December 10, 2019
December 10, 2019 - PRESSADVANTAGE -
Eric Ferguson is seeking the DFL endorsement for Minnesota State House of Representatives in district 63B. Incumbent Jean Wagenius has announced that she will not be seeking reelection after having served in the seat since 1986.
The district includes parts of the city of Richfield and a significant portion of the SE quadrant of the city of Minneapolis and the Fort Snelling area.
Ferguson a web developer by trade and has served as chair of the 63rd district for three terms where he made a name for himself via his efforts to register and turn out the vote in the district.
“It has seldom been a question of whether or not our candidates would prevail within one of the blueist districts in Minnesota, but rather how effective we were in getting people registered and then actually out to vote,” Eric explains. “Our success in maximizing our turnout has been a major part of reason the DFL has been successful in statewide races.”
Ferguson is starting his campaign by focusing on “Big Ideas”. Initially these include three initiatives aimed at increasing housing in the area, improving education affordability and dealing with climate change in a constructive manner.
“At first some of my ideas may seem a bit out of the box, and full of difficulties to enact, but they are also the type of steps we need to take moving forward to deal with the issues of today and tomorrow,” Eric claims.
On the topic of housing, he notes that at one time Minneapolis had a population well in excess of 500,000 people. But that was four decades and 70,000+ people ago. “Freeways cut huge swaths though our neighborhoods and removed many hundreds if not thousands of housing units.”
“We have significant sections of freeway that are below grade that could be bridged over to permit housing overhead. This in turn could focus density on existing major transit corridors, reconnect neighborhoods now separated by the freeways and reduce density pressures on still vibrant single-family neighborhoods,” Eric maintains.
There already exists a stretch of Hiawatha Avenue in Eric’s district that has been bridged over to house parkland and a public flower garden.
“Yes, it will be difficult and there may well be some major issues to overcome, but the potential combined benefits of meeting housing demand, supporting related mass transit and reconnecting neighborhoods make this a big idea worth fighting for,” Ferguson contends.
“Minnesota has long been known for the quality of our workforce,” Eric suggests. “We need to continue to support investments in education up and down the line from pre-K to post graduate.” His platform includes efforts at addressing the high cost of post-secondary education, and in particular removing the current impediment of high tuitions.
We should make it possible for every Minnesotan to attain post-secondary education without strapping themselves with student loan debt. Ferguson proposes a “Commit to Minnesota effort”, where post-secondary education is free - provided that students commit to live in Minnesota for at least five years after leaving school.
“There is no better investment for the State of Minnesota than its own people,” Eric suggests. “Our goal as a society ought to be to make it possible for each of our citizens to maximize their individual skills to the extent possible. Minnesota has traditionally been a national leader in the area of education and we must ensure that continues well into the future.”
The third big idea Eric proposes is action on the climate.
“Everyone appreciates the potential of wind and solar,” Eric states, “but the inherent limitations due to windless days and dark nights have limited its adoption at the needed pace to cope with climate change.”
“We can wait and hope battery technologies will advance to the point where they are more effective or we can look at other proven technologies and invest in them.” Among these are “pumped hydro.”
We can use solar power to pump water up to a reservoir. When the power is needed, water is released from the reservoir to flow through hydro turbines that produce electricity. This allows renewables to provide power even when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. This could provide a stop gap until battery technology catches up with the need, and may prove to be cost effective even when that occurs.
Eric repeats that “these are big ideas that will take time, effort and initiative to make happen.” He hopes to win the DFL Endorsement for the House seat to begin the process of taking these ideas and others to St Paul and begin the process of building a better future for Minnesota.
Get details on the big ideas, donate to the campaign, and contact the campaign to volunteer or ask a question at http://fergusonforhouse.com.
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For more information about Ferguson for House, contact the company here:
Ferguson for House
Eric Ferguson
612 726-6364
eric@celticfringe.net
