Issues & Initiatives
Fixing Our Infrastructure
Our district’s Infrastructure is severely outdated. Highway 65 is a dangerous, destructive, and detrimental part of our city that must be addressed and fixed. With over 51,000 vehicles traveling on it per (more than 35W) and on average 50 accidents per year, we cannot afford to wait any longer to fix this issue.
Ashton (like most of our residents) has waited years for something to be done about Highway 65. There are serious repercussions for inaction, such as more accidents, injuries, and fatalities, heavier traffic leading to higher carbon emissions, furthering the climate crisis, and the moving of businesses out of Blaine due to traffic congestion straining the supply chain.
Ashton’s plan for getting Highway 65 rebuilt consists of working with other State Legislators, Blaine’s City Council, and the MNDOT Commissioner to secure state and federal funding from the Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Plan in order to have construction immediately following his election.
Ashton promises that within his first term in office, he will secure the funding to help construct a modern Highway 65; one that works to keep our residents safe and our local businesses running efficiently.
Mental Health Reform
The lack of mental health support for high school students in the state of Minnesota is unacceptable. Minnesota has the third worst student to counselor ratio in the country. This is a frightening statistic. Counselors are there to help students achieve their career goals, promote academic achievement, and provide short-term emotional support. They are unable to perform this job if they continue to be overwhelmed by a lack of resources available to them.
Ashton’s experience as a health unit coordinator in child adolescent behavioral mental health has exposed him to the extremely high cost of not providing these fundamental resources to our kids and the detriment it has on our hospitals.
Ashton believes that in order to have a more effective and efficient hospital system, to lower the cost of medical expenses, and to reduce the number of youth suicides and mental health crises each year, we much provide a network of mental health resources to students in high schools. He plans to introduce legislation which would require all public high schools to have at least two (dependent on school size) trained mental health-specific professionals on staff, paid for by the state and county. These staff members would work in conjunction with current school counselors to ensure that our children receive the mental health resources they need to thrive at school. Investing in our mental health system will help prevent tragedies and create a support system on which all current and future generations may rely.
Senior Citizens
Senior citizens are the backbone and most essential part of our community. These citizens worked hard to make Blaine the great place it is today.
Having worked with the Minnesota Board on Aging, Ashton believes there is no reason that when our generations retire, they should be shackled with debt or be expected to pay burdensome property taxes.
Ashton believes that our senior citizens deserve a cut in their property taxes, social security taxes, and more equitable access to resources for when they retire.
Jobs
Local businesses provide entry-level retail jobs which are a massive part of our community. With the urbanization of our cities, however, and the moving of many of these local businesses out of our cities, we must reevaluate our priorities and begin to work to make spaces where small businesses can thrive.
As your elected official, Ashton will work to keep our retail sector a thriving beacon of economic success.
Public Safety
ASHTON DOES NOT SUPPORT THE DEFUNDING OF THE POLICE.
Let’s be clear, Ashton strongly believes in police reform statewide, however, he understands that reform starts with first analyzing how our own police department operates.
The Blaine Police Department (BPD) is one of the finest and most modern police departments in the state of Minnesota. With their advanced training on non-lethal intervention, strong emphasis regarding having mental health responders on call, and extensive background checks required to become an officer, Ashton believes the rest of the state should take note and use our department as a standard for how police reform is approached statewide. Through proper training and remaining community oriented, Blaine can have a police force that is respected by all citizens and serves as an example for other departments state and nationwide.
Education
Good education is an essential and indispensable part of a thriving community. As a graduate of the local Head-Start program, Ashton is a direct outcome of how providing low-income families support in Pre-K education can help a student succeed.
Studies show that having universal Pre-K education can help improve the quality of our children’s performance going into K-12. Investing in education will help build a more innovative workforce, provide students with better educational opportunities in college or trade school, and help bring more jobs to our city. For our community to move towards a better tomorrow, we must provide a fair and equitable education for all students today.
Poverty & Homelessness
According to the 2020 Census, Anoka County has a poverty rate of 6.2%. This means that nearly 23,000 people are living in poverty in Anoka County.
As the famous author Maya Angelou wrote, “If it is true that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, isn’t it also true a society is only as healthy as its sickest citizen and only as wealthy as its most deprived?”
As a community, we must work together to identify those who are struggling and help provide them with resources to help them rise out of poverty. By investing in these communities, we would be
Climate Change & Environment
“Climate change, global warming, the greenhouse effect.”
It does not matter how you think of it or how you frame it, climate change exists and it is destroying our beautiful Minnesotan ecosystem.
This past year alone, we experienced the hottest summer and the poorest air quality in our state’s history. An avid fisherman, Ashton was disheartened to see so many streams dried up and lakes with low water levels. For many of us, we know that we must move toward greener energy solutions, and the state legislature must act immediately to help secure our environment for generations of future Minnesotans to come.
As your elected official, Ashton promises to support legislation concerning sustainability in MN and tackle the environmental issues we face today so that our children and grandchildren may see our stunning lakes and visit our breathtaking state parks for decades to come.