Raising the gas tax in Minnesota has never been an easy sell. Just ask Len Levine, state transportation commissioner under DFL Gov. Rudy Perpich. 

In 1988, thanks in no small part to Levine, the Legislature passed the largest transportation-funding package in its history — $390 million over three years, or roughly $800 million in today’s dollars.  The gas tax increased from 17 cents to 20 cents a gallon. 

But that happened only after 17 months of legislative lobbying, public-relations stunts, and retail politics, much of it executed by Levine.  

To demonstrate how bad the roads were in Mankato, for example, Levine got wired with an EKG monitor and went for a ride in an ambulance. “The roads were so bumpy, you couldn’t read the EKG at the end of ride, so imagine if I were a real patient,” Levine said.

“I went to areas of the state where there were accidents, tragic fatal accidents,” he said. “I talked to chamber groups, I went to schools in every congressional district and talked about the infrastructure and how those about-to-be drivers would benefit. It had an impact.”

The Dayton administration, led by Transportation Commissioner Charlie Zelle, has been making a similar case for its $11 billion, 10-year plan that includes a gas tax increase at the wholesale level as well as fee and sales tax increases. Dayton’s plan would add 22 cents at the wholesale level to the current gas tax of 28.5 cents a gallon.  

Even adjusted for inflation, it’s a bigger hike than Levine helped pass in 1988, and consumers have made their opposition known. A March Star Tribune poll found 52 percent of adults opposed raising the gas tax to pay for transportation needs, while only 45 percent supported it. 

“It’s very difficult to get an increase in transportation funding,” said Levine. “It turns people off because they don’t know what they get for it.”

Convincing the Legislature is more difficult, Levine said. Although DFLers controlled the Minnesota House in 1988, to get enough votes for passage Levine and his deputies hosted one-on-one lunches with lawmakers. “I made the argument that the road doesn’t know if it’s Democrat or Republican,” he said.

Len Levine

The Minnesota House would not approve another gas tax hike until 20 years later, after the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis.

With less than a week until the end of the legislative session, Republican Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt maintains that the gas tax is a nonstarter. Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk has suggested that the Legislature need not consider either a tax bill or transportation bill this session.

That puzzles Levine. “There seemed to be consensus that there needs to be improvement,” he said. “I would be hopeful that they will come up with some kind of compromise.” 

But, he said, a substantial funding package may be unobtainable. “A slight tax increase — it might work,” he said.   

Even a road warrior like Levine acknowledges that the gas tax remains a toxic topic. 

MinnPost file photo by James Nord

Former Gov. Arne Carlson

A governor designates a significant change in education policy as his priority of his second term in office. 

His passion for the issue comes from personal experience in the public school system.

He stakes his political reputation on passing the change because he has nothing to lose. He will not be running for office again.

He promises that if the legislature fails to include his marquee issue in the K-12 education bill, the bill will be vetoed.

Over the last days and weeks, Gov. Mark Dayton has taken all of these steps as part of his efforts to get the Legislature to pass funding for pre-K education for 4-year-olds.

But he is not the first governor to go down that road. Gov. Arne Carlson did all of the above in 1997 to win his battle over offering tax credits for education expenses, including private school tuition, a modification of a school voucher proposal that was dead on arrival when he proposed it in 1996.   

Carlson ended up vetoing the Legislature's initial education funding bill, and later described the month following the veto as “one of the most difficult months of my life.” 

That month was equally difficult — or at least challenging — for his staff, who were tasked with convincing the legislature to include tax credits in the bill it would take up in a special session. (By then I was no longer part of the Carlson's staff.) 

“This was the governor’s main thing,” said Chas Anderson, Carlson’s outreach director for the tax credit issue. Anderson, like other staffers, had heard the Carlson stories, how his passion for choices in education started after an impoverished youth in New York and a private school experience that he said changed his life.

Former Dayton staffer and campaign manager Katherine Tinucci echoes those sentiments in her description of Dayton and his experience as a public school teacher in New York. “It was a short career but incredibly informative,” she said. “Working with students, he carries that experience with him.” 

Tinucci has no doubt that Dayton will live up to his veto promise. “He’s going to lay it all out the table and really fight for what he wants to get done,” she said.

Yet there's one big difference between the fight 18 years ago and now. Dayton hasn’t built the base of support for his issue that Carlson produced in 1997. The key to Carlson’s ultimate success was the work of two well-organized coalitions: one comprised of business groups, the other an umbrella group called Minnesotans for School Choice, comprised of religious-affiliated organizations. 

