Franni headed south to New Ulm last week to doorknock with volunteers and then for a meet & greet with local DFLers.

The New Ulm Journal stopped by to check it out and chat with Franni for a few minutes:

Local Democrats shook hands with a Franken who was in New Ulm Wednesday night to campaign for office.

Unlike the DFL gatherings last summer, it wasn’t Al. It was Franni, his wife who has made a tour of the entire state stumping for her husband.

…

Franni also talked about her own background. Her father was killed in a car accident when she was a teenager. The tragedy left her mother with four children and Social Security survivor’s benefits.

She said her husband feels that the role of government is to provide a safety net and to provide opportunities. While Social Security helped the family survive, the federal Pell Grant, which provides financial assistance for college to those who qualify, helped her through college. At one time, the Pell Grant covered 90 percent of the cost of going to college; it now covers only 30 percent, she said. That is another thing that Franken’s husband wants to fix.

After her remarks were finished, Franken mostly fielded comments from the audience. Many of them dealt with the foreclosure trend and with the situation on Wall Street.

Franken said her husband believes a government bailout should happen under certain conditions - there should be no “blank check” and there should be more transparency and oversight and a consumer protection agency should be established.

She said Al also believes in a moratorium on foreclosures and that the government should get judges or bankers to renegotiate the loans. She said Al is against “golden parachutes” and excessive compensation for CEOs.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 15:13 and is filed under From the Trail, News Clips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.