Category Archives: Politics

St Paul Public School Board Suggestions

The St Paul Public Schools Board has Flatlined the Education of Students.

St Paul Public Schools has Flatlined in it’s performance in the last few decades. We wish we could tell you it has a pulse, but being 346th out of 458 school districts in the state yet spending enough money per student as a parent who sends their child to a private school we wish we had good news for you.

At the same time imagine a graph that shows a rising line showing the increase in the cost of this flatlined dead school district.

Schooldigger.com tracks all sorts of metrics in school performance and before the free lunch program, it also tracked the students that qualified for free or discounted lunches. The poverty rate average in the district prior to the free lunch program was 83% of students. That’s an average, so schools that had 50% or below in poverty actually did well. Those schools have board members who live in nicer sections of St Paul. There are practically no board members living in poor and working poor neighborhoods. Every Ward should elect a school board member, 7 seats on the board, 7 Wards, that kind of makes sense, but we need a Republican Legislator to propose this, none of the career DFL Legislators here would ever propose that.

3 Seats on the Ballot for St Paul Public Schools

People have been asking who to vote for in the St Paul School Board election who should we suggest.

There aren’t any Republicans that we know of running.

First off there are 3 of the 7 seats available in this School Board Election in Independent School District (ISD) 625 which is all of the schools inside the City Limits of St Paul.

First off I’m a Vice Chair of HD 66B Republicans, and I do the website content.  I watch a lot of podcasts and follow social media. I happened upon “Our Black News,” a podcast by Don Allen PhD and his guests Mr Anthony Scott, and Rev Tim Christopher are asking questions of Dr Tamara Mattison. (Rev Tim Christopher has been to a few of our events in the past). I listened to this and I thought she was okay. She’s not a perfect candidate. She doesn’t say she is a Republican and that’s okay because this is a nonpartisan race. Until we actually field candidates for School Board we need to see the good in some of these candidates.  Below I will list the LWV Forum with all the current candidates running for 3 seats. You can vote up to 3 candidates and it is not ranked choice voting. The top 3 candidates who receive the most votes will be seated.

If you only want to vote for 1, let it be Dr Tamara Mattison.

I think Dr Tamara Mattison can revive this District.  This District needs CPR to resuscitate the Education of students. Putting the same kind of board members who have flatlined this district is not going to change anything. What I heard from the podcast below might make you believe. She has credentials that she can help others, the rest of the board are just on the DFL Farm System for Candidates and are placeholders, so that no one can get control of the School Board.


The video music runs for 1:02 minutes before Don Allen starts the show.

Here is her website you can look at drtamara4sppsboard.com

She and her daughter Jasmine Mattison are the Cheerleader Coaches for Como Park Senior High School.

She is for suspending students to hold them accountable for their actions.

She is for Restorative Practices in the schools. What is that? Check out this link here.

Dr Mattison touches upon the In School Suspension room, that they could sit down the students who have an issue and have them talk it out. Usually she says those involved are operating on misunderstandings and they normally don’t return to the previous course of action that got them there.

Not for Arming Teachers but FOR SROs to be put back into the Schools.


DO NOT VOTE FOR URIAH WARD (incumbent)

I will say this, because the only incumbent running is Uriah Ward. Vote him out. He could have urged Chauntyll Allen to resign. Board Member Allen who stormed Cities Church in the Summit neighborhood with Don Lemon violating their right to assemble with like minds and worship during their service. This was a violation of the School Board’s Code of Ethics. She should be removed from the board. She is still there. He and the other school board members advocated for SROs to be removed from the schools and allow schools to keep disruptive and violent students in school and not be suspended/expelled from school. This should make the current school board liable for Devin Scott’s murder on his first day of school in February 2023. –admin


LWV Forum for 7 St Paul Public School Board Candidates

I put in the time stamps of what questions were asked, and when each candidate responds. I list below who I think should be your top 3 candidates to vote for, but right now I list Dr Tamara Mattison on top and I’m looking for 2 other candidates to suggest. These are not endorsements.

If you don’t want to wait until the very end I’ve picked the last 2 suggestions, only for their answers which are from their experience. They aren’t perfect, probably not Republicans. There are 4 non DFL candidates running and 1 of them, an Army Veteran has severe TDS and believed Operation Metro Surge was wrong. Apparently he didn’t know why Trump sent in 1000 Federal Agents. It was because the DFL Mayors Carter & Frey, the MN AG Keith Ellison, and Governor Walz refused to comply with Federal Laws on Immigration, later Mayor Kaohly Her vowed to not cooperate with ICE like they did under Biden’s ICE.