Anderson worked with those coalitions on making sure their concerns reached the right legislators. “I remember, [chief of staff] Bernie Omann would ask every day, ‘how are the calls going into so-and-so’s office.’”

The calls were coordinated with rallies at the capitol and Carlson’s speeches before churches and business audiences.

The efforts paid off. Polls showed support for Carlson’s proposal, and the legislature, during a special session, passed the law, though he final bill did not include the tax credits for private or parochial schooling.

At a news conference Sunday, Dayton promised the public support for funding pre-K schooling will emerge when the public understands the Republican position, “that four-year olds have to pay the price for their political posturing… their precious tax cuts.”

Dayton declined to indict the DFL-controlled Senate in his remarks but, like Carlson in 1997, he faces opposition to his “number one priority” in both legislative bodies. His battle for pre-K education will take place on two fronts.

But Dayton, like Carlson, seems ready — even eager — for a special session fight. “Investing in education every year he was governor,” Tinucci said. “This is why he wanted to do it.”

It appears that when it comes to a drawing a line in the sand, nothing will bring a governor to the beach like education policy.

“Give it back,” exhorted the state Republican Party during the legislative debate about how to deal with the state’s $2 billion surplus.

But legislators didn’t give it back. They used about $1 billion of the surplus to increase the state budget by 5 percent.

Now House Republicans are taking a flogging from the right, even as they try to claim the high ground.  

“My heart is heavy with grief from the actions taken by the MN House Majority and some of the MN GOP Senators,” wrote Minnesota Tea Party Alliance president Jack Rogers on his Facebook page.

“Unfortunately, every house rep let us down in the final 48 hours,” commented Jake Duesenberg, the Tea Party’s executive director. “No tax cuts at all. Huge spending increases in public education and socialized health care.”

Not that the left is happy with GOP legislators, either. “House Republicans failed to finish the job,” DFL Minority Leader Paul Thissen said Wednesday. “They refused to compromise with Gov. Dayton. They wanted to keep this money so they can give corporate tax cuts.”

Said DFL Party Chair Ken Martin: “Republicans refused to compromise and are more interested in providing tax giveaways to corporations than investing in education."

But Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt not only defended the Republican position, he extolled bipartisanship and the state spending it fueled. “We are proud of the bills we put forth,” he said a new conference preceding Thissen’s.  “A record amount of new money was put into early education initiatives.”

He also noted reforms and the increased funding for nursing homes, a priority of Republicans for rural Minnesota, though he only touched on tax issues, with a comment that, “Republicans successfully fought against a nearly $1 billion annual increase in the state's gas taxes.”

Keith Downey, chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, offered sympathy and muted cheering for the House Republican position. “From a conservative perspective, it’s a very mixed result,” Downey said.  “It’s much more spending and no return to the taxpayers but that’s divided government. And I think Kurt was listening to the voters who said they didn’t want gridlock.”

Similar comments came from Norm Coleman and the Minnesota Action Network. “The conclusion of this year's legislative session shows the benefits of balanced leadership at the Capitol,” Coleman said. 

Daudt and his colleagues, who are aiming to claim the middle ground as their field of victory, are betting now that balance is the strongest argument they can make as they look ahead to the 2016 elections.

The Republican National Committee has ruled that the Minnesota Republican Party’s presidential preference poll — scheduled for March 1, 2016— must bind its national delegates proportionately to the winners.

This bit of intra-party arcana is important because it could help the state GOP’s efforts to be a bigger player in 2016 presidential politics, though it has also served to dismay activists who believe the rule imposes national control over grass-roots activities. 

State Republican Party Chair Keith Downey says that conducting a binding poll at the Republican precinct caucuses will put the national spotlight on Minnesota along with other states holding caucuses that day – “a mini-Super Tuesday,” he calls it.

And since the ballot is binding proportionately, Downey believes, “it protects the upstart candidates who can sustain their candidacy without having to win outright.  My opinion is that this is actually a better situation for grass-roots activists … who may prefer an outlier.”

“All the Republican presidential candidates will take Minnesota more seriously,” he said. 

Those candidates who would be inclined to establish a front in Minnesota include Rand Paul, whose father Ron Paul won the votes of the Minnesota delegate contingent in 2012; Scott Walker, who has used Minnesota activists in his Wisconsin campaigns; Rick Santorum, who won the 2012 precinct caucus straw poll; and Jeb Bush, whose brother had a sizeable Minnesota operation in 2004.

Downey said the state party’s national committee members made frequent requests to the RNC rules committee for a waiver to continue the traditional non-binding straw poll at precinct caucuses, even though they knew it was unlikely, given the party’s desire to compress the presidential nominating process.

