Tomorrow, Minnesota Governor Dayton will be releasing his budget proposal, the first since his DFL Party regained control of the Legislature after the 2012 election. And then, as always, there will be strongly worded interest group reactions. Oh yes, there WILL be reactions.
Rather than have to wait another moment for the reactions, Wry Wing’s political prophesier has drunk the special brew that allows him to see the future. Here is what Professor Prophesier sees in the mist: Continue reading
The Star Tribune’s Kevin Diaz is covering an interesting story about an ugly battle happening inside Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s 2012 presidential campaign circles. The coverage details allegations made by an evangelical leader named Peter Waldron who worked as a national field coordinator for the Bachmann-for-President staff.
Mr. Waldron is accusing Bachmann of several things, including complex and serious violations of Federal Election Commission (FEC) spending laws. But at the visceral core of Waldron’s allegations, he is also blowing the whistle on the fact that Bachmann refused to pay Waldron and his campaign allies, at the same time she was paying a lot of money to a political consultant, Guy Short, and an Iowa Republican party official, Kent Sorenson. This as much about the IOU as the FEC. Continue reading
WCCO-TV’s Pat Kessler tweets that Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk (DFL-Virginia) wants to reduce Republican payrolls because of the over $200,000 in legal expenses associated with the contested firing of Senate staffer Michael Brodkorb after Brodkorb had an affair with Bakk’s predecessor, then Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch.
This raises Golden Ruley questions, such as: Continue reading
Saint Paul, MN — Minnesota Senate Republicans today detailed a series of suggested improvements for the new social studies standards originally proposed by the Dayton Administration’s Minnesota Department of Education.
In a letter to the Department, Senate Republicans suggested a number of “pro-America reforms,” including:
So, Norm Coleman won’t rule out a run for Minnesota Governor. Well, let’s see, what has Norm been doing to ingratiate himself with Minnesota voters since he lost to Al Franken in 2008? He:
1) Moved out of Minnesota at the first opportunity.
2) Became a Super PAC (Congressional Leadership Fund) political hit man doing the dirty work for a group of Tea Party-controlled House members sporting a 9% approval rating, an all-time historic low.
Minnesota local government leaders have a perennial beef with the Legislature about “unfunded mandates,” onerous requirements imposed on local governments by the state government.
But sometimes state mandates are very, very necessary.
Ladies and gentlemen of the State Legislature, I beg of you, for the good of all Minnesotans, for all that is good and right in the world, for THE CHILDREN, please ban city mayors like Duluth’s Don Ness from ever, ever, EVER, making another “dance” video like this… Continue reading
A while back, a communications strategist for the Minnesota House Republicans took umbrage with my assertion that the 2012 GOP-controlled Legislature had a historically low approval rating of 17% in part because Republican legislators were:
“Wasting all their time on constitutional amendments to limit Minnesotans’ freedoms to marry and vote.”
He took exception with my use of the word “all.” To his credit, the Umbrage Taker was wielding supportive data, which earned him extra credit in my book. I have no reason to dispute the data, and found them interesting, so I am happy to share them to hereby clear the record:
In case you haven’t heard, there is a Vikings-Packers game happening this Sunday that has playoff implications. A couple people seem to be interested in it. It’s reportedly an even bigger deal than the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
So, of course, now is the time when rival state politicians customarily make a sporting bet over who will win, to prove to the commoners that they are just regular Joes obsessing about football like everyone else.
Usually the bet is pretty predictable. If Minnesota wins, Green Bay pays in cheese. If Green Bay wins, Minnesota pays in pork, or whatever industry the politician wants to court. Hilarity ensues. We all can’t get enough of it. It’s one of the most hackneyed and enduring rituals in American politics.
But how about we spice things up with some more culturally appropriate gifts? Continue reading
Then presidential candidate Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN) famously flapped her titanium jaw bone about having a “titanium spine” that would never bend under pressure from those she labels “anti-America.”
Well, Governor Mark Dayton proved he had a strong spine when he stood up to Republicans pushing draconian spending cuts on the most vulnerable Minnesotans in their all-cuts budget.
He proved he had a bipartisan backbone when he built a bipartisan coalition to get the Vikings stadium deal done where other Governors had failed for a decade. Continue reading
Gun Barrel City, TX — Tea Party activists announced today a sweeping proposal to reform America’s much criticized Electoral College presidential section process.
“When you look at a 2012 election map that reports results by county, it’s clear who really won the presidential election,” said Bud Remington, President of Tea Party Battalion. “Don’t get confused by the junk science pushed by the east coast liberal elite, because anyone with common sense can tell by a glance of the map that the election was stolen in a treasonous act.”
Minnesota Representative Tony Cornish (R-Good Thunder) has an idea. Let’s put guns in schools, so that we can defend our kids from armed attacks.
I don’t doubt that Representative Cornish’s intentions are pure. I really don’t. We all want to come up with ways to prevent future Newtown-like tragedies, and the answers aren’t easy.
But when emotions are running high, it’s always important to beware of the Law of Unintended Consequences. Continue reading
A little less than a year ago, I blogged at The Same Rowdy Crowd about One Minnesota Ballot Initiative I Could Support.
In said blog, Captain Obvious pointed out that Minnesota is supposed to have a representative democracy, where we elect leaders to make decisions for us, rather than a direct democracy, where elected officials pass the decision-making buck back to the voters who elected them to make decisions.
