Phyllis Kahn

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Phyllis Kahn is a retired professor of Biophysics and a DFL Representative in the Minnesota State Legislature for District 59B. Educated at Cornell (B.A. in Physics), Yale (Ph.D. in Biophysics), and Harvard (M.P.A.) Universities, Phyllis Kahn has been a long-time advocate for education, health care and medical technology, agriculture and the natural environment, and human rights, particularly for senior citizens and women.

Kahn was elected to represent Minneapolis in 1972 and has continuously served since that time, most recently winning re-election in 2006. As of the end of the 2005-2006 Legislative Session, she serves on a number of House committees, including Capital Investment and State Government Finance, and is the lead DFL on Governmental Operations and Veterans Affairs. Due to the 2006 DFL takeover of the Minnesota House, Kahn will most likely chair Governmental Operations and Veterans Affairs, as this is the custom, though until the session begins this will be unsure.

Kahn has a reputation for advocating positions not taken by many others. She was the chief author and advocate of the 1975 Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act; one of the first laws enacted anywhere in the world banning the smoking of tobacco in public places. This law has been used as a template for virtually all later legislation to protect the public from "second hand smoke", and was updated and expanded in 2005. In 1989, she proposed reducing the voting age in Minnesota to 12 years. She said "history has shown us that when a segment of society is denied the right to vote, all the rights of that segment of society are then inferior."

In 2004, Kahn was charged with theft for removal of Republican campaign literature from doorsteps of several houses[1]. She plead guilty and paid a $200 fine.