Question 4:

The Governor of Minnesota will be asked to come up with solutions to a variety of issues that culminate in the tension between the need to protect the environment, and the need to sustain economic development. Solutions to conflicts that have arisen through issues such as the BWCA, timber resources, agriculture, including feedlots, and others will require making difficult choices and creating consensus. What are some of the tradeoffs you see in these rural and urban issues? In your rebuttal please respond to these two questions. Can you create consensus between these divergent Minnesota interests to work out some of these problems. If so, how would you create that consensus?

HUMPHREY Response to Question 4

Too often in today’s society we are faced with adversarial situations where we have winners and losers—us against them. Based on my record and experience I know that when we bring people together we can achieve our goals by forging a new direction. We can promote a sustainable environment and at the same time foster economic development

Time after time as Attorney General I have pulled people together and found creative solutions to some of our state’s most pressing problems. When polluted "Brownfield" sites stood abandoned in our central cities, I developed Minnesota’s award winning "Land Recycling Act" to incent business’s to clean up and redevelop these contaminated sites. When fraudulent environmental claims on consumer products burst in to the marketplace, I created a national task force to work with business leaders and environmentalists to craft new national standards that ensure responsible environmental advertising. When scores of mainstreet business were hit with lawsuits to pay for clean up of abandoned landfills, I worked with business and environmental leaders to create model legislation that protects small business’s and taxpayers, recovers millions of dollars from insurers and promotes the clean up of landfills across the state. I know from hard work and experience that environmental protection and economic development are not mutually exclusive. When we work together and think creatively, safe guarding the environment and promoting jobs go hand in hand.

Whether it is cleaning up hazardous waste sites, trying to reform our education system, passing a HMO Patient Bill of Rights, or creating weed and seed initiatives in crime-ridden communities, we can best achieve our goals by bringing people together.

As Governor I will bring this state together; young and old, white collar and blue, urban and rural to solve these divisive problems we face.