The race for the District 41 State Senate seat pits Republican Tom Dippel against Democrat Farm Labor candidate Judy Seeberger.

Dippel is a resident of Cottage Grove, and Seeberger resides in Afton. District 41 includes the cities of Hastings, Cottage Grove, Lake Elmo, Afton, Lakeland, Lake St. Croix Beach, St. Mary’s Point and Lakeland Shores and the townships of Grant, Denmark, and Nininger.

The two faced off Thursday night in a candidate forum sponsored by the Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce and Hastings Community TV.

Dippel touted his business experience in his opening remarks. He founded and owns Minnesota Dental Lab in Newport, which has grown to 20 employees.

“I come to this campaign with business experience and a goal to serve and sacrifice for the district,” he said. “My business experience that I’ve gained in the last 14 years and beyond is what I intend to bring to the capitol to bring real tax relief, tax cuts, and relieve the pain of inflation that’s been inflicted on the members of our district.”

Seeberger is a paramedic and has served as a classroom teacher and on the Lower St. Croix Valley Fire Department. She has led the Yellow Ribbon Network of Washington County and was a city council and planning commission member. The combination of that experience is what she would bring to the senate job.

“I have real world experience in facing difficult challenges every day,” she said. “I work on the frontlines of public safety every time I clock in as a paramedic. I intend to bring my experience and my know how and my ability to do challenging work and do hard things at the capitol. I’m not afraid of rolling up my sleeves and doing what’s right.”

Seeberger was asked her view on the state economy. “As a small business owner, I have felt the effects of this economy. As the mom of two teenage boys, I’ve seen my grocery bill lately, and it’s not pretty,” she said. “That aside, I think we need to remember that Minnesota’s economy remains strong. We emerged from this pandemic stronger than the surrounding states. We have a massive budget surplus, and it’s not doing anything. We’re doing about the dumbest thing with the surplus we can do right now, which is nothing, and that's because things did not get done at the legislature during the last session. That's not OK with me. That’s why I want to get in there, and I want to do the hard work. “

Dippel pointed out that Minnesota has the sixth-highest tax rate on individuals in the country, and second-highest tax rate on businesses.

“What I intend to do is bring my business experience, success in budgeting, success in leading and success in holding people accountable to get the best result and bring that experience to the capitol to lower tax rates to make us more competitive in the business environment,” he said.

He advocated for lowering taxes. “I absolutely believe that we should lower taxes. We have almost a $10 billion budget surplus,” he said. “First of all the surplus should be given back to taxpayers because that's their money. When you spend beyond a budget, and there's a surplus that should be returned. Beyond that, it shows unequivocally that we are collecting too many taxes from the citizens of our state. Therefore, I believe in the Republican plan that was passed this last session in the Senate, that we should offer tax relief to hurting families, families that are struggling to buy groceries that are struggling to buy gas at the pump.”

Seeberger responded, “I do believe that we can do better when it comes to taxes. I would like to see the tax on Social Security benefits eliminated. That would give our seniors a break when they desperately need it. I would also like to see common sense tax cuts that benefit the middle class, our seniors, our veterans.

I think that's something that we can do. What we don't want to do is decimate our economy and decimate our bottom line so that we end up with budget deficits in the future. And I think we need to be smart about that.”

Dippel brought up a DFL plan to increase the gas tax, and Seeberger distanced herself from that.

“I take issue with the implication that I somehow support a gas tax. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't support any increase in a gas tax, and I want to go on record as saying that.”

The candidates fielded a question on how businesses can deal with workforce challenges, like attracting and retaining workers.

Seeberger said partnerships with local colleges are key. “We have paramedic shortages. We have shortages in law enforcement. We have shortages in the fire service, and here’s where we can have an excellent opportunity to partner with education here in Minnesota. We can do more to partner with community colleges to partner with training programs at the trades. I've toured numerous trade facilities, the steam fitter pipe fitters, the painters and they have amazing training facilities. Not every kid is going to college. I have one kid in college and one that's not going to go to college and that's great. But what we can do is we can ensure that everybody who comes out of a training program, that they can partner with the business so that they are ready to get good paying jobs and we have a work ready workforce. “

Dippel said a key is also removing regulatory challenges businesses face.

“We saw the extreme challenge coming out of the pandemic. What occurred there is people were afraid to go back to work. I think we have to be inviting to potential employees and employers. Likewise, within that, we need to be very careful in our regulatory burden. Unfortunately, again, my opponent’s party supports a great deal of environmental regulatory burden. I believe that too many burdens in that sense can stifle business can stifle growth, and not only that, but affect the bottom line of those businesses to be able to support their employees.”

The candidates were asked for an example where they have worked with multiple stakeholders including those with different viewpoints to move a project forward.

“I do this on a daily basis,” said Dippel. “I have managers at my business, and we have different departments, and each department comes at the solution from a different perspective. I need to sit down with my managers to understand how are we going to budget correctly? What equipment are we going to purchase? How do we need to lead a particular team in a particular direction? We need to gain consensus otherwise, you can't lead if you have disjointed group of people. You can't come together and move forward ,and so I plan to be an independent voice for our district that brings people together, brings constituents, businesses together and brings greater prosperity and defeats the inflation and the crime that we see that's running out of control.”

Seeberger answered, “One of the big reasons why I decided to run in this race is because I do have a proven record of being able to get things done. I am a paramedic, I'm out on the streets making critical and important decisions in a fast timeframe every single day. I'm also a trial attorney and a civil mediator. I'm a volunteer mediator with Washington County District, small claims court and you can't find two people that are more at odds than folks that are suing each other in small claims court. As a mediator. I sit down with those folks, and more times than not we're able to come to a resolution. This is the kind of problem-solving experience that I will bring to the Senate. I wonder about my opponent who calls some folks abominations, whether he's going to be able to work with folks in the Senate that he considers abominations. I'm not like that. I work with everyone and I intend to bring my problem solving skills to the Senate.”

Seeberger said her diverse background makes her the better candidate.

“I’ve been in all these different facets of our society in our community and I have the experience to really roll up my sleeves and get things done. I am not afraid to show up. I am not afraid to be present and I'm not afraid to do what's right and answer tough questions. I do that every day,” she said. “Folks can count on me to fight for the values held by the people here in Senate District 41. Folks can count on me to roll up my sleeves and do the hard work that needs to be done.”

Dippel said he’d bring the determination in growing his business to the state capitol.

“I intend to bring that steady hand to our district. I believe that my opponent’s resume shows that she's bounced from job to job and career to career. Over the last 14 years, I have been fighting hard for my employees. I've been fighting hard in our district here to bring jobs and proven that with 20 employees that we have. We've stayed on the cutting edge. I believe Minnesota can stay on the cutting edge as well in the United States,” he said.