A biting story about Phillips from City Pages [View all]

From the story

Phillips longs for a return to whistle-stop campaigns, wishing more candidates would do what he’s about to do at the dog park: show up and talk to constituents.

“When we start losing that human interaction, I think a lot of people start feeling like they’re not heard and listened to,” he says. “Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump recognize the same underlying need of people, which is to be heard. I think Donald Trump was part of a wonderful strategy to make people believe he really cared about them. If you look at what he did versus what Hillary did—he had rallies, big rallies. Hillary Clinton spent, I think, way too much time in fine homes and country clubs raising money.”

(snip)

During his first town hall, Sarah Park Dahlen, a professor at St. Catherine University, asked how he’d handle white supremacy.

“I don’t think there is white supremacy,” he responded. “I don’t think there is such a thing. We are not supreme. Human beings are supreme.”

It was typical of Phillips. Even on softball questions like these, he tends to respond with words that sound pretty and enlightened, but carry little practical meaning.

(snip)

He’s trying hard to be the everyman. He starts, as he always does, with his origin story, followed by his campaign finance reform spiel.

A woman asks about gun control, a term Phillips doesn’t favor. “My position is on gun violence,” he says. He wants it declared a “national health and public safety crisis.”

Since 1996, Congress has barred the Center for Disease Control and Prevention from investigating the issue, in deference to the National Rifle Association. But Phillips sticks to middle ground, calling only for more study and universal background checks.

His responses today are slick and short. During a previous conversation, he was wary of proposals to eliminate bump stocks, silencers, and make assault rifles illegal. He even made air quotes around the word “assault.”

Today, he’s making a concerted effort to be all things to all people. A woman asks about abortion. Phillips shows his burgeoning polish.

When asked a month before if he was pro-choice, he said, “Absolutely. 100 percent.” But he backtracked minutes later. “I’m pro-life. And I’m also pro-choice. And I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. I think it’s really important to be both. And I celebrate both.”

At the library, he’s once again touting his support for a woman’s right to choose. He accentuates his commitment by mentioning the Planned Parenthood fundraiser he attended the night before. Bragging about galas is a recurring motif.

(snip)

He also comes off as strangely enamored with the Trump campaign and its singular message: Make America Great Again. “If you looked at Hillary Clinton’s website back during the last campaign, it had I think 297 policy prescriptions, and Donald Trump focused on one,” Phillips says. “I’m focusing on truth and justice and American values.”

(snip)

Phillips has his own red flags. He’s the rare Democrat who admits to watching Fox News without ironic intent. He’s a silver-spooner with no personal experience in the paycheck to paycheck—or no check at all—life. He believes in the “moral right” of health care, yet dragged his feet for a year before providing a plan to full-time employees at Penny’s. (a business that he owns)

And make no mistake: He’s very much a politician. He has an uncanny ability to make canned anecdotes feel like they’re being delivered for the first time. He’s young, handsome, and charismatic. In a vote on personality alone, Phillips is a shoo-in.

(snip)

Adam Jennings, a Democratic Tonka Bay councilman pursuing the same seat, also questions his sincerity: “I think he’s running Republican-lite and we’ve been down that road too many times,” he says. “I think he’s the wrong candidate for this race and I’m not sure he’s necessarily running for the right reasons.”

In the end, the race between Paulsen and Phillips may very well come down to the devil you know versus the devil you don’t.

http://www.citypages.com/news/can-this-charming-liquor-heir-beat-minnesotas-corporate-congressman/470779323

Sigh...