COOK- Keith Steva, of Cook, said concern for the future of his grandchildren, all ten of them, is prompting him to seek the DFL endorsement in his quest to represent a huge swath of northeastern Minnesota in the state Legislature. Steva is passionate when it comes to addressing the threats posed by climate change and he hopes to highlight those concerns in a race for the Senate District 3 SEAT, now held by Independent Sen. Tom Bakk, of Cook. The district, which stretches from Lake Superior nearly to Lake of the Woods, is a region of the state that has already felt the effects of a warming climate.
Steva and his wife, Amy, have been involved for many years in climate change issues, and it was a conversation they had, Steva said, that caused him to set his sights on the Legislature.
“A scenario popped into our discussion about what our grandkids would say 30 or 40 years from now,” Steva said, “particularly if we don’t take action now and things are going toward the worst-case scenario – would they turn to each other and say, ‘They knew and they did nothing.’?”
That got the couple to thinking about what else they could do, and when they considered the gridlock over getting climate-related legislation passed in a divided Minnesota Legislature, hat in the ring.
“All I have to do is to show up and vote for the legislation and I’m making a difference,” he said. “So, that’s the why.”
Steva is anything but a one-trick pony when it comes to the issues. Equal in stature to climate issues are Steva’s concerns for families and workers, as illustrated on his website, keithsteva.com. Steva’s priorities for families, to name a few, include affordable housing, affordable quality day care and universal Pre-K, affordable quality healthcare, and affordable quality elder care. In the realm of work, Steva focuses on traditional areas such as the trades, iron mining, sustainable timber practices, and tourism, while also promoting 21st century jobs and high-tech employment. Underpinning those things is the training and education necessary to be successful in those occupations.
“We live in this district and we see and hear of the problems that families face,” Steva said. “While we have to look at the long-term climate change issue, we have problems today that we have to address as well. People are uncertain about their future. You have to deal with the future, but we also can’t turn our backS on what’s happening right now.”
Professional
background
Steva touts his extensive and successful career in the technology field as evidence of his ability to identify problems and opportunities and create team-oriented solutions to help businesses create jobs.
After obtaining a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota, Steva went to work for Digi-Key Electronics, an electronics distributor in Thief River Falls. Twenty-five years later, thanks in part to Steva’s efforts, that small company with a dozen employees had grown to be a $5 billion enterprise. Steva said he helped to create over 4,500 jobs.
He moved on to the West Coast, where he worked for large tech companies like eBay, Salesforce, Gateway 2000, and PayPal. His work with eBay took him to Shanghai, China for two years to create a technical support team for eBay China.
“I worked with the Chinese government, got the permits, found the location, hired and trained the people, and integrated them into eBay’s operations,” Steva said. “I learned a lot about people, cultures, and things like that.”
Before he could seriously consider retirement in the Midwest, Digi-Key came calling again, asking him to come back and help the company with some capacity issues.
“They asked me to come back for three weeks and it turned out to be three years,” Steva laughed.
To fix the problems, Steva became the company’s chief information officer, supervising a staff of 350 engineers and other technical workers to introduce new technologies, introduce new ways of developing software, and create plans for new systems and new jobs.
Economic
development
Steva is keen on developing the necessary infrastructure to support job growth of all kinds that will bring people to the largely rural Third District. But the traditional view of infrastructure as roads and bridges and water and power systems and such is too narrow to embrace Steva’s definition of the term. For him, infrastructure encompasses things that improve the quality of life in a community.
“First and foremost, you’ve got to have a place that people want to live,” he said.
That includes paying attention not only to workplaces and affordable quality housing, but to the social environment, too.
“Because a lot of these folks are younger, they like to get out and be social in the evenings and weekends,” he said. “There’s a lot that has to be there in place to draw people.”
And with an increasing number of businesses allowing their employees to work from a distance, having access to high-speed broadband and remote offices to work from should be in the mix, Steva said.
“And if we’re going to have a good infrastructure that’s appealing, we need to have the basic services like good education and good medical services in our communities,” he added. “Another thing I’m concerned about is our trades in the area. I have a project that I tried to line up with somebody last July and they’re going to come this spring. Just to get an electrician, they might literally be three months out before they can come do some work for you. So, we’re short on trades.”
Steva believes that making training and education for these varied careers accessible in the district, beginning with well-developed career pathways in public schools, will keep many people close to home.
“We want to provide a path for the people who live here and the young folks who live here to stay here,” he said.
When it comes to climate change, Steva readily volunteers that many of his ideas about what needs to be done have been shaped through the work he and Amy have done with The Nature Conversancy. Steva believes in “natural climate solutions” that manage our natural resources more effectively.
“Farmland, prairies, forests, wetlands and water all can be managed for climate change,” he said. “For example, farmers can use practices like no-till and cover crops, which in no way harm their ability to grow crops, and in fact might even be net positive for making it economically more desirable.”
Steva is also a proponent of letting forest trees grow longer before they’re harvested.
“That would absorb and bind more carbon into the wood,” he said. “At some point you will still harvest them and benefit from the wood products.”
Getting things done
Meanwhile, Steva’s likely opponent, Tom Bakk, has yet to decide if he is going to run for re-election, but Steva would like to see the seat go back to the DFL. As a freshman senator, Steva acknowledges he would lack some of the political clout Bakk has built up over the years, but believes he can make an impact through collaboration.
“My nature is, first of all, that I’m going to listen and not do a lot of talking,” Steva said. “From listening, other people feel heard, so you tend to start developing communication and a bond with people.”
And while Steva said the job would be easier if the DFL regained control of both houses of the legislature, collaboration is still the key to getting things done.
“Success rarely is done by individuals,” he said. “Success is usually achieved by a group that’s generally moving in the same direction. I’m going to be looking in two directions. I’ll be looking to my fellow DFL people, the people who are experienced, that have been there and know the who, the why, and the how. I’m not going to be the guy who comes up with 50 bills to solve the world’s problems. I’m going to be the guy to listen, make some suggestions to support people, and try to get ideas through.”
“Then the other direction,” Steva continued, “is that I have to look across the aisle, and I guess all you can do is look for any points that are opportunistically aligned, where Republican goals and our goals align. Would it be as much as we would like to have as Democrats? No, it will be far less. But whatever we can get through is better than getting nothing. It’s not like they’re the evil empire and you can’t talk to them. I’ll look to capitalize on opportunities to the extent I can.”
While Steva has a campaign website, keithsteva.com, a Facebook page, and YouTube channel with videos explaining his positions on various topics, he said he hadn’t actually made a formal announcement yet that he’s running. He was waiting on Tuesday’s release of court-drawn redistricting maps to be sure he wasn’t excluded from the district after the lines have been redrawn. But clearly, Steva is already in it to win it.
“We’ve got to do something for our grandchildren and future generations,” he said. “Time is running out, and playing around and talking isn’t going to cut it. We’ve got to take action and get it done the best we can.”