Brian Davis campaigns for Congress on conservative values

Fillmore County Journal
Friday, August 01
By John Torgrimson

Brian Davis, a Mayo physician and researcher from Rochester is the endorsed Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in the 1st District. He is being challenged by Sen. Dick Day of Owatonna in the September primary election to run against incumbent Democratic congressman Tim Walz in November.

Davis recently spoke with Journal editor John Torgrimson about his candidacy and his stand on a range of issues. Excerpts from that conversation follows.

Journal: Why, with your background, are you choosing to run for Congress in the first district?

Davis: The change in representation in 2006. I feel like Congress was trying to take the country in the wrong direction. I believe there are solutions that need to be addressed: solutions in energy; solutions in health care. So in early 2007, I visited with state Republican leaders and I chose to run. On March 29 I won [Republican] endorsement.

Journal: When I say George Bush, what does that mean to you? Positive, negative? Good legacy?

Davis: I think we'll leave that to the historians to determine. I think some of the analogies with Harry Truman being resolute, and sometimes people even say "inflexible," but there may come a time down the road when people will look back and he [Bush] will have a stronger public perception than he does now. People in this district voted for George Bush both in 2000 and in 2004. So, I will tell you that I'm running in 2008 for the future. I don't agree with everything that he's done, but I will tell you I supported him in 2000 and 2004, as did the majority of this district.

Journal: The Iraq war?

Davis: The Iraq War is a part of our larger struggle with radical Islam, who are totally opposed to our way of life, our freedoms, our freedom of speech and freedom of the press, our ability to have this conversation and not be afraid that someone's going to knock on our door in the middle of the night and take us away. And I believe that we need to be strong against it, whether that's in Iraq or Afghanistan. But I think for us to move forward regardless of what one's opinion has been on this war we should ask the people of Iraq and Afghanistan to have a referendum and pose the question "Do you want the US military to stay or to go?" If the people vote freely in democratic elections and say 'we think it's time for the US military to go', then we can leave and hold our heads up high, we helped them put forward a democratic government, and in that respect we won the war and our military can be proud of a lot of things that have happened there.

Journal: Will there be a political settlement in Iraq?

Davis: I would like to see a political settlement in Iraq that would be based on having a referendum there. I think it's unquestionable that the change in strategy has been successful. It's bought us time, it's bought the government of Iraq time. But I don't think it's in our interest or in the interest of the countries in the Middle East to have the US government and the military leave there with the perception that we were chased out of there by a few thousand terrorists or suicide bombers. If we leave, have us leave because it was a mutual decision between the democratically elected governments, and the people of Iraq, and the United States government, not because of some partisan political contest in Washington D.C.

Journal: What about the economy?

Davis: Energy is the lifeblood of a modern economy. And the higher the cost of energy, and the more constraints the government places on energy production, the more costly it will be and people in our country will suffer economically.

Some think America would be better off if we had $5 gasoline. I don't believe that. The majority of the people of this country don't believe that. I'm in favor of clean air and clean water. In fact, our air is so much cleaner than it was 30 or 40 years ago because of the Clean Air and Water Act. You can have intelligent technology--it costs a little more but it's not such that it will shut down an industry.

Journal: Speaking of energy, what are the elements of an energy policy you think will work?

Davis: First of all, we have to realize that 85% of our energy in this country is carbon based. Coal, oil, natural gas. Throw in nuclear power, and that's the four major sources of energy. That's over 90% of the energy we use in heating, transportation and electricity and we can't turn off those switches easily. That's the bedrock, those are the pillars of energy. In Minnesota, I'm proud of the fact that we are among the leaders in the country in wind-power and ethanol. And anything we do that reduces our dependence on foreign oil is a good thing. I'm optimistic that over the long-term these forms of energy will be competitive over the open market.

Journal: You talked a little bit about oil, but I know you've been fairly outspoken about drilling. Some experts believe America doesn't have enough oil reserves to drill it's way out of it's problems. Respond to that.

