Sen. Schmit's broadband support is key for Minnesota's growth

Surely, the silly season in campaign politics is upon us when Minnesota state Sen. Matt Schmit’s standing as a rural leader is called into question. Unfortunately, a Brainerd-area legislator did that last week — and the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. In this day and age, it seems the very least we can expect from our elected leaders is a modicum of integrity. Certainly the Gazelka letter violated that and many other standards. Through those efforts and in many other areas, Sen. Schmit has been a champion for rural Minnesota in his first term in office. He worked closely with rural legislators — including those from the Brainerd area — and many others from both sides of the aisle to create Minnesota’s nation-leading “Border-to-Border Broadband” competitive grant fund, which already has extended connectivity to more than 12,000 Minnesota homes and businesses in hard-to-serve areas of the state.