Minnesota’s delegates to the National Republican Convention are chosen at congressional district conventions, usually held in May. And though the delegates will now be selected in proportion to the results of the vote at the precinct caucus level, there will likely still be jockeying for votes and horse-trading at the state Republican convention, in June, where the final delegate selection is made.  

“So, there will still be the on-the-ground grass-roots political activities that the activist delegates thrive on,” Downey said,  “And it’s still the absolute classic political free-for-all at the state conventions. And I say that in a positive way.”

The DFL party will also conduct a binding presidential preference ballot at the March 1 precinct caucuses, though the Democratic president field is expected to be considerably smaller than its GOP counterpart.    

Carly Fiorina may not be moving the needle in national polls on Republican presidential candidates yet. But she’s polling well among some Republican women in Minnesota. 

At recent meeting of the Minnesota Federation of Republican Women, 30 of 32 respondents to in informal poll said they thought Fiorina would be a plus in the field of GOP candidates.

Jane Beihoffer, the national committeewoman for the state Republican Party, took the poll after a teleconference with Fiorina, where she formed a favorable impression of her.

Beihoffer ask the group to give reasons why Fiorina would (or would not) make a viable a candidate. Fiorina’s leadership qualities, her business background, and her ability to challenge Hillary Clinton topped the list of assets.

Her negatives: Fiorina’s failure as a business leader and her lack of political credentials.

Beihoffer, who has no preferred candidate right now, has said that Republican women, as a bloc, do not necessarily vote on gender, but still acknowledges the balance that Fiorina brings to field.  “She can play with the guys,” Biehoffer said after that initial teleconference. 

But it looks like Fiorina won't be able to debate them. Fox News, which hosts the first televised debate August 6, allows only ten candidates on stage, as does CNN.  The top ten candidates are determined according to the most recent national polls. Based on current polling, Fiorina wouldn’t make the cut.

Although Fiorina has indicated she’s comfortable with the limits of the debate format, that hasn’t stopped The Washington Post, the New Hampshire Union Leader, and Fortune magazine for calling for her inclusion.

Beihoffer agrees with that and then some.  She says she thinks all the announced candidates should be allowed to debate to show the diversity of the Republican lineup, which includes an African-American physician, and two U.S. Senators of Hispanic descent. 

For the moment though, Fiorina’s fledgling grass roots campaign will not change the debates unless it changes her polling numbers.

“That's really Fox's call,” said Republican National Committee spokesman Fred Brown of the debate format.  “We advise but ultimately the networks make the decisions.”

Can a political moderate presidential candidate like George Pataki actually affect the dialogue in Republican primaries? Will he be able to generate a stream of support that could revive the party’s dormant moderate wing? Will that stream of support be enough to propel him into even the second tier of viable Republican candidates?

“No, no, and no,” is the consensus response of Tom Horner, former Independence Party candidate for governor, and Steven Schier, political science professor at Carleton College.

But their reasons for dismissing the former New York governor's moderating role in the campaign are different.

“Pataki wants to raise issues and encourage a difference kind of conversation that is not likely to occur without him,” Horner said. “But it’s hard to do that in a primary because primaries are all about ideology.”

Horner added, “As soon as a candidate starts to make a move away on core issues ^— immigration is a good example — if you say anything that is interpreted as amnesty you are pilloried.” 

Schier also discounts Pataki’s ability to gain any traction — “Whatever impact he’s had has already occurred” — but he sees the possibility that such a large field of Republican candidates will generate some broadening of viewpoints. 

“The biggest group of primary voters define themselves as somewhat conservative,” Schier said.  “It’s not dominated by the far right. But there are a bunch of candidates that would appeal to that group.”

If Republican primary voters are looking for a candidate with more moderate social views, particularly on gay marriage, Schier believes there are more appealing candidates – namely Carly Fiorina and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.  

Fiorna recently wrote on her Facebook page, “The debate about gay marriage is really a debate about how the government bestows benefits and whether they should be bestowed equally. I believe they should.” 

Christie has straddled the issue by choosing not to fight the 2013 court decision that allowed gay marriages in New Jersey.

“[For a Republican primary voter] they are more mainstream and they can voice their views because they come from California and the northeast,” Schier said. 

Schier and Horner do agree that Pataki’s candidacy has re-ignited the debate about moderates in the Republican Party. But while Schier believes the problem is Pataki as moderate messenger, Horner maintains that for the Republican party of 2015, the problem is the moderate message itself. 

