A Gay Man, a Republican, and a Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer

In a district that is one of the least likely to elect a Republican for Minnesota House of Representatives, Alex Whitney is giving it a good shot. With a socially liberal and fiscally moderate platform, Whitney hopes to appeal to voters who want something a little different. And with a campaign logo that looks strikingly similar to a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the campaign will certainly get the attention of the younger, hipster crowd that lives in the district. I sat down with Alex Whitney recently, to talk about the challenges and issues of his campaign.

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Why choose a campaign logo similar to the PBR logo?

AW: I chose the PBR logo because it’s both eye catching and thought provoking. People drive by it and think, "who’s this Alex Whitney? Does that sign look familiar? Does he know that it looks like PBR?" The sign says 'patriotic-winner' in an old fashioned way. The response has been great too, every time I go to someone’s door, they freak out because of the sign and they want to know who I am.

Currently held by DFL House Minority Leader Margaret Anderson Kelliher, District 60A spans Bryn Mawr, Loring Park, Kenwood, Elliot Park, Lake of the Isles, and the Northwest chunk of Uptown, sometimes known as "the Wedge." The district has a lot of money; it holds the ZIP Code with the second highest amount of political contributions (55403), mostly to Democratic candidates. And it's home to one of the largest gay neighborhoods in the state, Loring Park. Given the strong DFL nature of the district, why did Whitney decide to run?:

AW: I thought about running a long time ago. Obviously anytime you enter politics, you assume that at some point you'll think about running. I was working at the Republican Party in Minnesota and somebody said, "Listen, nobody is running in your district. Would you like to go?" I looked in my district and I noticed that it outlined this chunk of the city where I had been living virtually all my life, and so the opportunity of being able to represent my hometown in the state legislature was just too good to pass up. I'm just out there trying to do something different. And it's also so much better running your own campaign. I'm kind of sick of running other people's campaigns.

And on the chances of winning the district?

AW: Well, that's the other thing that's kind of interesting. When I was sort of having a freakout about the whole thing a while ago, a guy named Eric Hoplin, he's the state party deputy chair, he's a really nice, really cool smart guy. He said, "You know, if there was somebody in the entire state who could do it, you could do it." And so that gave me a lot of encouragement. It's interesting. The people who are really big Kelliher supporters, the way that they respond isn't traditional, like they would for someone who's a long short. They're not like "Oh good for you, good luck with that," they're actually defensive and angry. I think that's a good sign that they're a little nervous.

AW: I think my chances are a little better now that I’ve been door knocking, I go to a lot of doors of people who are sick to death of the DFL, but also too scared of the GOP to think about voting differently. My campaign is about removing the fear from conservatism, you know, policies promoting less government, and getting people really thinking about political issues again, rather than just reacting to fear based stimuli from both parties.

Alex Whitney is the grandson of Wheelock Whitney, a man who gained a lot of wealth in the banking industry, and ran for governor in 1982 in a controversial race against former Governor Rudy Perpich. Whitney relates his family's reaction to his candidacy:

AW: They are really good for advice. My grandfather had a lot of good advice like 'don't be afraid to admit that you don't know. "If someone asks you a question, just say if you don't know. It's OK because nobody likes a know it all." But they were resoundingly positive about the whole thing. Well, at first they said "Is this a good idea?" And then they were like "Yeah, I think you'd be good."

Whitney is probably the first openly gay Republican candidate for the Minnesota State Legislature in the state's history. Given the aminosity that the LGBT communtiy and the Republican Party have for each other, I asked Whitney what reaction people have to his running for office:

AW: I find that I can measure my compatibility with people by the way they react. There are some people who just like to freak out right away, but for the most part strangers react with, "Oh that's interesting, that's different, why?" You know, I have that conversation all the time, and I'm pretty used to it. But it is like I'm a gay outsider and then I'm a Republican outsider. I'm kind of 'outside outsider' and that's sort of unusual. I think that the more my friends and political peers get to know me they start to trust my opinion and they say "Oh, maybe he does have something different there, that it's a good thing to offer."

Of course, the marriage issue is the first question people ask. That love is so regulated by the government, I think that is really wrong and I think it's really the opposite of conservatism in my opinion. Expanding the government to exclude people is also the exact opposite of conservatism. The marriage amendment is totally lowest common denominator campaigning of "How do I freak people out enough to vote," Also, I want to have a family, and I want that family to be protected under the law, and I would work to at least get civil unions passed into law now.

Running against the top DFLer in the Minnesota House isn't easy. Whitney gave me his take on his opponent Margaret Anderson Kelliher, the DFL House Minority Leader, and where he differs from her on the issues:

AW: A lot of her campaign so far has been relatively nonexistent. Her website has not been updated since '02. If you go to her website, you can just see it says thanks for electing me to my 4th year even though it her 8th year. I think that she's been really absentee with her leadership. The only things that I've actually seen and disagreed with her on were things she actually wrote, a pseudo op-ed in one of the local papers. It discussed education and I disagreed with her opinion on education. I agree that we need more money for education, but I just don't think it should be used in the same manner. I don't think the problem with education can just be solved with tossing more good money after bad. My idea would be to make the system more competitive, increasing tax credits for a pseudo voucher program, or you could even do a real voucher program, and trying to incentivize payment for teachers. I think that No Child Left Behind was this way of trying to keep teaching accountable by measuring the students success, and I just don't know if that works. I mean, I guess its to soon to know.

I think that a lot of other stuff that she's been campaigning on, is just higher taxes, more government for more government sake. My difference is really just accountability. I want to cap spending but at the same time look at all these programs going on and really try to make them work better, health care and stuff like that. I read something recently that was really interesting regarding health care and a way to measure lower costs and increase transparency as far as costs are concerned. Something the government or state government can do right now is to make it so that hospitals list prices. I mean, if you need an MRI and you can go call the hospital and say how much for an MRI, they won't tell you. It's just a way they can gouge insurance companies and I think that everything is just completely out of control. And so in this way an expanse in government would really benefit and help people. You know, it's just little stuff like that. Transparency worked really well with geriatrics, and nursing homes. We have a lot of people trying to take care of their parents. They can now go through and look to see if one home is better than another or which one costs more, and this is how much bedpanning costs or see how much it costs getting certain blood work done.

I have nothing personally against my opponent; we only have a different perspective or vision for the role of government in our lives. That’s all politics actually is, under the slimy veneer of mud-slinging and attack ads, just competing understandings of the way society functions.

Whitney gave me some clarification, via email about his policies on health care: "By making medical costs more transparent and giving individuals more personal power by increasing the use of Health Savings Accounts, the costs of healthcare will be driven down by competitive forces. While my overall philosophy is based on the concept that markets work and governments don’t, I still believe that it’s the government’s role to keep the market fair and functioning. Right now, the economic engine in the healthcare industry is failing or broken, and I think it’s the government’s role to get it competitive again."

Whitney adds:

AW: I'm just trying to get out there and give people a choice.

You can read more about Alex Whitney at his campaign website at www.alexwhitney.org. For more information about Whitney's opponent, Margaret Anderson Kelliher, you can read about her at her campaign website www.margaretandersonkelliher.org