Collin Peterson
Collin Clark Peterson ( born June 29, 1944 in Fargo, North Dakota ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He is since 1991 member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the 7th constituency there is currently the state of Minnesota.
Career
Peterson studied at the Moorhead State University. For the Democratic - Farmer-Labor Party (the local branch of the Democrats ), he sat in the years 1977-1986 in the Minnesota Senate.
In 1990 he was elected to the longtime incumbent Arlan Stangeland by the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. Was the output of the first elections in subsequent legislative sessions still scarce, as Peterson won all elections since 1996, well ahead of his challengers.
Parliamentary work
Peterson is currently Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture ( House Agriculture Committee) in the House of Representatives.
1998 Peterson became known to a wider public when he proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow the inhabitants of the very sparsely populated Northwest Angle of Minnesota to vote on whether they want to belong henceforth the Canadian province of Manitoba. This would amount to secession, as this part of the state would be forced out of the United States. So far, also due to the low significance of the matter ( the population of the region is less than 200 people ), but made no further steps.
Peterson is one of the founding members of the Blue Dog Coalition, an association of moderate conservative Democrats in Congress.
As a representative of a heavily agricultural constituency Peterson is primarily one for topics in the field of agriculture. These include investment programs, subsidies and the promotion of biodiesel and ethanol.
Peterson is considered the most conservative Democratic Representative from Minnesota, he enters against abortion, stem cell research, euthanasia and sharper weapons laws. He is a proponent of the death penalty and the Flag Desecration Amendment. This attitude is, however, in view of the population structure of his constituency little surprising here clearly outweigh conservative attitudes, and therefore also for many years a Republican held the office before him. Only in the economic policies Peterson is more prone to the liberal wing of his party.
Gladly, however alluded to in the political reporting that Peterson a relationship with former Republican Congressman Katherine Harris entertained that in their role as " Secretary of State" ( comparable to a Minister of the Interior ) in Florida during the presidential elections in 2000, George W. Bush to the election winner declared, which of course made especially for the Democrats for outrage.
On January 28, Peterson was one of the only eleven MEPs, the ( investment program to mitigate the impact of the global economic crisis ) by President Barack Obama voted with the Republicans against the "stimulus package".