State Sen. Dave Thompson

Republican state Sen. Dave Thompson had been noticing it throughout the Legislative session: a growing fissure between urban and Greater Minnesota legislators in the Senate DFL caucus.

The urban-rural, moderate-conservative rift is old hat for Republicans, but this year it has beset Senate DFLers.

“One of the early signs that some of the urban core Democrats were not getting their way was the judiciary bill,” Thompson said.  

He was referring to public safety legislation, signed by Gov. Dayton, that legalized the use of gun silencers, referred to in the bill as “suppressors.”

“It demonstrated that the person running the caucus [Tom Bakk] is the more traditional conservative Democrat,” Thompson said.

But now, majority leader Bakk is facing something of a revolt from those urban Democrats, whose votes are needed to pass major budget bills in a special legislative session. Reports indicate that key DFlers such as John Marty, Sandy Pappas, and Scott Dibble plan on voting against the environment bill because of objections to policy changes, including elimination of the Citizens Board of the Pollution Control Agency.

The bill has even provoked an online petition asking Bakk to resign his leadership post. 

DFL Sen. Terri Bonoff, chair of the senate's Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, finds the disgruntlement with Bakk puzzling. As majority leader, she says, Bakk is doing his job finding consensus. “He does a very good job of accommodating views and opinions,” she said. “I think he puts the interests of Minnesota first.”

Bonoff, by the way, represents Minnetonka, and is not a natural ally for Bakk. “You have to remember, he did not want me to be an assistant leader,” she said.

But Bonoff, like Bakk, is a pragmatist. She often refers to herself as a “caucus of one,” and has advocated a spectrum of policy and spending reforms that often run contrary to DFL special interest groups.  

State Sen. Terri Bonoff

The standoff between Bakk and urban DFLers, she believes, stems from a refusal by some in the party to accept that Democrats no longer control all three branches of government.

“In my opinion, when you have divided government you must compromise to the middle,” she said. “When we had three years of Democrats in control, policies leaned far left. They didn’t have the reality check it takes to come to an agreement.”

Bakk stayed in the background during the negotiations over a special session. Bonoff said the bills in contention were already a negotiated product between Senate Republicans and Democrats. “Why negotiate against bills we all passed?” she asked.

Bakk may stay in the background on Friday. He’s already told reporters that he was not going to “twist arms” to get votes.

And no matter how much dissension he faces in his caucus, its unlikely that Bakk faces any serious threat to his leadership position.

MinnPost file photo by James Nord

Republican minority leader David Hann

There is some meat attached to the bones of the tax cut deal that led to the passage of the omnibus environmental and agriculture bill in the final hours last week’s special session of the Minnesota Legislature.

Republican minority leader David Hann, who struck the deal with DFL majority leader Tom Bakk, revealed some of the details at a Republican senate district meeting in Edina earlier this week.

Hann said Bakk promised that a tax bill with “substantial” tax reductions will emerge from the Senate in 2016 in exchange for Republican votes on the controversial agriculture and environment bill. 

Bakk was falling short of the necessary votes to pass the bill because of strong opposition from members of his caucus who objected to changes in environmental protection policies. So Bakk asked for Hann’s help in securing some Republican votes.

“I said, ‘Let’s talk about next year,’” Hann said. “We are going to have left over a significant amount of money…. that didn’t get spent, didn’t get committed. To me that’s money that has the opportunity of being spent as a way of providing some kind of tax relief, tax reductions.”

Hann said the conversation involved Bakk, the DFL chair of the tax committee, and a Republican member of the committee. Hann said he suggested using the 2015 tax bill (which did not get passed) as a starting point.    

“Can we take the bill that you’re working on right now that’s in the conference committee, that has a very small amount — about 90 million — in tax reduction; can we take that as a baseline and build up from that and add a significant amount of tax reduction to that bill?” Hann said, recalling the discussion with Bakk. “Can we agree that we in the Senate will pass a good tax bill that Republicans can have input in, and [Bakk] said ‘yes.’ So that was the agreement.” 

That agreement yielded enough Republican votes to allow passage of the environment bill, ending the special session.  

In an interview, Hann said the agreement to produce a tax bill next year is still not specific but “we did talk about some dollar amounts. There’s always uncertainty about how much money is going to be available.”

The state started the 2015 legislative session with a $1 billion surplus, which later grew to $1.9 billion. Yet more than $800 million was left unspent. Hann said that additional revenue could boost that amount.

“What I will say is that it is a significant amount of tax reduction and it is ideas or things that Republicans think are worth doing,” he said.  “This is not just stuff that Democrats would necessarily be opposed to but we think it would be things that are beneficial to the state and have support among some Democrats.” 