Davis: I think it's doubtful that we would be in a position soon where we're independent of foreign oil. However, we're the third largest producer of oil in the world. And we need to produce more oil in this country, and if we can do it easily and readily, we should. It'll help our economy, it'll employ people, and it'll make us less dependent on foreign oil from countries that don't necessarily share our values. We still get two-thirds of our oil from North America--between Mexico, Canada, and the United States--if we can reduce that percentage of imported oil by using our own resources in an environmentally friendly manner, I'm in favor of drilling in Alaska. I think it should be done. And in off shore areas, we only have less than 5% that is open.

Journal: I've read where you're not a firm believer in climate change?

Davis: We've had climate change since the beginning of recorded history. We know there's areas right here that 13,000 years ago were glaciers. So, climate change happens. But to what extent CO2 production is responsible for the climate change we're observing is not well-quantified, not well-quantified at all. I met with an MIT professor, Richard Lindzen - he's in the National Academy of Science. He has been real outspoken that we don't know how much--if at all--we'd be able to change the climate if we shut down carbon based energy. If we stopped right now, can we predict how much we'd change the climate?

Journal: Are we doing enough as people, as Americans, as a government, to put in place conservation practices?

Davis: I don't favor mandated rationing or mandated conservation. I think that if we let people make their own personal decisions on that, then it is better. The auto makers in Detroit learned a lesson in competition regarding fuel-efficient cars. And it's harder for the government to mandate that than it is for the free enterprise system to respond.

Journal: Your website speaks strongly about conservative values.

Davis: I believe a human life and human being begin at conception. I oppose abortion, I believe we should respect and protect life. I know as a doctor and medical researcher that one does not need to destroy a human embryo to do stem cell research, that there are other sources of stem cells.

When it comes to marriage, I believe marriage should be defined as a union between one man and one woman. I would oppose civil unions if they are same sex marriage by another name.

Edits provided above by Brian in italics.

Davis touts conservative values, oil drilling in quest to unseat Walz

Published - Wednesday, July 23, 2008
By Ryan Henry of the Houston County News

Gas prices in southeastern Minnesota have reached nearly $4/gallon, which not only hits people in the wallet, but has affected the overall economy. That’s why it’s time to start drilling for oil in United States, both offshore and in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to Brian Davis.

“It’s been shown, with the oil drilling that’s up there right now, that it can co-exist with wildlife and vegetation,” he said. “They have a pipeline that’s not being used to full capacity.”

Davis, who stopped by the Houston County News office last week, is the Republican-endorsed candidate running for a United States House of Representative seat out of Minnesota. He’ll likely face off with DFLer Tim Walz, who defeated long-time Congressman Gil Gutknecht two years ago. However, he’ll be challenged by Senator Dick Day in a September 9 primary.

Much of the suffering from fuel prices which in turn affect food prices and the housing market is due to Congress’s micro-management of the nation’s energy production, he said.

“We need to have a cheap and clean supply of energy to keep this modern economy moving forward,” Davis said. “Right now, government is really ham-stringing the economy with some of the policies it has in place.”

Davis has experience in the energy industry, both as a student and a full-time engineer. He’s seen what government policy did to the nuclear power industry, although the U.S. produces more energy from nuclear energy than any other country, it still doesn’t have a growing nuclear energy industry like he believes it should.

“I think we need to lift the moratorium on nuclear power in Minnesota,” he said.

He’s also in favor of continuing development of alternative energy sources like ethanol, wind power, solar energy, and bio-diesel.

With healthcare, he believes there needs to be more competition and less government intervention because of the looming crisis with the aging of baby-boomers and unfunded liability of Medicare. He thinks Washington needs people, like himself, who have practical experience with healthcare, which consumes 17 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. And he doesn’t believe the country should adopt a nationalized or socialized healthcare system.

