Walz: Gerrymandering is a fundamental problem

MANKATO -- U.S. House Representative Tim Walz of Minnesota's First District announced at a town hall Monday night that gerrymandering was a fundamental problem in American democracy.

Walz spoke at South Central College in Mankato. Topics varied mostly between healthcare and the environment, but when it was mentioned,+ Walz made a point to emphasize the detrimental effect of gerrymandering on democracy.

"I think it is the number one fundamental issue that must be addressed if you want your Congress to work," Walz said. "I gave the pledge that my goal is that in Minnesota we should have nonpartisan, citizen or judicial redistricting to have fair districts."

The Democratic representative argued that gerrymandering has degraded legislators' ability and willingness to compromise.

By manipulating voting districts to include or exclude voters who identify with either party, elected officials become vulnerable virtually only to a primary challenger from the far side of their own party, Walz said.

Walz added that the second fundamental flaw was the amount of money in campaigns for public office. He argued the large amount of money needed to campaign discouraged other people from running.

Fixing those two aspects would allow other issues such as healthcare or the environment to flow smoother, Walz said.

On healthcare Walz said the Affordable Care Act (ACA), often called Obamacare, did not cause all the current problems with health insurance, but it did not fix everything either.

He addressed a question about single-payer systems, such as Medicare for all. The reason Walz gave for it being removed from the original ACA was compromise.

Walz argued compromise was the way to get things done in a democracy.

"There are about 40 people that said that they would not support anything but full repeal," Walz said. "I told House Speaker Paul Ryan 'I am willing to fix parts of this (ACA) that are not working and compromise with you if you are willing to just jettison those 40 and pick up 40 of us (Democrats)."

Walz said the few things he would not compromise on in healthcare included essential benefits and asserted that healthcare is a right, not a privilege.

Constituents also asked Walz about his positions on climate change and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The representative spoke with certainty on humanity's role in climate change, but made it a point to add that he did not jump on the bandwagon.

He referenced his time as a geology teacher in the 1980s. He had warned his students not to get too caught up in the hype as geological timescales were hard to measure with only a few years of data.

Now, Walz is more certain, though concerned. When asked about his hopes for the U.S. role in the Paris climate agreement, he was not optimistic on the country remaining active.

On the EPA, Walz argued for protecting the agency, but acknowledged that there were places where EPA regulations were overreaching.

"I would be the first to tell you, if you have a concern that the EPA overreach in a rule that precluded people from doing an economic activity and did not clean the environment, you should vigorously oppose that regulation," Walz said.

Connor Cummiskey can be emailed at ccummiskey@nujournal.com.