A Research Section
Where Dave Stands
16 articles • every claim sourced
Photo: Dave Madgett • Cook County16 articles • every claim sourced
Photo: Dave Madgett • Cook CountyPositions, argued from the record. Each one states the strongest objection to itself and concedes a point that cuts the other way.
Subsidize demand' versus 'government shouldn't be in it' both miss the problem: in much of Minnesota there is no child care to buy at any price. Treat it as the workforce infrastructure it is — right-size the rules that make a small provider impossible, back shared-services networks so a home provider isn't also a lone accountant, and bring employers in. Same logic as the rent piece: fix supply.
ReadArtificial intelligence is the biggest economic and safety question of the next decade, and Minnesota is sitting on the assets to lead it: one of the largest research universities in the country and a statewide network of state colleges. Austin built a tech capital around a university. We can build the North's — around the thing the industry is most desperate for and least able to supply on its own: trust.
ReadThe cannabis debate is 'legalize more, faster' versus 'the rollout is a mess, crack down.' Both miss the scandal this series already surfaced: thousands of racially lopsided charges for cannabis in a vehicle under a traffic statute that survived legalization. Close that gap, unstick the social-equity and tribal licenses, and make the legal market actually work.
ReadKeep the clean-energy goal, but tie the pace to a public reliability-and-affordability dashboard. And make the case conservatives should already be making: a grid built around a few giant plants and substations is a single point of failure — one attack, one storm, one cyber-intrusion from the dark. Rooftop solar, batteries, and microgrids aren't a climate program. They're resilience. That's a security argument, and it's one everyone can sign.
ReadMore school funding' versus 'vouchers' is the wrong fight. Reading is the one outcome that predicts everything else, and Minnesota already passed the law requiring evidence-based instruction. My position: enforce it, publish every school's results plainly, supercharge public open enrollment so a family can leave a failing school, and tie a slice of funding to actual reading gains. Accountability inside the public system — not an exit from it.
ReadThe homelessness debate is 'unconditional housing forever' versus 'sweep the camps,' and neither is a plan. Mine: rapid shelter and housing paired with real engagement — treatment, case management — and every dollar tied to one outcome, cost per person housed and kept housed. Turn the money toward what works and off the contracts that just perpetuate themselves.
ReadOccupational licensing is sold as consumer protection, and sometimes it is. Too often it's a guild — a wall that keeps out the immigrant, the military spouse, the person leaving prison, and the worker who learned the trade in another state. Recognize legitimate licenses by default, sunset the ones that guard insiders, and keep the ones that actually guard safety. It's progressive and deregulatory at the same time.
ReadThe kids-and-screens debate bounces between 'ban the app' panic and 'that's the parents' problem.' Here's a lawyer's fix instead: platforms serving Minnesota minors owe them a duty of loyalty — designed for the child's interest, not maximum engagement — enforceable by the Attorney General. We already impose that duty on everyone else entrusted with something precious.
ReadSkip the single-payer-versus-free-market fight. The state already buys an enormous share of Minnesota's health care — Medicaid, MinnesotaCare, public employees. Use that leverage: demand real all-payer price transparency, pay reference prices, and refuse to keep signing secret contracts. That's not ideology. It's what any large customer does.
ReadDefund' versus 'lock everyone up' is an argument about punishment. The real scandal is clearance rates: most crimes, including serious ones, never result in anyone being identified, let alone charged. A crime with no consequence isn't reform and isn't toughness — it's impunity. Fund investigation, measure cases solved, and the rest of the debate gets a lot smaller.
ReadMinnesota settled the legal question by statute in 2023, and I defend that right without qualification. Then I want to change the subject to the thing that actually reduces abortions — and that both sides can work on: making it possible to afford a child. Contraception, prenatal and postpartum support, child care, and a humane adoption path.
ReadEvery dollar Minnesota claws back from fraud, overpayment, and waste should go straight back to Minnesotans as a visible, universal rebate. It turns anti-fraud enforcement into something that pays you directly, gives government efficiency a constituency instead of a slogan, and ends the tired raise-taxes-versus-cut-taxes loop.
ReadA common-sense immigration position for a state that can't set immigration law but can decide how its own police spend their time. Local officers exist to keep the community safe, not to run federal errands. If someone is genuinely violent and removal is the tool, use it. Everyone else — the neighbor who works, pays taxes, and raises kids here — we actively protect. That's a Minnesota value.
ReadThe gun debate is stuck because both sides keep arguing about the rifle while most Minnesotans who die by a gun die by their own hand. Here's a negotiation, not a wish list: three terms a serious gun owner can sign, each one traded for something the other side actually wants. Aim the policy at the real deaths, and give the other side the due process it's right to demand.
ReadThe trans-athlete debate is two groups talking past each other — one in the language of biology, the other in the language of identity. Here's a fix that doesn't require either side to surrender its vocabulary: keep the women's category protected, and rename the other one what it already is — Open. Then decide the hard edges by age, stakes, and sport, not from the Capitol.
ReadHard rent caps choke the new housing that actually lowers rents — economists across the spectrum agree on that. Doing nothing leaves sitting tenants exposed to gouging. My position splits the difference on purpose: protect the tenant who's already there, exempt new construction so we never punish building, and give renters a real shot at owning.
Read