Davis is pro-life and believes it’s important to respect all human life from dawn to sunset. As a doctor, he said he knows embryos don’t need to be destroyed to do stem cell research, and that there are other sources of stem cells, such as bone marrow.

He supports the traditional family, with marriage between a man and a woman. He said he’d support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, if it’s ever presented.

Davis thinks there’s a problem with illegal immigration in the U.S. There’s thought to be 12 million illegals in the country, but that can’t be known for sure, he said, because local law enforcement agencies haven’t been empowered to check into that. He’s in favor of the border fence Congress authorized, one issue he and Walz differ on.

He has been endorsed by the Republican Party in both Houston and Winona counties. Since 1996, Davis has been a staff physician in the radiation oncology department at Mayo Civic in Rochester, where he lives. He has a wife Lori, and four children.

You’ll have a chance to meet Davis this year in the Applefest King Apple Parade September 21.

All stories copyright 2006 Houston County News and other attributed sources.

Letter to the Editor: Tim Walz fails to grasp U.S. needs for oil

Albert Lea Tribune

Published Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The view of Congressman Tim Walz as reported in the Albert Lea Tribune on July 4 is a disgrace and lacks understanding of our oil needs.

1. Congressman Walz sided with rich coastal liberal elites whose limos and planes eat gas, but do they care?

2. Midwest farmers, factories and drivers depend on steady oil needs and prices, based on the market. (Prices need to go down.)

3. President Bush has long sought more drilling and oil for Americans.

4. Oil firms’ profits should encourage more drilling, refining, etc., and more oil now, which the U.S. needs as soon as possible.

5. Oil firms are mainly owned by pensions funds, IRAs and mutual funds.

6. More oil taxes are likely to be passed on to consumers and elites know all this, but feel average Americans should cut back.

7. All persons want wind, solar conservation, etc., but oil is now more realistic for average Americans and for many years to come. Alternatives yes, but more oil now ASAP.

8. Speculators buy and hold oil in anticipation of higher prices — which the plans of Walz and his liberal rich coastal elites will foster! They don’t produce more oil.

9. More drilling in new places found to have real potential is needed now to get oil? Oil leases with potential now are needed.

There is hope in Minnesota. First Congressional District Dr. Brian Davis has strongly supported more oil drilling, nuclear, coal, etc. Dr. Davis is also a medical expert, and we need to vote for him in 2008. There is hope, but we need to change the U.S. Congress majority in 2008.

Tom Schleck

Albert Lea

Stewartville Star: Davis says U.S. should drill for more oil offshore, in ANWR

Candidate for U.S. House visits Stewartville
Mark Peterson Editor

Monday, July 07, 2008

The United States can become much more energy independent by drilling for oil in areas Congress has deemed off limits, Republican First Congressional District U.S. Rep. candidate Brian Davis said last week.

Davis will face Republican state Sen. Dick Day in a Sept. 9 primary to determine who will run against Democratic incumbent Tim Walz in this November's general election. Davis spoke about his energy policy differences with Walz during a visit to the offices of the Stewartville STAR last week.

Up to 100 billion barrels of oil are available in offshore areas near the United States, and many billion barrels more could be found in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Davis said.

Drilling for more oil at home would decrease America's dependence on foreign oil and improve the U.S. economy, Davis said. However, Democrats in Congress have blocked proposed increases in domestic oil production, voting down proposals to drill for oil in offshore areas and in ANWR, Davis said.

"It's environmental radicalism that we're paying for at the gas pump," he said.

Davis criticized Walz's record of taxing and spending, saying that Walz ranks 394th among the 435 members of Congress on the Club For Growth Scale, which rates each lawmaker's votes on economic growth issues."Washington taxes too much and spends it all and then some," Davis said.

Davis, a physician at the Mayo Clinic since 1996, has called for a national policy to address the overabundance of malpractice lawsuits against doctors."Malpractice is driving doctors and hospitals out of business, which hurts our access to quality care," he said.

