our final candidates on our meet your candidate special program are running for the legislature in house district 11b the district includes Southern Pine County a sliver of Southeastern Kennebec County including the city of Mora and two townships in Far Northern Chisago County including Rush City the Democratic candidate in house district 11b is Eric Olson of Pine City hello I'm Eric Olson I'm running to be the next state representative for district 11b since I'm running to be a representative I think the most important part of the job is listening and I hope to hear from you as the campaign continues and as we move into the term if I'm elected personally I believe in local solutions for a lot of problems we've had a fairly uncivil environment in recent years in politics and I think one of the best ways we can deal with that is focusing on local issues we had a surplus in the last session and we were unable to agree on how to invest that that money that we've collected I think the best way for us to do that is to return that in increased County and local government Aid that will make the decisions less political and a lot clearer when we're deciding what streets need to be repaired or if we need to invest in Community Development or simply lower property taxes in areas this just making this decision local will help us not only to get more done but it will help us to increase people's investment in government and the civility of our political discussion I'm also a fairly environmentally focused candidate I believe that climate change is a very serious issue and we need to address this I think that I advocate for a concept called an energy District energy districts are like Soil and Water Conservation districts that many of you may be familiar with they would help us to direct funding for climate change to those who are willing and to local areas if for if for example you wanted to put solar panels on your house an energy District would give you a local resource to call to help you over the investigation and the research portion of that and help to direct the funds into the Local District the same thing would apply to other business and individual initiatives the final major area where I advocate is for education I think we have a lot of things that we can do on a bipartisan level there we can get rid of the special education cross-subsidy and stabilize funding for our smaller districts in addition I think that we can deliver on more funding particularly to the rural areas that have lower property values and stabilize the funding to get us better retention of teachers and other staff in our schools it's these kind of local issues that drive my campaign I grew up in Pine City And for those who have never met me I have moved back to the district on retirement so I can believe that I have a lot of energy and a lot of skills that can help our district and we can work together to move forward the my experience that I bring I'm a very good listener I think that I've got experience here in both sides of conversations and I can bring a very clear and bipartisan approach to politics I have spent time as a teacher as a park ranger as a scientist and most of my career as a computer software engineer so I bring a very scientific perspective to things and I look forward to working with all of you to move our district forward thank you the incumbent in the district 11b race is Republican Nathan Nelson from Hinckley hi I'm Nathan Nelson state representative and candidate for house seat 11b I was raised on a farm east of Hinckley there I learned the important values of working hard not quitting until the job was done and respecting life I'd moved to Wichita After High School where I worked in carpentry I learned a lot of skills and valuable lessons there as well I also met my wife Susanna there we were married and we moved back to the farm about 20 years ago I'm now the third generation to own and operate the farm where we raised beef cattle corn and soybeans and hay and our five children working on the farm we've been able to pass that Legacy of hard work and the values that we see important in our community onto our children speaking of Community Values coming back to the farm I saw the importance of getting to get uh working together in the township making sure that our roads are plowed that our needs are taken care of there and also on the farm I started getting involved in the community organizations and Farm Bureau and our church where we were working together advocating for agriculture and and uh leading youth doing this build relationships and it also solidified my core values the past two years have been a challenge we've had challenges and opportunities as well and some of the things that we've seen is an increase in crime rates and inflation we've relied more and more on technology whether it's for our jobs or our schools we've had to rely on broadband and our computers learning about things that we didn't probably didn't dream we would have to do before we also have another opportunity we have a record States budget surplus and with that I think there's several things that we can do with that and first I would like to see the social security income tax eliminated our seniors have paid this paid into Social Security and now they're looking at with increased costs through inflation they're looking at having to have a Tighter and Tighter budget each day I also think we need to invest more in Broadband as I stated earlier was a challenge learning new opportunities maybe having to do school from home or moving your job from home we've also seen an opportunity with businesses being able to have remote office time we've seen opportunities to some jobs moving into our area without having to build brick and mortar infrastructure but we need the Broadband to be able to do so we can bring high paying good quality jobs to our area if we invest in expanded broadband I also serve on the agriculture committee at the house and as a farmer myself one of the areas I see is the importance of markets whether it's close by or across the globe we need to continue to build and expand these markets and one of the areas that I feel especially strong about is increasing the opportunity for meat processing and having that local market where you can know your farmer and meet your meet your needs I know together that we can meet these meet these challenges that we face before us it's an honor to serve you and I would appreciate your vote