County fairs have long been a place for politicians to meet and rally potential voters.

The Mower County Fair is no exception.

Wednesday, Norm Coleman, republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, visited the fair to meet Mower County residents and discuss what issues are important to him with voters. "There are only 90, 92 days left before the election and every one is meaningful," he said.

He also said he believes that as a senator, he will "face the same challenges I did as mayor of St. Paul."

Some of those challenges include whether or not "we're building communities our kids want to come back to? They'll only come back if there are jobs for them. It's all about growing jobs," he explained. "We also need to think about our farmers. Where is their future? Where are the opportunities for them to grow and produce? We lost 10,000 family farms in the past year and 7,000 of those were dairy farms."

Coleman also emphasized that it is important to him "to save renewables, but you can't set incredibly high mandates. You need balance to move forward. I want to develop our resources, but you can't do that to the extreme."

He added that as senator, "You gotta be bold, you gotta be aggressive. You have to take responsibility for what happens under your watch and that's what I'll do."

Amanda L. Rohde can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at amanda.rohde@austindailyherald.com