The other 2 are Michael Schell & Teresa Glass

You can hear why.  I did some comments about their answers.

The DFL endorsed candidates will be in Communist Red and everyone else will be in light blue. The ones we suggest to vote for will be in Dark Blue. As the forum goes forward certain ones may hit upon something Republican can really vote for.

  • There are 9 Questions asked and answered by 7 candidates with an Opening & Closing for each. So you can click on “continue reading after the 3rd question.

 

the microphone or audio seems to have a bit of an echo in it.

Opening Statements by candidates

3:25 Stephanie Anderson (DFL endorsed, language teacher, totally unqualified)

5:30 Teresa Glass (works in the District for over 15 yrs)

7:20 Dr Tamara Mattison (see above podcast)

9:04 Michael Schell (Architect and works in special education in Inver Grove Heights)

10:58 Omar Syed (DFL endorsed, Somali Business owner and has TDS)

12:46 Kris Taylor (Army Vet, pro AI)

14:44 Uriah Ward (DFL endorsed, advocate to remove SROs from Schools, part of the problem)


16:38 Question 1:  In June this year, the St Paul School Board passed a budget that took into account a $14 million shortfall. The budget difficulties are said be due to a number of factors, including lower than expected enrollment, reductions in state funding, and the effects of Operation Metro Surge.  As SPPS continues to face financial difficulties, how do you plan to approach budgeting? 

17:05  Stephanie Anderson

18:03  Teresa Glass

18:55  Dr Tamara Mattison

19:38  Michael Schell (wants a full audit on the SPPS, thinks there is some improper spending and redundant spending)

20:25  Omar Syed

21:04  Kris Taylor

22:05  Uriah Ward 


23:09 Question 2:  Being that parents are a child’s first teacher, what are your ideas on increase funding for early childhood family education?

23:20 Uriah Ward (does the “fully fund” public schools mantra. How much is enough?)

24:19  Stephanie Anderson (a follow up DFL message that really says nothing)

25:10  Teresa Glass

26:13  Dr Tamara Mattison

26:40  Michael Glass

27:32  Omar Syed 

28:17  Kris Taylor


29:23 Question 3:  Do you believe that the school board should assist schools to protect students from ICE actions on school property?  If so, what can the school board do?

29:32  Kris Taylor (just showed his TDS. As a Veteran he should know what a domestic & a foreign enemy of the US Constitution is. He fails that test. He had promise, but his AI support and identifying this country as a democracy shows his true colors and ignorance)

30:38  Uriah Ward

31:45  Stephanie Anderson

32:53  Teresa Glass

33:50  Dr Tamara Mattison

34:48  Michael Schell

35:39  Omar Syed 

Continue reading St Paul Public School Board Suggestions →

US Senate MPR Debate Tafoya vs Flanagan

This is the Minnesota Public Radio Debate broadcast on October 16, 2026 between Michele Tafoya and Lt Gov Peggy Flanagan for the US Senate seat. There is no incumbent in this race as the Junior Senator Tina Smith decided not to run for it again; so it is an open seat.

Michele Tafoya did not win the MNGOP Endorsement at the State Convention in May but won against the endorsed candidate Adam Schwarze on August 11th, despite some claims the Primary had unusual activity in the vote counts.

The moderator for this debate was Brian Bakst.


There are Chapters or time stamps put into the video. If you click on the time stamp it will skip to that point in the video on another screen. To save space on our website page, we’ve added a break in it after the 11:17 minute mark. The debate is about 1 hour long. If you want to read more of the time stamps you can click on “Continue Reading.”

Time Stamps

00:27 Intro

01:36 U.S.-Russia gas deal

02:30 U.S. financial assistance to Ukraine

03:44 Tafoya’s Trump endorsement

04:34 Foreign affairs

11:17 Accessing Pete Hegseth’s performance

Continue reading US Senate MPR Debate Tafoya vs Flanagan →

House Districts 66A & 66B LWV Candidate Forum Oct 5, 2026


We have noted from the video when and what questions were asked, and when the responses are have timestamps on them starting from the start of the video. The SPNN/LWV Team doesn’t set it up on their videos with “Chapters” or breaks marking when questions are asked. They aren’t kind to their viewers. If their forums were merely informational they would make sure the audience who views the video would know when and what is being asked.

