Beth Fraser "very very seriously considering" 64B run

Beth Fraser could very well be Deputy Secretary of State for the next 13 months. But even if she can’t keep her job after 2014, she’d like to keep her address. Fraser, in an interview today, confirmed that she’s thinking of running for the 64B seat, possibly moving into the House DFL caucus digs upstairs from her State Office Building office. "I’m very, very seriously considering running,” Fraser said. “I’ve been doing legislative and public policy work for 15 years and building a track record for getting things done and pushing progressive policy change at the state level.” Fraser has lived in St. Paul for most of the last decade, and for about a year and a half in 64B. She originally came to Minnesota after college, to work for the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, a year long service program that had her working in Minneapolis’ Jordan neighborhood. After that, she moved out to work on poverty issues in the suburbs and got a taste of public policy -- she says she helped pass a law that made it easier for home owners to sell their homes in mobile home parks. She says poverty and social justice issues remain a passion. She went on to work for the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action, a precursor, along with Progressive Minnesota, to TakeAction Minnesota. Fraser worked first as a policy organizer, then as the group’s public policy director. Fraser went to work for Secretary of State Mark Ritchie in 2007 and took the No. 2 position in the office in July. She’s worked on issues like absentee voting for out of state military personnel and voter registration reforms. She was also led the Secretary of State's office's public and legislative outreach effort on the 2012 Voter ID amendment. “I work very closely with legislators, drafting bills and doing a lot of testifying,” Fraser says. She says she will seek the DFL endorsement, and is working the phones this week to gauge interest in supporting her run.