Tracking Minnesota Politics Since 2005
Last week, we reported that David Carlson, a candidate for the State Senate in Eagan, had retweeted a tweet containing a racial slur directed at President Obama. It turns out that just two weeks later Governor Tim Pawlenty hosted a fundraiser for Carlson. According to Carlson’s website, Pawlenty appeared at a $100/person event for Carlson on January 11. I wonder what Tim Pawlenty thinks of David Carlson’s twitter habits?
If that weren’t bad enough, Carlson decided to throw some rocks in his glass house, using twitter to publically criticize fellow Republican State Senate candidate Mike Parry for his (nearly identical) twitter troubles. Parry, while a candidate for the State Senate seat vacated by Dick Day, got in some hot water for writing that President Obama was a “Power Hungry Arrogant Black Man” and subsequently scrubbing the tweet (and forty others) from twitter. Carlson responded by tweeting: “Good thing Team Carlson does not condone such behavior on twitter.” Carlson appears to have had second thoughts about this tweet as well, as it also has been removed. Fortunatley, a loyal reader has preserved the tweet for posterity and it is also available after the jump.
At www.racinonow.com, the official website of the group Day will lead, the State Senator figures prominently in a video introduction. Three things about this video struck me as interesting.
First, Senator Day is still a member of the Minnesota Legislature, but he’s already lobbying and extolling the virtues of a racino.
Second, notice what Senator Day is wearing in the opening scene. He’s outside the Capitol, wearing a sport coat (not an overcoat), with no hat, no gloves, and an open collar. I am pretty sure this scene was not filmed this week, given the not insignificant blizzard that graced our great state. That means Senator Day was working for a lobbying group before he even announced that he was going to resign from the Legislature!
Lastly, if you skip to the end of the video, you’ll see Senator Day sitting behind a desk and speaking to the camera. For readers unfamiliar with the Minnesota Capitol complex, that office is very clearly Senator Day’s official office in the State Office Building. Dick Day was literally lobbying from his State Senator’s office.
I don’t know if Senator Day broke the law by lobbying while still a member of the Minnesota Legislature (and using his taxpayer funded office to boot) but even if it isn’t illegal, it sure is unethical.
In case Racino Now pulls the ad off their website, we’ve captured it and put it after the jump.
I know the man in this video. He’s not a close friend, or a family member, but I recognize his face. When I worked for Amy Klobuchar in 2006, one of my responsibilities was to walk down the street to KSTP every so often and check the public file to find out who was buying ad time and how much they were spending. The man in this video, Mark, worked at the front desk. I remember him as being an unnaturally friendly man. He seemed to know the name of every single person who came through the lobby, and he even remembered my name after only two or three visits. I am sad to learn of Mark’s misfortune. I think its all too easy, especially when you are dealing with a problem as big as a multi-billion dollar deficit, to focus on the numbers and forget the human consequences of budgeting. But when you see how someone you know will be directly affected by these proposed cuts, it really brings it home.
After watching a video like this one, its easy to understand why the DFL legislators at the Capitol are unwilling to go along with Gov. Pawlenty’s budget. Its reckless and cold-hearted.
That can be a problem, though, when you come across legislators who actually know what they’re doing. One such legislator is Larry Pogemiller, the Senate Majority Leader, who excoriated Finance Commissioner Tom Hanson yesterday.
Pogemiller had a simple argument: Spending shifts are not at all the same thing as budget cuts. Shifts, obviously, need to be paid back. They’re not true savings, they’re just procrastination. That’s why Minnesota law now requires the budget to be balanced over four years, not just two. Over four years, the Governor’s budget runs a deficit of $2.6 billion.
The Governor says that he can fix the budget without raising revenues, but the fact is that he can’t. He has only “balanced” the budget if you ignore billions of dollars in spending shifts and new borrowing, and pretend that we’ll never have to pay for them.
Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher also chimed in, saying the Governor’s budget was not ready for prime time. Watch that video after the break.
That’s why I’m disappointed with an amendment in the Minnesota Senate by none other than Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller:
The original omnibus proposal by chair Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) [PIM item] would have imposed across-the-board income tax increases that sunset in 2014. Pogemiller’s amendment changes the sunset provision by causing the new rates to blink off, or to be reduced, in the event that any February revenue forecast prior to 2014 indicates that the state’s general fund will be balanced as of June 30 of that year.
Sure, it sounds great politically. Pogemiller is sending the message that we’re only raising taxes because we’re in a crisis, and we’ll undo it as soon as possible. The problem is that our budget crisis won’t really be over when the recession ends. It will only end when we start regularly taking in more revenue than we spend on a regular basis. That means higher taxes and fewer services — not just in this biennium, but for decades.
I don’t agree with all the choices being made by leaders in either house, but I do appreciate that they’re doing what needs to be done. The legislature is well on its way to balancing to budget by raising taxes and cutting spending. The House and Senate each released a tax increase plan this week, and now the House Health and Human Services Finance Division has approved a funding bill that would make $400 million in cuts.