My specific complaint was about Minnesota conservatives’ rush toward a rash of constitutional amendments as a means of bypassing the normal two-branch lawmaking process, which includes a liberal Governor in possession of a veto pen.
I then proposed, somewhat cheekily, that: Continue reading
“You get what you pay for.” It’s a well worn cliché in capitalistic societies, for a very good reason. It is usually true.
If you hire a cheap lawyer, mechanic or tattoo artist, they are disproportionately likely to do a worse job than a more expensive lawyer, mechanic or tattoo artist. Not always, but often.
Therefore, what are we to make of this: The median annual income of someone over 25 years old who has a bachelor’s degree and a full-time job is $56,078 per year, but duly elected members of the Minnesota legislature are paid only $31,141 per year. Continue reading
If you want a glimpse of what Minnesota would have been like if conservative gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer had defeated Mark Dayton in 2010, our neighbor to the west, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard, is showing us. Since it’s the Christmas season, think of Daugaard as akin to Jacob Marley’s ghost from Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, introducing us to the Ghost of Minnesota Past.
To prove to his Republican base just how much he hates Obamacare, Governor Daugaard has refused to accept $11 billion in federal money to extend health care coverage to about 48,000 uninsured South Dakotans. Daugaard is taking the same position championed by Minnesota’s former Governor Tim Pawlenty, Emmer, and Dickens’ character Ebenezeer Scrooge, who turned a blind eye to Tiny Tim’s medical plight. Continue reading
Don’t you dare feel sorry for 2010 Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner. Yes, because of his electoral set-back Horner doesn’t have the Governor’s bully pulpit to promote his center right ideas, though he does have his new non-profit, NextMinnesota. And of course, he isn’t able to exercise the gubernatorial power to pardon turkeys. That still has to sting a little.
But according to this weekend’s Star Tribune, the tax reform agenda that will be put forth by Horner’s DFL opponent Mark Dayton in 2013 may look a whole lot like the platform that Horner ran on in 2010. Continue reading
If the new DFL-controlled Legislature dares to raise the minimum wage, strengthen the social safety net or make the state tax system more progressive, reporters will surely characterize the moves as political payoffs to DFL constituencies. Mainstream news reporters have fallen into a habit of covering policymaking like it is nothing more than a politically motivated auction of gifts for special interest.
To be sure, those policies help traditional DFL constituencies, and political motives are very much in the mix. But beyond crass vote-buying, there is also a pretty darn good reason to help low- and middle-income Minnesotans.
Minnesota is increasingly becoming a land of haves and have nots. From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes that poorest Minnesotans have seen their incomes decrease by 3%, the middle quintile has experienced a 2% decline, and the wealthiest have enjoyed an increase of about 6%. Therefore, Minnesota’s income inequality gap has been growing. Continue reading
Newly minted Minnesota House Elections Committee Chairman Steve Simon (DFL-St. Louis Park) may be trying to bring early voting to Minnesota.
Hallelujah. After all, a goal of any democracy should always be to foster democratic participation. Early voting improves democratic participation by 1) expanding the participation time window to fit more voters’ busy schedules and 2) mitigating Election Day barriers, such as chaotic environments and long waiting times.
Still, you can bet that Minnesota GOPers will cry “fraud” and “savings” as reasons to oppose early voting. But if you want to know what GOPers are really saying to each other behind closed doors when they talk about why to oppose early voting, listen to the remarkably candid remarks from a top Republican leader in a state that has recently dramatically cut back on early voting: Continue reading
The last few years haven’t been the easiest for Minnesotans. During the Great Recession, Minnesota lost about 150,000 jobs, including about one quarter of all construction jobs. We’re now trending in the right direction, but a lot of Minnesotans have been hurting for a long time.
But it’s Thanksgiving, so it’s time to put it all in perspective and focus on what we do have.
One thing that I feel thankful about is this: Of all the places I could have ended up on the planet, I ended up in the United States, and specifically Minnesota. If I had lived my life in Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan or any Third World or war torn nation, life would be obviously very different.
How lucky am I to be living in Minnesota? Well, you have nothing in life wtihout your health, and I live in a state with the best medical care and health in the nation. Education opens the doors to prosperity and fulfillment, and the Minnesota schools we collectively fund produce the best college entrance scores in the nation. Minnesota is in the top five for quality of life, and, it looks pretty good for my kids and grandkids too, because Minnesota is projected to be the second best place to live in 2032. Continue reading
“It’s not that Republicans have the wrong message…” – Amy Koch, GOP Former Senate Majority Leader
“As I read you some state spending cuts being considered to fix the budget deficit, please tell me which one would be most acceptable to you.
8%: Reducing health care assistance for lower income people, the elderly and disabled
13%: Reducing aid to cities and counties
15%: Reducing aid to colleges and universities”Star Tribune Minnesota Poll
“…it is how we are delivering the message…” – Koch
“By a whopping 2-1 margin, Minnesotans blame the Republicans who control both houses of the Legislature for Continue reading
There are hordes of leadership consultants out there offering advice, and a lot of the advice is pretty much the same: Set a goal for the result you hope to achieve, and make a plan to focus all of your future efforts toward achieving the goal. Duh. It’s not a unique insight, but it does work.
Therefore, as the incoming DFL-controlled Legislature prepares its agenda for the 2013 legislative session, I have some mind-numbingly stale advice to offer them: Think about the one sentence reply that you want to be able to give when 2014 swing voters ask “Why should we re-hire you?” Then build your 2012-2014 legislative workplan around that reply, and stick to the plan.
