SPARKS FLY AGAIN BETWEEN BLACKS, DFL SENATE HOPEFULS

DFL candidates for the U.S. Senate returned Tuesday to the scene of a
contentious debate two months ago in north Minneapolis better prepared
to address black concerns, but sparks still flew amid discussion of
racism and disparate government treatment of blacks in Minnesota.

Rebecca Yanisch, Mark Dayton and Mike Ciresi all came to Lucille's
Kitchen for a KMOJ Radio/Insight News Public Policy Forum having read
"The Debt," a recent book by Randall Robinson that calls for
government reparations to blacks for historic wrongs of slavery and
discrimination.

References to the book by black questioners had dominated a May debate
at Lucille's Kitchen, catching the all-white slate of candidates off
guard. This time the candidates weren't surprised, although their
answers weren't necessarily more satisfactory to the mostly black audience.

At one point, Dayton objected to what he described as "catcalls" from
the listeners. And Ciresi answered one pointed question by saying: "It
does not help our discussion to say that disagreements about how to
better everyone in society is racism."

Ciresi and Dayton are outspoken opponents of government reparations
proposals, the latter calling them "impossible, divisive and
misguided." Ciresi, however, spoke in positive terms about attorneys
who are researching possible reparations claims in court against
private wealth derived from slavery.

Yanisch didn't directly address reparations Tuesday, but she joined
the other two in supporting continued discussion of the issue.

All three also backed affirmative action to hire minorities and a
broad array of antiracism efforts, including a congressional study of
the role of slave labor in building the U.S. Capitol in Washington,
D.C. Yanisch also said she supports discussion of a national apology
to blacks for slavery.

The candidates bemoaned racial inequalities ranging from the
appointment of federal judges to the enforcement of drug laws. Ciresi
called for repealing federal laws that differentiate between crack
cocaine and powder cocaine, and Dayton urged military interdiction of
drugs at the nation's borders, and called for less imprisonment of
drug users and more drug education and treatment. Yanisch, a former
head of the Minneapolis Community Development Agency, made the panel's
strongest antiracism statements, saying that eliminating so-called
racial profiling by police "has to be top priority" and that
Minnesota's disproportionate numbers of blacks in prison are "an
absolute disgrace."

State Sen. Jerry Janezich, the fourth major contender in the Sept. 12
primary election that will select a DFL challenger to Republican U.S.
Sen. Rod Grams, was at a State Capitol news conference at which the
Minnesota AFL-CIO announced its endorsement of him. The 400,000-member
AFL-CIO is the state's largest labor organization.

Dayton, a former state auditor, criticized Janezich, also the DFL
endorsee, for having "ducked" the debate, saying, "That's not the
right thing to do."