Issues

Click each item for more details on Bobby's views on important issues

• Jobs

  Bobby Joe Champion is proud of his 96% lifetime voting record with the Minnesota AFL-CIO and is a strong voice for working families in the Minnesota legislature. Creating good jobs in our community is Bobby Joe Champion’s top priority.  To aide that effort, Bobby has been working with Governor Mark Dayton and on March 30th, 2011, Bobby Joe Champion brought Governor Dayton to North Minneapolis to hear from residents, business owners, and community leaders about what support they need from the state to grow jobs in North Minneapolis.

  Bobby Joe Champion and Governor Dayton are now working on a multi-pronged approach to grow the North Minneapolis economy.  They are committed to improving state contracting policies to work more with disadvantaged businesses and to increase the diversity in the state workforce.  These disadvantaged businesses, minority, women, and veteran owned businesses, have shown a statistical disparity in both construction and non-construction contracts with the State of Minnesota.  They will offer assistance to small businesses through low interest loans.  And they will expand and create new workforce development and training opportunities including opportunities for youth employment focused on college and career paths.

  Bobby Joe Champion is a supporter of state investments in public infrastructure and civic projects to create good jobs now.  Past improvements Bobby Joe has spearheaded include

  • Bottineau Corridor transit project, connecting North Minneapolis to our regions growing transit network
  • Lowry Avenue bridge replacement
  • Creation of the Minnesota African American History Museum
  • HCMC’s soon to be completed hyperbaric oxygen chamber
  • Renovation of Orchestra Hall, Peavey Plaza, and Nicolet Mall
  • Completion of the Cowles Center for dance
  • Raising our minimum wage to $9.50 per hour, with indexing for future inflation
• Education

  Quality public schools form the backbone of our community. The Minneapolis public schools continue to face challenges, many of them forced onto us by the state’s unwillingness to properly fund our schools. Bobby Joe Champion is an advocate for early childhood education programs, keeping our North Minneapolis schools open, closing the achievement gap, lowering class sizes, and ensuring teachers have the resources they need to educate the diverse student population of our district.

  Last year, under Republican leadership, Bobby Joe Champion stopped Republican efforts to divert Minneapolis school funding into private school vouchers and he fought against ending Minnesota’s integration program.

• Health Care

  The federal health care law has made many important improvements in our health care system.  Here in Minnesota, it has allowed us to insure 95,000 more Minnesotans.  However, there are still more than 46 million Americans without health care insurance, and roughly 500,000 just in Minnesota.

  In North Minneapolis, it is well documented that we are challenged by a number of health disparities that affect the quality of life of our families, neighbors, and friends. This must change! I believe that all Americans should have access to high quality health care.  Access to affordable primary and preventive care leads to a quality filled life.  This should be a right and not a choice. We need bold and passionate leadership that continues to fight and advocate for Universal Health Care. Bobby Joe Champion is an author of the Minnesota Health Plan and will continue the fight for universal single payer health care in the Senate.

• Housing

  Home foreclosures continue to rip apart our neighborhoods in North Minneapolis.  This is an issue that has affected everyone in North Minneapolis, whether you were foreclosed on, or if you have seen boarded up houses depress the value of your home.

  Bobby Joe Champion has been a fighter to end unfair mortgage practices and to give home owners options to stay in their homes.  He is a leader for creating more affordable housing in and around Minneapolis, including efforts to use state bonding dollars for affordable housing, support community land trusts, provide support for homelessness prevention, and properly fund the Minnesota Housing Finance Authority.  In the Senate, Bobby will work on securing resources targeted at rehabilitating or renovating the surplus of current vacant housing stock in our district and the promotion of creative homeownership options to stabilize our neighborhoods. Bobby secured $4 million in FEMA matching funds for tornado victims.

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