Ultimately, there will probably have to be deeper cuts to Health and Human Services funding, but DFLers have made a good start so far. They seem to recognize that everyone will have to make sacrifices in order to balance the budget; there’s simply no way around that, unfortunately. It’s probably not going to make them popular — nobody likes being asked to make sacrifices — but I think Minnesotans will appreciate that the DFL leadership has made some tough choices that will benefit our state in the long run.
Once bills in the legislature get so large and complicated that citizens are unable to follow them, we can no longer truly stay involved in the legislative process. It’s nearly impossible to follow these bills without paid staff; thus, ordinary citizens need to rely on special interest groups to stay informed towards the end of the legislative session.
Many Minnesotans praise our system of part-time citizen legislators, but I would gladly trade our system for one in which the combination of bills into large omnibus bills is prohibited, even if the legislators needed to work for most of the year.
Conservatives like Tim Pawlenty love to talk about responsibility. They complain that stimulus money is going to people who don’t deserve it. They say that lower- and middle-class Americans have been irresponsible with their money. But why is it that they see no need to act responsibly themselves?
Governor Pawlenty has a responsibility to Minnesotans. Just as Americans need to be responsible with their family’s finances, the Governor has and obligation to be responsible with the state’s finances. He has a responsibility to protect our common wealth and keep our state strong for the future.
Instead, his budget is reckless and irresponsible, made with his own national ambitions in mind, rather than the good of our state. Just think what he and his fellow conservatives would say about a person who treated their household budget like Pawlenty has treated the state budget. What would they say about a regular Minnesotan who shared some of Pawlenty’s “solutions” to our budget problem?
Taking out new credit cards to make your existing credit card payments is a sign that you have a serious problem. Once a family starts engaging in these desperate budget tricks, things tend to unravel quickly, and it’s no different for our government. The Governor can’t make ends meet, and he’s rapidly pulling us into a spiral of debt. But even though the bills are piling up, he won’t stop giving gifts to his rich friends like a corporate income tax reduction.
If Minnesota were a household instead of a state, Pawlenty would say we shouldn’t get any stimulus money. He would say we don’t deserve it — we’ve made bad choices, and now we have to live with the consequences of our actions.
It’s time for the DFL-controlled legislature to stand up to Pawlenty and pass a responsible budget. We need a budget that will put an end to the constant deficits we’ve experienced under Pawlenty’s “leadership.” The budget will certainly have to have spending cuts in it; there’s simply no way to avoid them. But a responsible plan would also raise revenues to make sure we can afford to pay for our childrens’ schools. We can’t keep telling our children “we’ll pay you next year.”
Every Sunday, Minnesotans pour over borders to liquor stores in North Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa in search of alcohol.
Under proposed legislation by Rep. Tom Anzelc, DFL-Balsam Township, these Minnesotans would be able to buy alcohol at local liquor stores with the state’s share of tax revenue dedicated to funding of county children’s social services.
State revenue from sales tax on Sundays could equal up to $10 million a year, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, an industry group that supports less-restrictive liquor laws.
The state’s share of sales tax revenue would be put into a special fund for county children’s services — an area of funding threatened with cuts as lawmakers scramble to balance an almost $5 billion state deficit.
Now, 10 million is just a tiny fraction of our massive deficit, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pass this bill. Our state’s ban on alcohol purchases on Sundays is a relic of a time long since past. Blue laws like this one should be repealed, and the extra tax revenue is just a bonus.
The current chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee is Sen. Robert Byrd. Byrd is 91 and rumors are swirling that he will be replaced this year by Sen. Daniel Inouye (a sprightly 84). That would mean that Inouye would have to give up his spot as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, which would go to Sen. Jay Rockefeller. Rockefeller, in turn, would have to be replaced as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee - a position that would go to Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein is currently chair of the Rules Committee and that seat would go to Sen. Chuck Schumer. Schumer is chair of the Joint Economic Committee. The next most senior Democrats are Sen. Edward Kennedy and Sen. Jeff Bingaman. But Kennedy is already chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and Bingaman is chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. That leaves our very own Amy Klobuchar as the most senior Democratic Senator on the Joint Economic Committee.
But, it turns out Amy won’t get the gavel after all. The Joint Economic Committee consists of members of both the House and the Senate and the Chair passes back and forth between the chambers each Congress. Because Sen. Schumer was the Chair last Congress, Rep. Carolyn Maloney will likely by the Chair this time around.
The Secretary of State’s office says Olson has filed paperwork to have any write-in votes cast for him counted in the November general election. State law requires such a filing for the votes to count.
Okay SD 16 GOP: I know you guys are a little bit upset that your endorsed candidate was overruled by the elitists in the party but please: get over it. Alison Krueger, if she defeats the DFL challenger, will be a fantastically obedient servant to the state party leadership and your senate district should be proud.
Sure, her stances on the issues are “coming soon” and most of the lit pieces that were carpet-bombed on your district were dropped by the humorously named “Senate Victory Fund” located in Saint Paul and chaired by a guy in Rochester. What that means is that your state party really, truly cares that another rubber stamp for the GOP elite exists to make places like Mille Lacs and Sherburne counties proud to have a bought-out, corrupt minion that will vote their way for the betterment of the party and not the people they represent. The SD 16 GOP should stand behind this ”principled, dedicated and accessible” Alison Krueger, even if she doesn’t actually stand for anything other than having a general belief in transportation and beats the drums for drilling everywhere.