For the sake of fairness, to start off we will not list the incumbent’s title, just what party endorsed both of them. We’ll list the Candidates in the Original Electoral Colors prior the #NewsMafia’s switcheroo in 2006. Republicans will be in Dark Royal Blue, and the Socialist Democrats will be Communist Red .

Mark Born Endorsed Republican for HD 66A

Chris “Leigh” Finke aka Leigh Finke Endorsed DFL for HD 66A

Mary O’Neal Endorsed Republican for HD 66B

Athena Hollins Endorsed DFL & DSA for HD 66B

(DSA = Democratic Socialists of America)

**There are 14 Questions and Opening & Closing Statements. You can click on the “continue reading” below question 4 to see the rest of the questions asked and when each candidate answered.

Time Stamps from the start of the video above

0:00-5:38 Debbie Magnusson who is a member of the LWV of St Paul and a big DFLer does an introduction and explains the rules and where the restrooms are at. She asks that members of the audience to not video the forum. So none of this video is edited on our end. She says she will start closing statements no later than 8:10 pm in order to finish at 8:30 pm.

The Rules she states are that each candidate can have an opening and closing statement that is 2 minutes long each, and can only have 1 minute to respond to a question. All candidates have agreed to it. If quoted by another candidate, the candidate can have a 30 second rebuttal. She says she will allow a candidate who does go over time to finish their thought before cutting them off.

She says the opening statements will be done according to alphabetical order and then she’ll randomly call on candidates during the forum so no candidate will always be first or last in the questioning.  Often times in the SD 66 forum she would forget which order she was asking the candidates and she also called Kathleen Bart, “Candidate Bates.”

She talks about questions submitted prior to the forum and questions can be asked from the audience using note cards, then they review them. (Mostly questions asked that hold the incumbent DFLer accountable are never asked, because the LWV of St Paul are “nonpartisan”). Questions have to apply to all candidates, and no hostile or personal questions can be asked.

Opening Statements (2 minutes each)

HD 66A

5:41  Mark Born

7:50 Leigh Finke

HD 66B

9:50 Athena Hollins

11:50 Mary O’Neal


13:04 Question 1: If you are elected what strengths will you bring as a political leader in the legislature? Where might you learn you learn some new skills? Please answer both parts of this question.

13:18 Mark Born

14:08 Leigh Finke

15:13  Athena Hollins

16:13 Mary O’Neal


16:52 Question 2: About Affordable Housing. Homelessness and lack of affordable housing is a significant problem in House District 66A & B [HD 66B, she keeps dropping the 66 B part as though its not as important as the A side] as well across the Twin Cities. If elected, what will be your approach to addressing the housing crisis?

17:12 Leigh Finke

18:24 Athena Hollins

19:30 Mary O’Neal

20:28 Mark Born


21:29 Question 3:  Many working families identifying the increasing cost of living such as food and gasoline prices as a major hardship.  If elected, what could you do as a state legislator to address these issues?

21:45  Athena Hollins

22:54  Mary O’Neal

23:23  Mark Born

24:25  Leigh Finke 


25:21 Question 4: Do you believe that the state legislature should act to assist county governments to mitigate the losses to healthcare and social services funding enacted by the One Big Beautiful Bill If so, how?

25:43  Mary O’Neal 

25:51  Mark Born

26:47  Leigh Finke 

27:50  Athena Hollins 


29:00 Question 5: During Operation Metro Surge, thousands of Federal Agents were deployed to Minnesota. Many people who were detained were US Citizens or legal residents of this country. As we know ICE entered schools, daycares, courts, and other community spaces.  Do you believe that ICE’s actions crossed a moral or legal line? If we faced another ICE operation, what should the state government do to respond?

29:35  Mark Born

30:35  Leigh Finke

31:33  Athena Hollins

32:45  Mary O’Neal


33:06 Question 6:  If elected, will you take urgent action at the state level to address climate change its consequences in the upcoming legislative session? Why, or why not?

33:20  Leigh Finke

34:27  Athena Hollins (she and Mr Finke think paying higher taxes somehow will affect the weather. If they could explain how climate change works the physical, thermodynamic changes in the atmosphere, maybe someone might take them seriously but how does money affect the temperatures in the atmosphere?)

35:36  Mary O’Neal

36:17  Mark Born


37:12 Question 7: Minnesota’s Comprehensive Achievement Test data indicates that over 50% of school students do not meet basic levels in reading, math, and science.  What can the legislature do to help?

