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The candidate then spoke of his legal experience. Sande has been involved in election law for ten years and spoke about his role combating voter intimidation and disenfranchisement. “It is a lot easier to stop somebody from voting than it is to change [his/her] mind,” Sande continued.

He told students that he was running for Secretary of State primarily on a platform of clean elections. He criticized current Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer for being biased and partisan in election rulings, citing her effort to make tribal identification an invalid form of ID in Minnesotan elections, despite its legality at the federal level.

Sande chuckled and asked the group what made an ID from the Dean of Students at Hamline University more valid than the tribal identification of a sovereign nation.

Sande also said he would fight efforts to not allow students to register to vote at their University address, again implying that such moves were designed to stop people from voting, not to deter voter fraud.

After the event, Sande spoke about his days as a Piper. Sande was the advertising editor for the Oracle, as well as the Public Relations Chair for HUSC. He also spoke fondly of his time as a Resident Assistant on Drew Hall’s second floor.

Mike Germaine, candidate for State Senate in the Apple Valley-Rosemount area, spoke next. He told the group that before the 2004 DFL caucuses, he had not attended a DFL event in sixteen years because he was fed up with the party. Germaine said that the death of Senator Paul Wellstone had prompted him to leave the sidelines.

“I always thought I didn’t have to do anything because [Wellstone] was in Washington doing it for me,” Germaine said. The loss hit him especially hard because Germaine knew Wellstone’s son, who is also a Hamline graduate.

If elected, Germaine will be an advocate for transportation and education issues. He said that in his home district, class sizes were swellingčeven at the elementary level. Germaine was also alarmed at efforts to
“undermine” the public education system through vouchers for private schools.

Budget cuts also alarm Germaine, who said the state needs to put a higher premium on public education.
He next spoke on transportation issues, saying that the state had grossly underestimated the usage of the
Light Rail Transit system in the Twin Cities, and also mentioned that the demand for public transportation was high.

Germaine spoke about his own district, which includes many residents who commute to and from downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis. An increased reliance on public transportation would alleviate the chronic congestion of Twin Cities highways, Germaine said.

College Democrats President Kari Michaelis approved of Germain, saying that he was “very energetic and passionate about running for office.”