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Potential Green Party candidate visits SCSU
 Media Credit: Michael Martin/Managing Editor Ken Pentel will be running for governor of Minnesota and is seeking nomination from the Green Party. He was at SCSU Tuesday afternoon to answer questions on his policy stances in the Miller Center.
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Tuesday afternoon found Ken Pentel speaking to a handful of students in the James W. Miller Learning Resources Center auditorium.
Pentel is one of four candidates currently seeking the Green Party of Minnesota endorsement to run for the Minnesota governor's office this year. Pentel said his campaign is still in the beginning stages, and that he has not made a full-fledged campaign announcement yet.
"At this stage," Pentel said, "we've been developing all the pieces of the puzzle that it takes to develop a campaign to seek the Green Party endorsement for governor. We are going to pull everything together around the middle of April and have our full campaign announcement and campaign kickoff."
Pentel has spent 16 years working to protect the environment and has worked on social and economic justice issues such as welfare, living wage and shifting the North American Free Trade Agreement into a "fair trade agreement." He has been an active member in the Green Party of Minnesota, and helped organize the statewide campaign for Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke in the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections. Pentel also ran for governor of Minnesota in 1998, and came in fourth place behind then Minnesota Attorney General Skip Humphery.
"I've been involved at a variety of levels," Pentel said, "from door-knocking to 11 years with Greenpeace, lobbying at the state capitol, and negotiating with both sides of the aisle (Democrats and Republicans)."
Pentel shared with students some of his ideas and outlined issues that are paramount to his campaign. He outlined a few of his plans for Minnesota if he becomes governor and took questions.
"The Green Party's ideas of democracy, non-violence, ecology and justice are resonating with the public," he said. "My campaign is based on taking responsibility, responsibility where there has been gross irresponsibility. So the basic premise of my efforts are tied to restoring our basic nutritional things: our water, our air, our soil and habitat."
Besides improving standards of environmental protection and quality, Pentel wants to see Minnesota's system of economy morphed into one with a local, rather than global, focus.
"My positions as a candidate are going to establish a position that decentralizes economic power in the state," Pentel said, "and allow local self-reliance to become the rooted position in economic planning, where dollars stay in the community as long and as local as possible."
Energy is one issue that Pentel feels very strongly about. He pointed out that Minnesota imports 97 percent of its energy fuels: coal, oil, uranium and gas, all of which are toxic to the environment. In addition to the $7 to $10 billion cost involved with purchasing and bringing energy fuels to Minnesota, Pentel said the environmental costs were also immense.
"We then have to deal and pay for the mercury in the fish," he said, "the acidification of our soils and waters, the ozone in our atmosphere, emphysema, asthma and bronchitis that are increasing in our urban areas. Then, we have 10,000 to 250,000 years of nuclear waste, the most lethal material in the world, sitting right on the Mississippi River."
Pentel said he wants Minnesota to stop buying energy fuels and bringing them into the state. Instead, he would set up incentives for utilities to save energy. Some incentives, he said, could be the use of energy efficient lighting, windows, refrigerators and air conditioners. He said he would offer tax incentives to people with energy efficient homes.
Another solution to the energy problem is developing energy crops, Pentel said. He said crops grown for producing electrical energy, such as alfalfa and hemp, localize dollars in rural areas. Energy crops diversify rural economies, he added, and minimize the risk of having toxic compounds as a byproduct of energy production. He also said Minnesota has a huge potential for wind energy.
Education is another area Pentel feels needs reform, but he takes a different approach to the issue. He sees the current educational system as turning out a lot of people who are accustomed to the model of corporate America. He is concerned that students are not being offered the option of other economic models.
He envisions an education system that is more user-friendly to students by expanding the higher educational spectrum beyond the idea of getting a degree. Some people might prefer to learn how to start their own business, as opposed to getting a college degree, he said. He also wants to see a money pool developed to help students afford the costs of higher education.
"We have a philosophy," Pentel said. "We are only as strong as those who are hurting the most in our society. We must protect the least among us, lift that up, then the whole condition becomes stronger. That's one of the visions we have in education."
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Green Party is considered the third major political party in Minnesota. Pentel said the Green Party has seen more support than Governor Jesse Ventura's Independence Party. Pentel is taking a straightforward approach to his upcoming campaign, and noted he can be effective as a third party candidate by meeting with and talking to people. He also said he will not tolerate people saying that he cannot bring about reform and change with Minnesota's current energy system, health care and education.
"That's like saying the existing transportation system existed before somebody thought about it," Pentel said. "That's not how the world works. First, you think about something, then you start mulling it over and share ideas with people�and eventually it manifests into a reality. That's how we're going to approach this.
"Respect is critical in my campaign," he continued. "Respect for the earth, respect for my body, respect for the people I have to work with and respect for the people I don't agree with. None of this disrespect anymore � we can be passionate, but the disrespect stuff ends. We don't have time for that; we've got to stay literal, and we've got to stay focused."
Garner Moffat, a student at St. Cloud Technical College who is planning to transfer to SCSU, helped organized Pentel's visit to St. Cloud and the SCSU campus.
"We're excited to have Ken come to St. Cloud for a couple of days," Moffat said, "and he's going to be stopping by again in a couple months. He's really concerned about St. Cloud issues." Moffat said Green Party is having its Minnesota endorsing convention on May 18 in St. Cloud. It is almost certain, he said, that Pentel will get the official Green Party endorsement to run for governor.
Mike Chouinard, SCSU student and online services director at KVSC radio, was another student who listened to Pentel on Monday.
"It was great," Chouinard said. "I've always supported the Green Party, and Ken just helped reaffirm that, and brought to the table some ideas I didn't know about."
Eric O'Link can be reached at: [email protected]
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