He is also calling for health care reform, saying that healthy individuals should be allowed to take their health insurance policies with them from job to job, across state lines or into retirement.

Also, people who make choices to live healthier lifestyles should be rewarded with lower insurance premiums, he said.

Davis said he believes the U.S. must stay on the offense against radical Islam in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he said he would favor allowing the Iraqi and Afghan people the opportunity to vote in referendums to determine whether they want American soldiers to stay.

"It's apparent that the surge has worked," he said. "It has given the government of Iraq a chance to become more stable."Davis describes himself as pro-life, stating in a campaign brochure that he will always vote in Congress to protect life and emphasizing that he will never backtrack from that position.

"We need to respect life and protect life," he said. More than 1 million babies are aborted each year in the United States, Davis said. Even so, some candidates look at abortion as just another political issue to the polled, spun and used in an election campaign, he said."It was once said that a civilization will be judged by how it treats those in the dawn of life and the sunset of life," he wrote in a campaign brochure. "I agree."

Davis said he is against embryonic stem cell research, saying that scientists can move closer to finding cures for various diseases without destroying human embryos in the process.

He defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Marriage, he said, is a fundamental building block of society."If civil unions are same-sex marriages by another name, then I am opposed to them," he said.

The California Supreme Court's recent decision to overturn the vote of the people and allow same-sex marriage is "a travesty," he said."If given the opportunity to vote on a constitutional amendment on this subject, I would vote in favor of defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman," he said.

Davis has put more than 40,000 miles on his car since he began campaigning for Walz's seat. As of last week, he had marched in 21 parades and planned to take part in Stewartville's Fourth of July Summerfest parade.

Davis earned a bachelor of science degree in nuclear engineering at the University of Illinois and worked for three years as an engineer in the electric power industry.

He and his wife Lori, an emergency medicine physician at the Mayo Clinic, have four children.

(Posted 7/13)

Minnesotans need real solutions to gas prices

Brian Davis, U.S. Congress Candidate, Worthington Daily Globe
Published Monday, June 30, 2008

ROCHESTER — As the price of oil and gas reach record levels and Minnesotans feel it in their pocketbooks, and small businesses in their bottom line, it’s the same old story in Congress: The Blame Game.

Congressman Walz’s strategy, based on his column last week, is to lay the blame on partisan politics and “Big Oil.”

Have the oil companies made big profits lately at the expense of us? Yes. Will the oil companies continue to have record profits as long as demand outpaces production? Yes.

But instead of throwing around blame, let’s talk about real solutions. Otherwise, $6-a-gallon gasoline could be just around the corner.

Affordable energy is the lifeblood of a modern economy. In the United States, over 90 percent of the energy consumed in transportation, heating and electricity comes from four sources: oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear power. In oil production, we are the world’s third-largest producer behind Saudi Arabia and Russia. Our coal reserves are the largest of any nation and we produce more nuclear energy on a yearly basis than anyone else. In Minnesota, we are among the leaders in the U.S. in ethanol and wind power production. It should be clear that we need to develop and maintain all sources of energy to keep our economy moving, not just one energy source or the other.

The United States has over 1.7 billion acres of offshore areas where nearly 95 percent have been closed to oil exploration since 1982. The Atlantic Coast, eastern Gulf of Mexico, Pacific and most of the Alaskan Coasts are off-limits. According to published Congressional research, these areas have an estimated total of over 80 billion barrels of oil. But, these are only estimates. Without allowing American oil companies to explore these regions, we won’t know how much is there.
What do Congressman Walz and others in Congress offer?

Blocking increased development of domestic oil supply in federal areas in all but a small portion of those available.Legislation that doesn’t produce one drop more of oil.

Cap-and-trade regulatory schemes for utilities and industries that will ultimately tax Americans trillions of dollars and hit rural electric cooperatives particularly hard.

