(soft upbeat music) (soft upbeat music) - [Moderator] Welcome to "Meet the Candidates", the local election forum from Pioneer PBS.

This season, we ask every candidate the same list of questions to learn more about what type of legislator they will be if elected.

In this episode, we will meet candidates from Minnesota House District 9A.

District Lines have changed since the 2020 census.

District 9A is made up of Grant, Traverse and Wilkin counties, and the western portion of Otter Tail County.

Major cities include Fergus Falls, Breckenridge, and Pelican Rapids.

To find out which district you live in, visit MNVotes.org.

And now, let's meet the candidates.

We will start with the DFL candidate, Michael Ziomko.

(soft upbeat music) - Hi, my name is Michael Ziomko.

I'm the DFL candidate for the Minnesota House in District 9A.

I am very pleased to be running.

Lemme tell you a little bit about myself.

I'm not a native Minnesotan.

I was born in Texas and went to school outside of Texas, even.

I didn't get to Minnesota until 1994, and I came here to work at St. John's.

Most of my career has been fundraising for non-profit organizations.

I learned how to do estate planning so that I could talk to people about making estate gifts, planned gifts to charities, right?

So St. John's was the first at University of Minnesota, Children's Hospital, Fairview, Ebenezer.

These are all places that I worked for in the cities.

And then I retired in 2020, and went out and started looking at the rest of Minnesota.

Do you know there's a big part of Minnesota that's not in the cities, right?

So yeah, so I've enjoyed that and I've ended up here in Fergus Falls at this point of being able to run for the house for 9A.

- [Moderator] Why do you wanna be the representative for your district?

- When I was asked to do this, I just, the first thing that came to my mind is, what are things that I've been thinking about for a long time, that now maybe I can actually do something with?

I mean, the oldest, of course is that, you know, since I'm an old hippie, was my college experience in the sixties of looking at and thinking about equality issues, economic, social, equality issues.

And I've got two girls, so the whole thing of the feminist movement starting again in the sixties has been on my mind.

So I thought about that, what can I do there in terms of equality?

But then I thought about other things too.

I learned how to make pots over 50 years ago.

Pottery, loved to make pottery.

And after a couple of decades, I met the people who started an event called Empty Bowls.

One of them was a clay teacher in the high school, and he had his kids make pots and they asked the cooks in the kitchen at the school to make soup.

And everybody came together for a bowl of soup and they made a free will donation.

Now, this all started because the kids normally would bring in cans of this or that, and that canned food drive was failing.

So this other idea came up.

Halfway through the event, they said to everybody, "We think you should take your bowl home."

And so that started me on to Empty Bowls and I spent 14 years helping to feed people.

So, there were things like that, that I began to think about, that I could bring to this job as representative for 9A and maybe help a lot of people in Minnesota.

- [Moderator] What are your priorities for the next legislative session?

(soft upbeat music) - Obviously given my comment about being an old hippie, you know, the economic equality issue, I think is big.

And if people have more money in their bank account, I think they're more comfortable and their lives are easier and happier.

So, on the first $85,000 of taxable income that you have, I wanna reduce your state income taxes by 90%, okay.

And then after that, if you're over 65 and you have social security, I wanna stop taxing your social security payments.

Minnesota still does that.

And if you're a vet, I wanna stop taxing your veterans' pension.

So those economic things are big on my list, right?

And then of course, the other equality issues from the sixties and the ERA, you know, regardless of gender, regardless of race, regardless of sexual orientation, we should all be equal.

That's what our country is about, freedom and equality.

So, I think we need to get that passed, and in the constitution of Minnesota.

And the other thing that, the big thing, one of the big things I think about from my years working, was when I worked in a senior care organization.

I wanna do more for senior care because, you know, when you get outside of the cities, guess what, the percentage of people is 22 to 25% seniors.

Let's do more for senior care.

So that's just the beginning of things that I would do.

Childcare is on my list, free childcare is on my list and help for K to 12.

So those things are on my list.

- [Moderator] What unique perspective do you bring to the Minnesota House?

(soft upbeat music) - Maybe since I wasn't born here.

I don't know.

I hadn't thought of it, but I think that's true.

I came here and a lot of my living was done in Minnesota, and so I picked things up from here.

But my experience with Empty Bowls and feeding people, my experience with seniors.

And of course the old hippie experience.

These are things that I bring, that I think are unique, that give me a foundation to say, this is important.

And I've had some experience in each of these areas, and I wanna use that experience to help people now.

- [Moderator] What is your vision for the future of Minnesota?

(soft upbeat music) - When I think about the future of Minnesota, I think about how do we, as Minnesotans take care of each other?

What can we do to do for each other, to think about each other, to care for each other?

I think that's a big part of what state government can and should be about.

I mean, we often just say, oh, it's about taxation, or it's about roads, or it's about... No, no, it's about how do we take care of each other, I think, and let's put those issues at the top of the list.

- [Moderator] And now a closing statement.

(soft upbeat music) Outro.

- Oh.

So it it's been a wonderful experience in the last two or three months talking to people around 9A.

I've really enjoyed that, and I look forward to the possibility of serving in the house.

I'd like you to know that I have a website, it's mziomko.com, so that has all the issues that I've been thinking about and talking about, and how you can get in touch with me and that sort of thing.

So I encourage you to use that.

I will soon have a Facebook and an Instagram, and I'll make that available so that everybody knows that.

Right?

But yeah, I look forward to continuing these conversations that I've been having with folks, for the next two years.

Right?

And I'll have some in the cities with my colleagues in the House and Senate, but then come back to 9A, and continue to have conversations with folks here about what's the next thing I can work on for you?

(soft upbeat music) - [Moderator] You can find more information online about Michael Ziomko at his website, mziomko.com.

(soft upbeat music) Next, the Republican candidate, Jeff Backer.

We were unable to schedule an interview with Representative Backer, so you can find more information online about him and his website, jeffbacker.com.

(soft upbeat music) Learn more about voting, how to register, and what district you live in by visiting the Minnesota Secretary of State website, at MNVotes.org.

Remember, Election Day is Tuesday, November 5th.

Thank you for watching "Meet the Candidates" on Pioneer PBS.

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