The September issue of The Hillsider features candidates running for District 1 County Commissioner, Dennis Fink and Frank Jewell, answering two questions:

• Why are you running?

• Why care about mining and forestry?

Click on the links below for the answers. The paper issue also contains an encore presentation of questions and answers from candidates for other offices.

Dennis Fink | Frank Jewell

By the way, St. Louis County is over 6,000 square miles — larger than three states: Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island. It has an abundance of natural resources contributing to mining and lumber industries. Why should people in the core neighborhoods of Duluth be concerned? Read up.

Setting aside the issues and personal party affiliations for a moment, which candidate for Minnesota Governor has the best website in terms of appearance and functionality?

Farheen Hakeem (Green)
Tom Horner (Independence)
Tom Emmer (Republican)
Mark Dayton (Democratic Farmer Labor)
Ken Pentel (Ecology Democracy)
Linda S. Eno (Resource)
Chris Wright (Grassroots)

As for substance, all the candidates seem to like to provide an “issues” section with a few paragraphs of philosophy about a handful of topics. So far, I’ve only seen two somewhat detailed position papers on the state budget:

Minnesota Works: Horner-Mulder Budget Outline
Mark Dayton’s Deficit Solution