Congressman Elect Tim Walz Visits Rochester
"B-log"11/10/2006
Paul Munnis
On a spring-like sunny day Congressman Elect Tim Walz came to Rochester and appeared with a gathering of supporters at the Rochester Peace Plaza. He told the Rochester crowd that they had created the wave that had carried Democrats to victory all across America.
Walz, 42, a high energy man, moved across the area greeting an estimated 175 supporters gathered outside the Galleria Mall. He shhok hands with many telling them: “We did it together.”
The newly elected Congressman, a Mankato high school teacher and a retired National Guardsman, spoke directly to the crowd. He said the victory and its implications of being a Congressman had begun to dawn on him the other night when people began talking to him differently.
As he spoke to events in Washington, Walz said the impact of the mid-term elections already was being felt, noting thar Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned two days ago in response to calls from the Military and from GOP leaders who both realized that his policies were hurting American war efforts.
“The reality of what happened with Donald Rumsfeld, though, is a very good sign. President Bush realizes that the world and America here have shifted. It is a different world today,” Walz said.
Walz said he has spoken with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Congressional Leader poised to become the first woman Speaker of the House. He said she had told him that the new Congress, when it meets in January, would immediately work on an agenda focused on ethics reform, increasing the minimum wage and resolving the war in Iraq.
“We are going to start that open discussion to solving the situation in Iraq and bringing our soldiers home as soon as possible,” he said.
Concerning the DME rail expansion efforts Rep. Elect Walz made no promises, but he said he already had made half a dozen phone calls and that he was “starting to find out a lot of things that I think can still be done.”
Walz stressed that he is representing all of the people in his District and not just those who elected him to office. He indicated that Democrats are demanding that he be a total Minnesta representative. He said that he will work for the good of the whole District and not just for special interest groups. He also pledged to work in a bi-partisan manner across the aisle with GOP colleagues in order to move America forward. Walz made it a point to operate from a base located in Mankato in order to show inclusion of the whole District and not just the population center of Rochester.
Weather permitting Walz hopes to visit more communities across his District to thank voters and to give them a message of total non-partisan representation.