More hearings and investigations.

Nationalizing the oil and refinery industries in the United States.

Unfortunately, the politicians in Congress have stood in the way of developing more energy sources in this country. In my view, we should:

Open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) where an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil exist. There already exists a pipeline in the adjacent Prudhoe Bay region, which contributes over 15 percent to our domestic oil supply. In 1995, President Clinton blocked development of ANWR and in 2002 and 2008 Congress blocked development of this area again.

Open the Outer Continental Shelf to safe oil and natural gas exploration — currently only 4 percent of the region is open and 60 percent of Americans favor its development.

Build more refinery capacity.

Reduce regulatory barriers to increase nuclear power production, a proven clean and safe form of electricity generation.

Continue to promote and develop alternative fuels and energy sources including ethanol, biodiesel and wind power.

As the endorsed Republican candidate in our First Congressional District, I hear daily the personal stories of Minnesotans who are being negatively impacted by the lack of leadership from the politicians in Washington. As individuals and our Nation feel the economic straitjacket tightening, we are faced with difficult choices. Americans deserve to know what solutions our elected representatives offer so that our future is secure and our children will know the American dream.

In reality, this is a debate that reveals the stark contrast between those who have lost faith in America’s ability to do great things and those of us who know we can.

We must move forward with developing additional American energy supplies, the sooner the better.

Brian Davis trained as a nuclear engineer and worked in the nuclear power industry. He is a physician and a Rochester resident.

Concerns About Our Latest Economic Indicators and Energy Costs

Increased Domestic Energy Production Needed to Sustain Economic Growth


For immediate release
January 10, 2008

(Rochester, MN) - Today, Brian Davis, Republican candidate and physician in Minnesota's First Congressional District, released a five point plan to put America on the path towards a sound energy policy. Citing the price of oil as leading our nation towards recession, Davis unveiled the plan on the eve of Republican debate in Rochester on Thursday.

Davis stated, "The current energy bill that passed Congress is inadequate, especially since the price of oil is pushing our economy towards recession. We need people in Congress with backgrounds in energy and those that have more faith in the free market system, than a system of government mandates. The politicians need to move away from rhetoric and take a level-headed look at the numbers and facts to achieve sustained economic growth and increased domestic energy production."

Added Davis, "There is a real possibility of a recession developing, because the cost of energy factors so much into our economy and contributes so heavily to our trade deficit, in fact, up to one-half of it."

The former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, remarked recently that the likelihood of recession is clearly rising, and that the unemployment rate for December increased from 4.7% to 5.0%.

Davis outlined the following proposals for us to move towards eventual energy independence:

• Open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Outer Continental Shelf for immediate exploration for oil and natural gas recovery.
• Continue developing alternative energy sources including ethanol, wind, solar power, and bio-diesel, but move away from mandates.
• Provide a stable regulatory environment that permits the development of nuclear power, an underutilized clean and safe source of electric energy.
• Remove automobile mileage standards and government imposed production mandates because they often work against the free market and have failed in the past. Let individuals decide what is best for them.
• Continue with laws to safeguard our air and environment from the known pollutants of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, lead and particulate matter.

"The bottom line: our government should be promoting policies which remove obstacles to increased production of the major sources of energy that fuel our economy: oil, natural gas, coal and uranium while still protecting the environment," said Davis.

Davis continued, "Our nation's energy policy and economic well-being should not be based on the deeply flawed theory that carbon dioxide produced from fossil fuel combustion will lead to catastrophic climate change. Eighty-six percent of our energy consumption is from fossil fuels."

"Congressman Walz is against opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration. He and others are just simply wrong about this," concluded Davis.

Dr. Davis, a physician in Rochester, was trained in nuclear engineering and mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He worked for several years in the electric power industry before entering the field of medicine. He and his wife, Lori, also a physician, live in Rochester with their four children.

For more detail, a letter to First District Republicans related to this topic is posted here.

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