Maybe you have more questions, you should look back to Norm Coleman in 2002. Remember that the Bush White House came in and said (paraphrasing) “Hey, Coleman’s our guy. We’ll make sure he gets elected. We’ve made sure he’ll work for us. Everyone else get out of the race.”
That’s why we don’t have a Senator Pawlenty and that’s why the the Republicans didn’t have a serious endorsement contest. Remember how ticked off some people were about the leadership in Washington DC picking a former DFLer to be Minnesota’s Senate candidate? Remember how ticketed off some people were about the idea there may have been many better choices to represent the GOP from Minnesota in Washington? It doesn’t matter. He was hand-picked from the top and he got a ton of support from high places. Look at what we got in return!
Someone who voted almost 90% of the time with George W. Bush. Someone that could be trusted, even as a freshman Senator, to chair the powerful Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and not do a single investigation on anything that might adversely affect war profiteering, the excessive privatization of the war (primarily to a certain company Cheney used to be the CEO of) and all the billions lost in Iraq in other ways. Someone who instantly can be wrapped up in the culture of corruption with big oil and shake out policy in the interest of those who helped him gain his seat. Coleman instantly gained a ton of friends with big pockets and they help each other over and over again. That’s success right?
Senate District 16, this is the kind of strong, obedient leadership you can expect out of Alison Krueger at the state level. She pledged that she wouldn’t even run against Olson but it doesn’t matter: when you have friends at the top, you can be pretty powerful. I see Krueger as someone that, if elected, would rise pretty quickly. Don’t you think it is a little selfish to think the Senator from SD 16 should be representing SD 16? You guys should be thankful that the elitists care enough to hand pick a soldier they can own to even be from one of your counties.
Olson says he is planning a write-in campaign in November and indicated he felt some votes were missing, uncounted from Orrock and Zimmerman.
“I’m filing the paperwork as we speak,” he said Thursday. “People are very upset about how awful, how malicious their campaigning practices were. The only way to get it all out there is a continued campaign.”
Olson blamed legislative leaders in St. Paul for contributing to his defeat, saying they cut him off at the knees with illegal campaign brochures.
“There is something wrong with this picture. Candidates who are brought and sold never represent the people. They represent the people who brought them,” he said. “There is a cause here. There is corruption involved. Money and power are driving this. I have stood up against the influence of money more than anybody down there, Now I am paying the price.”
People are still upset that the likes of the Senate Republican Caucus, Michael Brodkorb and Norm Coleman decided to tell the voters of SD 16 not to vote for their grassroots-endorsed spouse-pusher and perpetual butt of time-wasting jokes at the Capitol. A man who clearly better represents the GOP in Benton, Mille Lacs, Morrison and Sherburne counties better than unknown “principled“ Alison Krueger who signed a pledge not to run against the endorsement but did anyway:
Krueger introduced herself to the Big Lake City Council at their meeting Wednesday. She thanked her supporters and said she was a believer in transportation as well as drill here, drill now.
Because “drill here, drill now” is a great belief system, especially for a candidate for the Minnesota Senate. I have to give her credit though: I am also a firm believer in transportation. In fact, my belief in transportation is stedfast and unwavering.
Anyway, what’s with this corruption? Olson’s wife Heidi Olson explains:
The sleazy mailings against Mark were impossible to counteract without the big money from outside the district like Alison had. The letter to the editor two days before the primary from the Kiffmeyer campaign committee member slandering me was another poor example. I question their integrity when it boils down to discrediting a candidate’s wife.
I miss the good old days when Republicans treated each other with respect and discussed issues. We have reached an all time low. My suggestion is to replace the current candidates in two years with ones who will campaign on issues and leave the slimy stuff to those with no significant thoughts. A goal for future higher office is no excuse for completely trashing people who have worked alongside you for 25 years.
Awe, I miss those good old days too! Welcome to the current Republican party of all recent memory, Heidi Olson! Are you that insulated from the “slimy stuff” and the “no significant thoughts”? How can you possibly be surprised about the way operatives in the Republican party operate? Your “grassroots” organization up there means nothing if it hurts the party elite in the MN GOP.
She adds, “I won’t vote Republican this year for House or Senate. I hope I can in 2010.” Well, Ms. Olson, I have to say, I welcome your choice to support DFL-endorsed candidate Lisa Fobbe. Can we also count on you for a vote for Al Franken? I mean hey, Norm Coleman personally denounced your hubby.
Meanwhile, Mark Olson is working on a write-in ballot to, um, fight corruption. On top of that, MNpublius sources lead that Olson may be considering using a new law that could end up forcing a full recount to see if he can close a 253 vote gap within the total 3,289 votes by simply counting the ballots again and wasting time and taxpayer dollars. Hasn’t Olson’s modus operandi always been wasting time and taxpayer dollars though?
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