Like many rural Minnesotans who support sound environmental policy, Bluestem Prairie is a fan of Minneapolis state representative Jean Wagenius, and her leadership position as chair of the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Finance committee makes news of her district everybody's business in Greater Minnesota.
Like state auditor Rebecca Otto, Wagenius is facing a last-minute primary challenger with a long political history of his own.
However, it's a much different path than Matt Entenza took. Roger Kittelson first ran for the Minnesota House in Goodhue County, losing to incumbent Steve Sviggum in 1982. Plus, Kittelson once interned for Congressman Rick Nolan, back in Nolan's first round of service back in the 1970s.
A source tells Bluestem that Kittleson, a retired dairy marketing specialist who is a relatively new Minneapolis resident, is the same Roger A. Kittelson who ran for Congress in Wisconson a few years back.
Some friends wondered if--as has been speculated in the Entenza challege to Otto--that there was an anti-environmental subtext going on in this race as well.
We noticed the Wisconsin phone number and gave him a call to find out if he had indeed run for office in Wisconsin--and to learn his motivation for challenging a powerful committee chair.
Kittelson confirmed that he'd purchased a home for one of his sons in Minneapolis two years ago, and started moving his own possessions into the house from Wisconsin around Christmas as he bid on houses in the South Minneapolis neighborhood in anticipation of his retirement from the Grande Cheese Company in Lomira, Wisconsin.
He finished his move about a month ago, he told Bluestem, and is looking for a new career. Hence the primary bid.
But the run for office isn't exactly a new career. While marketing Wisconsin's dairy products, he again sought public office.
According to the Wikipedia entry for the now former Badger politician:
Roger Allen Kittelson (born in Zumbrota, Minnesota) is a former candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Wisconsin. In 2008, he ran against incumbent Republican Tom Petri, getting 37% of the vote.
Kittelson faced off against Mark Wollum in the Democratic primary on Sept. 9, 2008 and won with 64% to Wollum’s 36%.[1]
Kittelson’s platform was based on ending the war in Iraq, creating a system of universal health care, and promoting fair trade agreements.[2] In opposition to most Democrats, Kittelson ran as a pro-life candidate for the issue of abortion.[3]
According to the final finance reports, Kittelson raised $18,202 for his campaign.[4]
While we can't imagine the pro-life thing getting much traction in Wagenius's district, that peace platform and single payer health care might seem attractive to some in the liberal area. He clarified that he believes in single payer health care, rather than "universal" health care.
In the phone interview, Kittelson said that he's better described as "pro-family" than "pro-life," as he does believe that there are times that parents of an unborn child may have to make the difficult choice, with their doctor, to abort a pregnancy because of the health of the mother and the child.
He wants to keep abortion safe and legal in such circumstances, but "abortion as birth control is wrong. If a woman is single and poor, groups like Pro-Life America are there to help the mother and her child, including help with placing the child with another family."
Moreover, he believes that fathers should have a say in whether their unborn children are brought to term, and that both fathers and mothers should have equal rights in parenting in the event of divorce, as children need two parents. While that may sound to some like a heterosexual bias, Kittelson believes that children with same sex parents enjoy the same benefits from a stable family as kids raised by heterosexual parents.
Much of Kittelson's interest in the family and the rights of fathers stems from his own experience as a divorced father involved in complicated legal issues. In 2008, Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in Give Peace a Chance:
Roger Kittelson wants to win a seat in the U.S. Congress so he can help bring peace to the Middle East.If only the guy could do the same a little closer to home.
In 2004, Kittelson — one of two Democrats hoping to challenge veteran U.S. Rep. Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac) — was hit with a lengthy restraining order by a Dodge County court. That same year, he also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of damaging another's property. He was forced to pay a nearly $500 fine.
Kittelson, 51, explained that both incidents were tied to his bitter 2002 divorce.
For the past six years, he and his wife have battled in family court. He said the two are headed there again soon in another dispute over child support.
Kittelson claims he simply "tapped" his ex-wife's apartment door with his foot, leading to his arrest and misdemeanor conviction. He said the main reason the court imposed the restraining order was that he didn't have a lawyer at the hearing.
"I have never touched my ex-wife," said Kittelson, a dairy marketing specialist.
More than anything else, though, he objected to the questions about his court record.
"Is this more important," Kittelson asked, "than bringing the troops home from Iraq?"
There you have it: A candidate intent on bringing about peace — even if it means kicking down a few doors.
Kittelson said that his experience led him to become slightly involved in the group Wisconsin Fathers for Children and Families, although the testimony list for a hearing on a custody bill reaveals that he testified on behalf of himself rather than a group.
He believes that Americans should seek reforms such as "safe divorce," where no lawyers and judges are involved, but instead, counselors help couples stay together or part without using their children as bargaining chips or chattel. He met "many fathers who had no control over the fate of their children," Kittelson said, adding that children need fathers in their lives (or two mothers in the case of lesbian parents, he later added).
Other than these social issues, we didn't learn of many differences between Wagenius and Kittelson on environmental policy, other than that Kittelson favors nuclear power as another means to wean America from "wars for oil."
However, he's not a fan of ethanol, since it uses food for fuel rather than for feeding people and livestock. He spoke favorably of the soil and water conservation--including pasturing dairy cattle--and the need to get the next generation of producers on family farms.
Does Kittelson have a chance? Given the importance of reproductive rights in the district, we doubt it. However, he's sincere about those issues where he and Wagenius disagree--and it should be a cordial contest, however one-sided.
Photo: Jean Wagenius.
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