Oxymoron: DFL Leadership

Well said! (0.00 / 0)

They put politics before the people Chris!  The leadership in the DFL had an opportunity to hold true to our values as Democrats and fix 4 years of Governor Pawlenty sticking it to Greater Minnesota.

Instead, they felt it was more important to end on time than to actually carry out the will of the voters this past November.

What would have been better?

Flying around Minnesota telling people "we got done on time" and "Blame T-Paw"?

or

Flying around Minnesota today telling the voters that "Pawlenty is out of touch with Minnesota's values.  He failed to respond to the resouding pleas from the electorate for property tax reform, K-12 funding reform in Greater Minnesota, Transporation funding, Access to affordable and quality health care."

What people will remember is that one of the first things they did in St Paul, was vote themselves a per diem increase.

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by: Hal Kimball @ Tue May 22, 2007 at 12:48:40 PM CDT

Agreed (0.00 / 0)

I knew we were in trouble when Larry Pogemiller became the Senate leader, and I got really mad reading about how Kelliher's lobbyist husband was leading the charge on getting more arts funding put into the outdoors/arts amendement.  Both of these clowns need to be replaced.  Pawlenty completely took them to school.  Absolutely pathetic. 

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by: Dan @ Tue May 22, 2007 at 13:58:00 PM CDT

Not disagreeing, per se... (0.00 / 0)

But I'll have a somewhat contrarian take on this tomorrow morning.

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by: Joe Bodell @ Tue May 22, 2007 at 14:56:14 PM CDT

Agreed Chris (0.00 / 0)

But I do think they overreached on the property tax increase and put the suburban DFLers in a really tough spot. If they had went for an increase to 8.9% they wouldn't have handed the Republicans an automatic meme of "highest state tax rate" in the nation and still had room for property tax relief and schools/roads funding.

Your frame:

the wealthiest at the expense of everyone else.

is the frame that should have been floated since the veto and in last Sunday's NYT article.  Since the begining of the session we should have been hitting these three themes over and over:

Property Tax Relief
Public Investment
Moving Minnesota Forward

But I don't see, nor have I heard, any coherent messaging about the DFL's overarching vision in the media.

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by: JackH @ Tue May 22, 2007 at 16:22:38 PM CDT

You're prob. right (0.00 / 0)

Maybe it was an over-reach, but with a 72 percent rating by the MPR poll they should've stood tough. They would've got a better deal in the end. They failed at putting Pawlenty on the defensive and he did well today at making the DFL co-owner of this miserable session.

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by: Chris @ Tue May 22, 2007 at 18:02:09 PM CDT

Again, watch for my column tomorrow (0.00 / 0)

Still not disagreeing, but there's more than just a silver lining to be taken from this session.  Deadlock, even if it means DFL priorities have to wait until a special session (unlikely, by the sounds of it) or the next regular session, is not necessarily the worst outcome of all.

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by: Joe Bodell @ Tue May 22, 2007 at 20:40:49 PM CDT

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Doesn't matter (0.00 / 0)

what the silver lining is.  We lost the PR war.  There was no coherent message from Democrats.

I'd add another to the list of failures:  why weren't they hammering Pawlenty for his constant tours with John McCain pursuing hopes of VP, which he promised he wasn't after?  They also could have tied his absence from the Capitol to McCain's missing 40+ straight votes in the Senate (5 weeks!)

I don't know if this is a failure of leadership or simply being outmaneuvered by the GOP, but it needs to improve for next session.

Hopefully next year we can use those huge majorities to some advantage.

Also, I would add that the DWIs don't look great, either.

Defeating Norm Coleman and choosing a Democratic successor to Bush are worthy goals, but let's focus on what's really important: Sending Michele Bachmann back to the private sector!

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by: smit2174 @ Tue May 22, 2007 at 22:44:02 PM CDT

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Ortman (0.00 / 0)

I told a friend the DFL shouldn't even use the words "legislative session" this week, they should simply change the subject to J. Ortman.

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by: Chris @ Wed May 23, 2007 at 11:04:16 AM CDT

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If today were November 2008 (0.00 / 0)

Much of  the conversation here has been about regrouping for the next legislative session, but a another interesting aspect is who would win the hearts of voters if today were November 2008. Would things trend back to the Republicans, stay even or boost DFL numbers.

