pam altendorf

Altendorf: People suffer under bad governments

Jul 22, 2026

Not long ago, I penned a column highlighting the human side of fraud. Minnesota’s $9 billion in fraud is a staggering number, and too often we don’t look past the dollar signs when considering the damage being caused by the rampant fraud in this state. There was the story of a Lake City family...

Rep. Altendorf: The human cost of fraud

Jun 3, 2026

An estimated $9 billion in fraud has been stolen from Minnesotans. It’s a staggering number. We hear this total and are outraged that we’ve been swindled out of our hard-earned money. We pay our property taxes knowing the impact this theft has had on taxpayers. Minnesota became a fraud magnet. We...

Altendorf: Put productivity over politics

Mar 25, 2026

Heading into the session and knowing that this was a huge election year in Minnesota with every statewide office being on the 2026 ballot, I predicted this year’s session was going to be high on theater, and low on productivity. Minnesota’s elected Democrats are not disappointing on that...

Verifying the vote is not too much to ask

Feb 25, 2026

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon denied a U.S. Department of Justice request to share the state’s voter roll data with the federal government. Other states cooperated and utilized tools to assure duplicate or dead voters were removed. That’s good governance. Despite what you hear, it is...

More local input needed on data centers

Oct 22, 2025

Not long ago, the City of Cannon Falls annexed more than 240 acres of land in Randolph Township in Goodhue County. The purpose: to allow a private developer to build a data center. Data center projects seem to be exploding all over the state, and this is the first one to be planned in our own...

Rep. Altendorf: A tribute to Speaker-Emerita Melissa Hortman

Jun 25, 2025

As I write this, it has only been a few days since I got up on Saturday morning and learned that Speaker-Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered, and State Senator John Hoffman and his wife had been shot in their homes by a lunatic. The following days were filled with mostly shock...

Early session holdout proves costly as special session looms

May 28, 2025

At the beginning of the 2025 session, I wrote that this was going to be yet another “historic” session. Boy, was it. With the House tallying 67 Republicans and 67 Democrats, most of us knew compromises were going to be necessary in order to move any bills forward. The problem was we couldn’t make...

Bluff View sixth graders meet their representative at State Capitol

May 14, 2025

State Representative Pam Altendorf (R-Red Wing) is pictured with sixth grade students from Bluff View Elementary School in Lake City. Rep. Altendorf visited with the group recently while they were touring the State Capitol in St. Paul, according to a news release.

Setting the record straight on ‘Democrat Dave’

Apr 30, 2025

In a recent letter posted in the Lake City Graphic, Rep. Pam Altendorf referenced a coffee meeting she had two years ago with a gentleman she dubbed “Democrat Dave.” That gentleman happens to be our father. While the meeting did happen, her version of events doesn’t quite line up. First, it was...

Altendorf: Political scene is getting ugly

Apr 23, 2025

The political scene, both at the national and state levels, is getting ugly. Like dangerously ugly. There was a time when a Republican and Democrat could respectfully disagree with one another on a topic and move on with life. That no longer seems to be the case. Let’s review just a handful of...