37:31  Athena Hollins

38:39  Mary O’Neal

Debbie Magnusson interrupts at the end of Mary’s comment. She says she has a quick follow up question.

39:44  7a question:  You mention bringing SSI back. Can you tell the audience what SSI is?

39:49  Mary O’Neal corrects herself and says ISS (In School Suspension)

39:57  Mark Born

41:03  Leigh Finke

Debbie Magnusson wants to give Athena Hollins another chance to speak and has forgotten that she led the answers for this question.


42:25 Question 8: Gun Safety is consistently a top issue for voters. As we head toward November, what specific policies or loans do you support to reduce gun violence in our own community?

42:38  Mary O’Neal

43:10  Mark Born

44:09  Leigh Finke (he says the number 1 cause of death in children is guns, this is misleading because it includes those who are 18-20 in this range. 2A advocate and lawyer Colion Noir explains this lie they push. Actually the leading cause of deaths in children is abortions which the DFL will fight tooth and nail to keep being done)

45:26  Athena Hollins (she was one of the authors of the Red Flag law and she openly admitted that it wouldn’t stop gun violence during the Public Safety Hearings for it)

Debbie Magnusson wants Mary O’Neal to reply.  This is the third time Debbie has done this and also did it in the SD 66 Forum as well.


46:41  Question 9: What is your position on AI Data Centers.  As a legislator what if any steps will you take to regulate the construction of AI Data Centers in Minnesota?

46:52  Mark Born

47:52  Leigh Finke

49:02 Athena Hollins

50:12   Mary O’Neal


50:58 Question 10:  Recent reports on fraud in Minnesota Government Programs have raised concerns about program oversight and responsibility.  How would you work to ensure accountability so that government funds are used as intended?

51:16  Leigh Finke  

52:28  Athena Hollins (She says she doubles down on what Fink said. She has this idea the DFL has been pursuing fraud as though the Republicans have done nothing on it. Yet who didn’t allow hearings or a vote on the $730 million expansion of the State Office Building? A similar size building, the MN Senate Building was built for $90 million and passed under DFL control as well)

53:40  Mary O’Neal

54:37  Mark Born 

55:37  Rebuttal by Athena Hollins. (She is not running against Mark Born so this is a bit unorthodox and against the rules here. Mark also did not mention her name either. She also has more than the 30 second rebuttal rule allows. The LWV is not being a serious “nonpartisan” operation either. She states she was on this committee and the Republicans didn’t bring forth a bill on it either. (Hearing Committees don’t necessarily need to present bills there). This committee is to find out the depth of the fraud and Athena doesn’t acknowledges this. Mark should get a rebuttal to her inane defense.)


56:20 Debbie Magnusson says we need a deep breath (guessing she wants to get back onto the obvious script they have)


56:37  Question 11:  Minnesota has had the most closely divided state legislature in history for the past couple of years, forcing both parties to work together to govern. If elected, will you work with legislators from the other side of the aisle to find common ground?  If so, how?

57:01  Athena Hollins (she says she pushed the Banning Conversion Therapy bill. This law makes it illegal for a clergy member to help someone leave the LGBTQ lifestyle and there are a number of bent Republicans who went along with this encroachment upon Religious Freedom.  She claims there were 11 Republicans who voted with the Trifecta). 

58:08  Mary O’Neal

59:14  Mark Born

1:00:03  Leigh Finke (he says a lot of things are said about him, but they are false. No they are true.  He is a pariah who will be in office for a very long time. He has written the gender affirming care law, and the tampons in the boys bathrooms of public schools law too, not Gov Walz.)


1:01:18  Question 12:  The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension recently released a report that showed crime decreased significantly across Minnesota in 2025. What steps will you take to work with legislators, law enforcement and the gubernatorial administration to ensure that this trend continues? 

[The BCA report says it has decreased but it hasn’t dipped below what it was before Covid and the riots of 2020. Also Police Departments have redefined certain crimes so they don’t show up in the regular crime statistics. In essence nothing has changed and crime hasn’t subsided.]

1:01:40  Mary O’Neal  

1:02:18  Mark Born 

1:03:21  Leigh Finke

1:04:34  Athena Hollins 


1:05:46 Question 13:  A new steel mill will be built in Iowa, creating approximately 1500 jobs.  That plant will be using Minnesota iron ore. Why is that plant being built in Iowa do you believe?  Is it our business climate and our government regulations? What would you do to make sure that the plant be built in Minnesota?

