officially announced he’s running for the endorsement of the Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party and intends to replace Kline as the district’s representative in Washington. Flanked by State Representatives from his district, Powers says he can do better, and he’s running to win.

Although his family is from the northern part of the state, Dan Powers has lived in the district for close to 30 years, and he’s been on a program to listen to the residents, to make sure he knows their needs and concerns. Dan himself has faced the fear of losing insurance benefits and keeping up mortgage payments when a major injury left him unable to work for an extended period, and unsure he’d even be able to recover enough to return to work.

Dan Powers seeks DFL endorsement to face John Kline in MN's 2nd Congressional District

He’s seen the cycles of job loss in the district over the decades, and says we’ve got to have leaders in Washington who will foster the economic recovery of Minnesota, not just for the wealthy but for minimum wage workers, for blue collar workers on new “green” projects, and for white collar workers as well.

In a fast moving summary, Powers alluded to the need for an energy policy that will free us from entanglement in foreign wars while providing clean, efficient, renewable and affordable energy. He spoke about the need to control the costs of higher education while shoring up the public schools that are educating our next generation of workers. Clearly, too, Powers has an up close and personal experience with the confusing maze of health care insurance, and feels Kline is failing to represent the needs of the district and the nation by simply falling in line with the GOP’s anti-change, anti-Obama, preservation of the status quo that serves special interests at the expense of regular people.

Powers had started to run in the 2008 cycle, but withdrew in favor of Steve Sarvi, citing a late start which left him too far behind in the fund-raising process to mount an effective campaign.

U.S. Representative John Kline

Kline, now in his 4th term, has voted with his party over 90% of the time, and sponsored only 6 bills prior to this week despite a chairmanship, none of which have made it into law. In fact, of the 210 bills he’s co-sponsored only 1 has passed. [Update, 20 Nov 2009: Kline did hurriedly introduce 2 new bills in an apparent attempt to improve his record as soon as Powers declared his candidacy.  He evidently feels some heat for introducing 2 bills per term, and may well find the threat motivates him in ways that simply holding the office has not.]

Dan Powers is back on the job after breaking his back – literally. With no obvious challengers on the horizon for the DFL endorsement he appears to already be focused on the looming face-off with Congressman Kline, and intent on winning the race to prevail on election Day in November 2010, bolstering the ranks of Democrats in D.C. to join the task of shaking up the old order and making Washington work for the voters again.