Candidates for the St. Paul mayoral race visited Hamline’s campus for a student moderated forum in anticipation of the Nov. 4 election.
On Oct. 28, incumbent St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, Minnesota House Representative Kaohly Vang Her, Yan Chen and Adam Dullinger gathered in Anderson to give students, staff, faculty and the greater Hamline-Midway community a chance to hear directly from them. Dullinger made an appearance despite not being slated as an invited participant according to a campus wide email from Director of Inclusive Excellence David Everett, and candidate Mike Hilborn was not in attendance.
The mayoral election holds great importance to Hamline due to its position in St. Paul, according to Hamline’s 22nd President Mayme Hostetter.
“Hamline has been here for a long time and what happens in our city of course really matters to us and we want to be good partners to our community leaders,” Hostetter said in a welcoming statement at the start of the forum.
Recognizing the importance of the university being engaged in local government, English professor Mike Reynolds and adjunct business professor and former St. Paul Mayor Jim Scheibel collaborated with their first-year seminar classes to organize this forum. Three first-years, Wisam Elzubair (Staff member of The Oracle), Ollie Pfeiffer and Olive Rissky, moderated the event and other first-years asked questions to the candidates about issues important to them.
These issues included higher education, public safety, parks and recreation, property taxes, the metro system, housing, immigration and citizen participation in politics. Sheibel explained that these topics were entirely led by questions made and asked by first-years and what they deemed relevant to their decision in the mayoral election.
The points of discussion were relevant for many college students. Junior Sophia Nelson was in attendance and reflected the interest the first-year seminar students expressed in the housing situation in St. Paul.
“I think affordable housing is one thing that I’m really interested in, especially in St. Paul, very different from being in a suburban area like where I grew up. Definitely a different situation. And like, things on Snelling and issues with homelessness, I think, even if we don’t necessarily view that as something that’s impacting college students, it very much is impacting young people,” Nelson said.
Some of the issues are nationally very relevant, but the local government’s reaction to them can have a direct impact on an individual’s everyday life. Attendee of the forum, sophomore Ema Rehder, believed the discussion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is crucial to discuss.
“I think, for Hamline especially, we are very open to all societies, all people, and in order to do that, I think we need to be open to the idea of what ICE is and how we have to protect ourselves and other people from it,” Rehder said.
This forum not only provided an opportunity for students to hear the platforms of the mayoral candidates but also to compare their responses, helping constituents find the candidate that resonates with them most for the approaching election.
“It’s good to see the comparison, too. Like, if I just heard one of them speak, I would’ve just been like, ‘yeah, exactly, I agree!’ because it’s so easy to say ‘yep, I believe whatever you say, you know more than me’ but to hear them correcting each other and adding on to each other I think that’s important context,” Nelson said.
The attention of many tends to stay focused on national politics and the federal government; however, local governments interact with their constituents in a more intimate way where the impacts can be reflected in their constituents day to day lives.
“I think especially in this day and age we need to start taking cues from the local government rather than the federal government,” Rehder said.