If Minnesota were an island unaffected by national politics and voters were deciding on the Minnesota legislative session alone, I think they would trend back toward the Republicans. I think the DFL lost the PR battle here. The last time I posted, I got accused of simply making bash-the-DFL comments. So I hope these comments will be taken as constructive criticism and not simply bashing criticism.

The DFL needed focus and PR savvy. Raising select taxes for the public good is wise policy. But there was such as flurry of announcements of tax increase proposals that it looks like all sanity had broken loose.  You saw them day after day in the Star Tribune headlines. You need to focus on your priorities and get them done, instead of making the legislative session look like some wild tax-raising brainstorming session.

And as far as the income tax increase on the top 1% of earners goes, you need to think about the PR implications.  I say raise their taxes, but don?t raise them to the point of making the bracket the highest in the nation.  Now I don?t say this because I feel an injustice is being imposed on the top 1%. I don?t think a tax increase like this would impact their lifestyle in the least.  I say this because making the bracket the highest in the nation feeds into bad PR and dooms the chances of passage.  Now I don?t know why some people on the bottom 99% feel ill at ease at raising taxes on the top 1%.  But history has shown you can manipulate this issue in the media and scare lower income earners. Sometimes you can?t fight certain patterns.

So back to the question, who would win in Minnesota legislative races if today were November 2008.  Probably the Democrats, but not because of the Democrats actions locally. They would win due to the continued backlash against Bush and the Iraq war. So even though your State Rep and State Senator has nothing to do with International policy, the electorate seems to like to use all races right down to the city council to send its message. I know feeling can change over time, but I suspect the current discontent with Bush will be enough for local DFLers to benefit.

The Original Gordon

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by: Gordon @ Fri May 25, 2007 at 11:46:50 AM CDT

Now THIS is constructive (0.00 / 0)

Gordon, you bring up some very good points.  There continues to be a difference between running for office and doing a good job once you're sworn in, and no state is a political island.  Except Hawaii.  My expectation would be that a few marginal seats would go back to the Republicans (because of independent voters who voted straight Dem this year, but would be willing to split a ticket after keeping close track of local pols), but I don't think it would be a surge that way, let alone a tsunami.  Minnesota, simply put, is a left-leaning state, the DFL's failure to knock off Tim Pawlenty notwithstanding.

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by: Joe Bodell @ Fri May 25, 2007 at 13:33:39 PM CDT

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Good points.. (0.00 / 0)

Gordon is probably right on the level of the tax increase. But they did have a 70%+ approval rating on their actual proposal. They should've pushed Pawlenty harder on it. It needed to come down to Pawlenty calling a special session because he refused to raise taxes on the super rich.

I think anytime a party in Minnesota gets more than 80 seats in the House it's a fluke. Like the post-Wellstone Memorial/Political Rally boon for the GOP in the 2002 elections or the Bush factor for the DFL last year.

Minnesota leans left, but isn't dark blue. After 2008 it will only get harder to enact strong public policy -- that is, once we get back to a more evenly divided House. That's what makes this year so disappointing.

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by: Chris @ Fri May 25, 2007 at 15:01:32 PM CDT

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All the more reason (0.00 / 0)

to improve the operation now, to make sure 2008 is an excellent legislative session, and helps offset whatever losses are to be expected in the house.  I have to be honest though, I don't see a lot of vulnerable freshmen or sophomores in the house right now.  There were a few slim victories, but just as many slim losses where the GOP's STILL going to have to play defense.

However, that's a long way off.  Plenty of work to do before then.

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by: Joe Bodell @ Fri May 25, 2007 at 15:05:27 PM CDT

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Large Legislative Majority is OVERRATED! (0.00 / 0)

When all is said and done, having a large majority in the House and Senate doesn't historically translate into huge swings in public policy UNLESS the margin is large enough to assure a veto-override. A few DFL legislators in tough districts may be protected from a few tough votes, but that's about it. As far looking towards the 2008 election cycle, there aren't many swing districts left for the DFL to win. Over the last couple of cycles, the DFL has pretty much ran the table. Although the DFL has a chance to pick up a couple more seats, the challenge will be to hold on to many of the seats we gained last fall. Most of them will be extremely competitive.

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by: mike @ Fri May 25, 2007 at 15:20:38 PM CDT

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