DULUTH — The race to fill

former Rep. Liz Olson’s District 8A seat

in the Minnesota House heated up on Tuesday as the candidates answered questions in a debate hosted by the News Tribune and Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce at The Garden in Canal Park.

Both candidates leaned into their backgrounds in public service as evidence of their fitness for the office.

Pete Johnson

has been a firefighter for 23 years, 19 of those in Duluth. He’s been the union officer for the Local 101 firefighters union for the past 16 years. He said his experiences “responding to folks when they’re at their most vulnerable times” is a big driver for his political perspective.

Mark McGrew

is a lifelong Duluthian, born and raised in the Piedmont Heights neighborhood. He retired last spring after 28 years in law enforcement, 24 with the Minnesota State Patrol. He’s also a Navy Reserve veteran. He said he brings experience with “meeting people at difficult times,” and he’s running to “hold the government fiscally responsible” as his top priority.

“The Legislature last session spent $17.5 billion in a matter of five months,” McGrew said. “I think we need to be able to curb spending and bring it down, which will hopefully help with inflation.”

Johnson’s top priorities are to “focus on the core issues tied to housing, education, health care and paying jobs.”

“A lot of the things we get called to are rooted somewhere else. … They’re not something I can solve in a couple of minutes,” Johnson said. “I really feel focusing on those four key pieces will lift everybody out, including those who are in the middle class and folks on the margins.”

Both agreed that they could work to foster bipartisanship based on their experiences. Both served as negotiators for contracts with their public safety organizations and said the skills earned there would help them compromise as representatives. Both candidates were disappointed with the lack of a bonding bill from the last legislative session and said they’d support one in the next session.

Regarding education investment, McGrew stated he supported funding education, though not at the risk of seeing the state going into deficit, but that “we need to bring local control back to the school districts.”

“Let the local school boards handle that money and use it however they feel,” McGrew said.

Johnson agreed with funding education, which he said has been “chronically underfunded for decades.”

“Even with the investments made in the last few years, they’re still underfunded,” Johnson said.

Both candidates agreed on the existence of a housing crisis but cited different causes. Johnson served on the Center City Housing Corp. for nine years.

“It’s more than just units,” he said. “It’s the support that’s tied to those units, such as mental health, physical health support, child care, a controlled door for 24 hours. That has a huge impact on those folks remaining stably housed.”

McGrew said the issue is more closely related to the high cost of homes, high property taxes and over-regulation.

“I think we need to deregulate some of the housing things and move forward from there to let people buy cheaper houses,” McGrew said.

When it comes to population growth or lack thereof, McGrew said the state’s high corporate tax rates and mandates were pushing businesses away.

“If you’re trying to attract business, and you have the highest corporate tax rate, and you have all these mandates on different companies and businesses that want to come here,” McGrew said. “Why would they come to Duluth when they could go to Superior, Wisconsin, across the bridge, and maybe have lower tax rates and lower fees and all these other things?”

Johnson said having a highly trained workforce, access to child care and accessible housing would attract population growth.

“If workers here are highly skilled and motivated, they’ll draw those businesses here, regardless of the tax rates. If we can produce those best workers and keep them here, it’s going to be a huge piece of that,” Johnson said.

When it comes to allowing

copper-nickel mining,

Johnson said the issue was about building trust.

“The folks on the labor side don’t necessarily trust the corporations to take care of their workers and that their conditions will be safe unless they have contracts in place,” Johnson said. “The folks on the clean-water side are the same way in that they want things in place to make sure that it’s done safely and, if not, that there’s money set aside to make that cleanup possible.”

McGrew said he was “absolutely in favor” of copper-nickel mining but also wants it to be “environmentally safe.”

“I was out talking to door knocking, and I ran into somebody who brought up this, and I said, ‘Do you want to do that in Minnesota, where we have regulations, we have OSHA, and probably the highest working standards around?’” McGrew said. “Would you rather have that done in Africa or child workers being used and no regulation? The person said they’d rather see it done here where we can monitor it.”

McGrew said he did not support abortion and that he wished there was a Roe v. Wade standard in Minnesota.

“I think that where we’re at right now is that you have basically abortion … up until the point of birth. And I think that that is on the same level as North Korea and China. And I think we need to draw that back,” McGrew said.

Johnson took issue with McGrew’s statement on late-term abortions.

“The reality is that those late-term abortions make up a very tiny percent of abortions, and often when there is new information found,” Johnson said. “Such as fetal viability, the health of the mother or other issues which delayed getting treatment. I fully support everyone’s right to choose.”

Teri Cadeau is a features reporter for the Duluth News Tribune. Originally from the Iron Range, Cadeau has worked for several community newspapers in the Duluth area, including the Duluth Budgeteer News, Western Weekly, Weekly Observer, Lake County News-Chronicle, and occasionally, the Cloquet Pine Journal. When not working, she’s an avid reader, crafter, dancer, trivia fanatic and cribbage player.