College students in a politics course prepared the questions for Tuesday’s debate between three candidates for Minnesota Secretary of State.
The 6 p.m. debate will be held at the Minneapolis Community & Technical College in downtown Minneapolis. Students there in Prof. Lena Jones’s “State and Local Government” course generated the questions while studying the Jefferson Center Citizen’s Jury public policy engagement process.
The candidates are the Independence Party’s Bob Helland, Republican Dan Severson and DFL state Rep. Steve Simon.
The moderator will be Felicia Hamilton, MTCT’s President of the Community Development Club; Jay Bad Heart Bull, President of the Native American Community Development Institute will be emcee.
Kyle Bozentko, head of the Jefferson Center a non-profit public policy organization in St. Paul, said:
“Students are rarely given the chance to lead the conversation between political candidates and voters or focus candidates on the issues that matter most to them. This project creates a significant opportunity for students at MCTC to take more active roles in electoral politics without direct campaigning and to become resources for their peers and their communities by learning more about how the Secretary of State can impact voting rights, election technology, and the state’s business and nonprofit communities.”
