For immediate release
June 18, 2010
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Harry Welty
Jaros endorses Welty for Senate
Mike Jaros, western Duluth’s thirty-year DFL legislative veteran, has sent an endorsement of a one-time Republican rival, Harry Welty, to succeed Sen. Yvonne Prettner-Solon who is stepping down from her Seventh District Senate seat to be gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton’s running mate.
Welty, who has caucused with Democrats since 2004, has been a severe critic of the Duluth School District’s Red Plan. He worked with Jaros to craft legislation that would have allowed a referendum on the Red Plan in 2008. That effort was unsuccessful. As a Senator Welty will introduce legislation that requires the state to reimburse part of the Red Plan’s construction cost to Duluth through future state bonding.
Welty is vying for the DFL senate nomination with Rep. Roger Reinert a former two-year Duluth City Councilor who succeeded Mr. Jaros upon his retirement. Reinert has been a supporter of the Red Plan and made no effort to restore the right of Duluth voters to hold a referendum on the Red Plan.
This is the message Mr. Jaros sent to delegates who will consider endorsements at 7pm on Wednesday, June 23rd at the AFSCME Conference Room at 211 W 2nd. St.
” I am supporting Harry Welty for DFL endorsement in the Mn. Senate District 7 race. I have known Harry since 1976 when he wanted to replace me in Mn. House District 7B. Harry was an honest competitor and based on the issues in this current campaign I am happy to welcome him into our DFL Family to fight for us in St. Paul.
Harry Welty has always supported the 1971 Minnesota Miracle legislation and will work for its reinstatement when he joins the Minnesota Legislature 2011. Duluth, St. Louis County and the Duluth School Dist. #709 have lost millions of dollars in state government aid during the last decade; to make things worse, our school board has chosen to adopt the so called $437 million
Red Plan that our home and business owners must pay. Welty is against this huge and regressive property tax increase, but his opponent Roger Reinert supports it.
Sorry I will not be with you on 23-VI-2010 as I am attending Critical Language Institute at ASU in Tempe, Arizona.Thank you, Mike Jaros”
Welty ran against Mike Jaros twice in 1976 and 1978 as a Republican.
