As we noted in the post, MN Senate and House name committee chairs, St Cloud-area DFL state senator Aric Putnam will chair the Minnesota Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.
Who will join him on that important committee?
In an interview with the Detroit Lakes Tribune's Michael Achterling, Kupec talks tax cuts, recreational cannabis as freshman state senator prepares for first session, the newly elected Rob Kupec, DFL-Moorhead, notes:
"What I've always said is that (recreational cannabis) has never been one of my top issues, but I'm not opposed to it," said Kupec. "I think it's gonna happen and I just want to make sure we do it right."
But there's something the Moorhead meteorologist does want, Achterling reports at the article's close:
Since Senate District 4 is a largely rural area, Kupec said he would like to be put on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
"I let that be known (at the caucus meeting)," he said.
This shouldn't come as a surprise, since Mike McFeely reported in TV meteorologist Rob Kupec makes bid for Minnesota state senate on early May at the Fargo Forum:
He lists his top issues as . . .protecting the farm economy and water recreation from climate change.
We'll be keeping an eye out on this one, since as Achterling points out in the article that Kupec won only two rural townships in Clay County, while losing in all precincts in Becker County. His win? The DL Online reports:
Kupec lost every precinct in Becker County, however, he ended up besting Bohmer by more than a two-to-one margin in a handful of Moorhead's thirteen voter precincts. He also maintained tighter losing margins across greater Clay County.
Bluestem suspects those pesky Gen Zers, college students, women and such in the regional urban center put Kupec over the top. But then, those pesky kids are often concerned about climate action.
Whatever the SD4 voters' motivation, we think having a meteorologist on an ag committee might be a great thing, especially when we recall outgoing Senate Ag chair Torrey Westrom's answer to a question about environmental challenges in the October 26 PDF edition of the Swift County Monitor:
Environmental challenges Times: Stories about the impact of a warming climate on Minnesota’s lakes and landscape are being written with increasing frequency. How can the Legislature address this threat to our agriculture, lakes, and landscape as well as our businesses and citizens?Westrom: “Climate change,” use to be called Global Warming, and just a decade or two before that in the 1970’s, the scientists strongly warned of the “Ice Age” that was coming soon. In the National Geographics, they warned by the turn of the century, there could be significant devastation if man didn’t drastically change their ways.Fast forward to the 1990’s and the science community had done an about-face and changed their alarm to “Global Warming”. Thus, in twenty short years, the weather predictors had changed from returning of the ice age, to the threat of now being much too warm to survive as a planet. All of this has been during my lifetime.Couple this with the history books that teach us about the massive glaciers that use to cover much of western Minnesota, including many parts of Senate district 12. Somehow those glaciers eventually did melt thousands of years ago, according to the “textbooks”, and we now enjoy the great places we all live, raise our families, operate farms or business, and recreate in many of the lakes. In short, the evolving and ever-changing Ice-Age, to Global Warming to Climate Change, is probably best for the legislature to not have a knee-jerk reaction to embrace it as an absolute scientific law. There also are counter theories to Climate Change, so it’s important to read, listen and study all the possible scenarios, and then make the best decisions on what makes sense for the present time with the technology we currently have to improve our lives and protect children’s futures. . . .
- Drawing the line at family: contrasting cases of Republican state senate candidates in SD, MN
- After wasted weeks in Ag committee, Westrom drops deer farmer special non-drought demands from Minnesota Senate drought aid bill
- Fact check: Did Rep. Paul Anderson say WI farmers got $100 million drought relief?
- MN House passes drought relief bill 101-33
- House to vote on drought relief Thurs afternoon; Senate burdens its bill with deer farmer aid
- Minnesota House Ways & Means Committee passes drought relief bill while senate dawdles
- Second Walz administration drought relief bill meets with GOP crabfest in committee
Photo: KVRR-TV Chief Meteorologist Rob Kupec announced he is running for a seat in the Minnesota state senate.Michael Vosburg / Forum Photo Editor, via TV meteorologist Rob Kupec makes bid for Minnesota state senate in the Fargo Forum.
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