The Mankato Free Press editorial board gives a big thumbs up to Tim Walz for holding many listening sessions:
Thumbs up
To freshman Congressman Tim Walz who has done nothing yet to diminish his pre-election image as a man who will listen.
Walz says it’s a priority of his to hold regular meetings open to the general public and to seek input from people generally left out of the conversation. On Thursday, he listened to seniors at the Summit Center.
The former West High School geography teacher seems not to have lost support locally despite being part of a U.S. Congress saddled with extraordinarily high negative ratings. Walz is still getting mileage from a locally run television advertisement crediting him for raising the minimum wage (as if he alone were responsible), and although his favorability rating is sure to take a hit at some point, the honeymoon remains largely intact.
Walz’s common roots, his humility in claiming not to have all the answers, we surmise is encouraging him to gain information from a wide array of sources. He seems not to take anything he’s hearing for granted.
The First Congressional District's last Democratic representative was Tim Penny; what ordinary people in the District have told us that they liked most about Penny was his ability as a listener. Looks like Walz is following that tradition in Southern Minnesota.
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