1:06:19  Mark Born

1:07:14  Leigh Finke 

1:08:17  Athena Hollins  (she doesn’t know. What people should know is there have been several attempts by foreign companies to set up a steel mill in the Iron Range and each attempt has been thwarted by environmentalists who endorse DFL candidates. This question might not be on the DFL script so they have not prepared an answer)

1:09:00  Mary O’Neal 


1:09:35 Question 14:  What effects do you see recent Federal Budget cuts having on the state budget? If elected, what would you do to address state budgeting challenges?

1:09:48  Leigh Finke  (like normal his response in his words is to raise “freaking” taxes. Demagoguery at it’s best he says Trump’s cuts are going to cost people’s lives, but doesn’t say how a cut would do that) 

1:10:57  Athena Hollins (she gets the Demagogue and Far Leftist award here for saying that SNAP cuts will require Second Harvest Heartland to double the food they get to make up the difference. What she doesn’t say is that SNAP cuts are largely cutting off Foreign Invaders who are still here who are getting served before needy citizens)

1:12:23  Mary O’Neal

1:13:20  Mark Born


Closing Statements (2 minutes each)

1:14:49  Mary O’Neal

1:15:26  Athena Hollins (She has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialist of America)

1:16:58  Leigh Finke  (If you would like to know more about Leigh Finke the A4L guys did a great primer on him in a video they produced on Rumble called The Real Leigh Finke from 2023)

1:18:49 Mark Born


1:20:25 Debbie Magnusson does the Closing Statements from the LWV of St Paul


MNHD66BRepublicans.org is posting this as a courtesy to Voters in House Districts 66A & 66B. Some of the opinions of the endorsed Republican Candidates seem to violate the State Party’s Platform on the 2nd Amendment and about what happened during Operation Metro Surge. Candidates get nervous during these forums and say comments they didn’t mean to say.

This post was an event post. It was not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. We were not compensated for posting this by any Minnesota Republican Party Unit, nor any candidate or PAC.  — admin

Senate District 66 LWV Candidate Forum October 1, 2026

This post has all the questions asked, and when the responses are have timestamps on them starting from the start of the video.

For the sake of fairness, to start off we will not list the incumbent’s title, just what party endorsed both of them.

Kathleen Bart Endorsed Republican

Clare Verbeten Endorsed DFL

There are 21 questions asked plus opening & closing statements by each candidate. So click the “More” when you come to it below question 4 to see all the questions asked.

Time Stamps from the start of the video above

0:00-6:23 Debbie Magnusson who is a member of the LWV of St Paul does an introduction and explains the rules and where the restrooms are at. She asks that members of the audience to not video the forum, even though SPNN is open to the public. So none of this video is edited on our end (the sound quality of the video is of a very low volume so you might have to turn on the closed captioning, put on headphones or turn up the volume).

The Rules she states are that each candidate can have an opening and closing statement that is 2 minutes long each, and can only have 1 minute to respond to a question. Both candidates have agreed to it. If quoted by another candidate, the candidate can have a 30 second rebuttal.

She talks about questions submitted prior to the forum and questions can be asked from the audience using note cards, then they review them.  Questions have to apply to both candidates.

6:27 – 7:59  Kathleen Bart Opening Statement

8:07 – 9:46  Clare Verbeten Opening Statement


10:20 Question 1: If you are elected, what strengths will you bring as a political leader in the Legislature? Where might you learn some new skills? Please answer both parts to the question.

10:40 Kathleen Bart

11:28 Clare Verbeten


12:30 Question 2: Is regarding gun violence. Gun Violence is consistently a top issue for voters. What specific policies do you support to reduce gun violence in our community?

12:47  Clare Verbeten

13:43  Kathleen Bart


14:48 Question 3: Due to the cuts to the Affordable Care Act subsidies for purchasing insurance, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that 7 million Americans may lose health coverage over the next decade. The effect of these Federal cuts could drive up health care costs across the country. In this context, will you work as a State Legislator to achieve affordable healthcare for all Minnesotans? If so, what will you do?

15:20  Clare Verbeten

16:40  Kathleen Bart


17:44 Question 4: In regards to the recent “Metro Surge,” and ICE impact on our state in the past year. Do you believe that ICE’s action in the past year crossed moral or legal lines? If Minnesota were to face another major ICE operation how do you believe the state government should respond?

18:13  Kathleen Bart

19:03  Clare Verbeten

Continue reading Senate District 66 LWV Candidate Forum October 1, 2026 →