Rice woman files for District 15B House seat

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

For the first time in 20 years, Karla Scapanski will not be tending a home garden this summer. She’ll be too busy campaigning.

Friends and supporters of Scapanski of rural Rice will host a campaign kick-off for her DFL effort to unseat Rep. Jim Newberger (R-Becker) for House District 15B in the Nov. 8 election. Newberger is now serving his second term.

The chicken-dinner fundraiser and kick-off will take place from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, June 2 at “Mr. Jim’s” bar and restaurant, 840 Hwy. 23 in Foley. Those who plan to attend should make reservations by calling 320-237-1068.

“In District 15B there are 20 townships, four school boards and special summer events all the way from Royalton to Becker,” said Scapanski in an interview with the Sauk Rapids-Rice Newsleader. “I’ll be very busy, and I’ll be knocking on 3,000 doors.”

Scapanski said she decided to file for the House seat because there are so many issues she cares about passionately through her long-time experiences: education, children’s social development, the Sherco coal plant in Becker, the condition of roads and bridges, the extension of the Northstar commuter rail to St. Cloud and possibly Rice.

“I would like most to be part of the House Education Committee,” she said. “We’ve got to start educating and helping children early enough so they don’t end up in more and more prisons.”

Her passion is not surprising. Scapanski is a day-care operator; she has worked at the St. Cloud Correctional Facility (prison); she subs for teachers in Rice, Royalton, Foley and Becker; she has worked with troubled kids; and she is currently just a few courses away from earning her associate degree in child development.

Scapanski, 49, and her husband, Steve, own and operate a dairy farm of about 100 cows a mile north of Mayhew Lake Road. They have four children: Abby, 21, who is studying to be an animal dietician in Fargo; Katelyn, 18, studying in Duluth to be a naturalist; Anna, 16, a junior at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School; and Anthony, 12, a student at Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School.

Scapanski began pondering an entry into the world of politics several years ago when there were efforts to unionize in-home day-care operations in Minnesota. As a 15-year day-care operator herself, Scapanski was at first not sure about unionization, but she made a point to find out what was happening. It wasn’t long before she became disgusted by lobbyists from out of state in the “Right to Work” movement, backed by “big money,” who came to Minnesota to denigrate unionization efforts with what Scapanski considered distortions and outright lies.

“We’ve lost almost 4,000 day-care businesses in just the last few years,” she said. “We need to have some form of statewide organization to help us, and I don’t care if it’s called a union or what else it’s called. We must strengthen ourselves through some kind of collective bargaining.”

Scapanski’s campaign themes include the value of education, the need to strengthen small businesses (including farms), the sanctity of life, improving infrastructure and “launching our children into good-paying jobs.”

Background

Scapanski (nee Knesse) grew up in St. Stephen and graduated from Sartell High School in 1985. She then earned a degree in criminal justice from St. Cloud State University.

She worked in the planning unit of the St. Cloud prison where she kept wondering how in the world do people end up in prison? A die-hard idealist, Scapanski was determined to make the world a better place and help diminish suffering, the kind of suffering she saw happen at the prison.

Later, she worked at Bar None, a residential treatment facility for troubled kids between St. Francis and Anoka.

“Some of those kids were unwanted and ended up being cycled from place to place,” she said.

While working at Bar None, she also spent time working with students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District’s before- and after-school programs.

Scapanski believes her experiences working with and nurturing children have constantly kindled her passion to change the world.

“I’m getting people together,” she said. “I’m doing this campaign with no money so far. We’ve got to start investing more in kids. This campaign will take a lot of my time, but I know when you have a passion to change things, you make the time.”

Scapanski has no patience for chronic complainers.

“I’m sick of hearing complainers,” she said. “By complaining all the time, they just become part of the problem. I want to make a difference, and I will go through all the hoops to do that.”