Hann said he couldn’t offer details on what taxes would be affected but he emphasized that the changes would have an impact. Next year’s Senate bill will contain not just tax credits, he said, but actual tax reductions.  

A new poll conducted by a Republican-affiliated interest group finds low approval ratings for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton among likely voters in Minnesota. The same poll gives fairly high marks for Gov. Mark Dayton. 

The Minnesota Jobs Coalition and The Tarrance Group conducted the poll June 9, 10, and 11, sampling 600 voters by landline and cell phone. Yes, the Tarrance Group polls for Republican candidates, but it also produces the Georgetown University Battleground poll, a bipartisan political survey conducted with Democratic pollster Lake Research Partners. The poll has a margin of error four percentage points.

Clinton has the approval of 35 percent of likely voters contacted for the survey, with 49 percent saying they disapprove of her.

Dayton has a 51 percent approval rating and 42 percent disapproval, nearly identical to the 600-person Star Tribune poll taken in March. 

A breakdown of demographics shows Clinton with pockets of strength, however. She has the approval of 66 percent of the voters that identified themselves as DFL. But here too, she lags behind Dayton, whose approval rating is 83 percent. 

Among women voters, Clinton has a 40 percent approval and a 46 disapproval rating, weaker than in some national surveys. Among unmarried women, her approval climbs to 42 percent, with 43 percent disapproving. Among married women, her approval drops to 39 percent, with 48 percent disapproving. 

The larger purpose of the poll, according to MJC executive director John Rouleau, was to survey the issues that Minnesota voters care about. Rouleau declined to go into specifics, but said the top five issues are standard: taxes, spending, education, jobs, and the economy. 

The poll also looked at Minnesota house districts that changed representation in 2014, including five rural districts where DFL-ers hold the seat but where Mitt Romney won in 2012. In those districts, which Rouleau did not identify, Clinton holds an approval rating of 37 percent and a disapproval rating of 45 percent.

That finding is important to the Minnesota Jobs Coalition, which contributed to the GOP house victories in 2014 that resulted in the Republican majority. 

To Rouleau, the Clinton numbers indicate that Hillary Clinton “is not an asset” at the top of the ticket, particularly in the swing legislative districts where the 2016 legislative races will once again be a battleground. 

Dale Carpenter is a well-known University of Minnesota civil rights and constitutional law professor whose book, "Flagrant Conduct," is about the first major Supreme Court decision on gay rights, Lawrence v. Texas.

Carpenter is also a gay-rights activist and a Republican — and he believes that his party only stands to gain from the U.S. Supreme Court ruling recognizing same-sex couples’ right to marry.

“The Supreme Court just did the Republican party a huge favor,” he said.  “This allows Republicans to put the issues behind us. It has been a losing issue and it’s good to get it off the table.”

As proof, he referred to a statement issued by GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush. Like his Republican competitors, Bush said he believed the decision on same sex marriage should be left to the states but, Bush said, “I also believe it is time for us to move forward respectfully and as one people.”

“Move forward” was the theme of many of the statements issues by GOP presidential candidates Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and Marco Rubio. Others, however — including Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, and Scott Walker — were less measured in their responses, blasting the decision as an assault on religious liberty. 

The Minnesota Republican party, in a statement from chair Keith Downey, also expressed concern about religious freedom. “The implications of this ruling are as yet unknown in practice, but it must not undermine our freedom of speech and religious liberty, nor coerce churches or other religious institutions into performing marriages that their sincerely held religious beliefs do not recognize,” Downey said.  “We should respect the views of fellow citizens as we move forward from this ruling.”

MinnPost photo by James Nord

Dale Carpenter

Carpenter feels like even those nuanced differences of opinions are progress, though. “I think ten years ago, every single Republican candidate would have made a statement supporting a constitutional amendment [to overturn the decision],” he said.

The national Republican party platform and many state GOP platforms, including Minnesota’s, have opposition to same sex marriage as one of their tenets. Carpenter says the Supreme Court ruling may spur efforts to remove that language. 

Downey said he couldn’t predict changes in the state party platform. “That is a very organic process which starts with platform resolutions and flows through to the state convention,” he said.  “Irrespective of the court’s rulings, platforms haven’t changed. It’s not a clean cause and effect.” 

But Downey noted that the state convention last year passed a resolution directing a review of the platform, with a request for a more condensed document. A task force working on trying to clarify the platform could take a look at the same-sex marriage issue, he suggested.

Regardless, Carpenter believes the issue is now is moot. “The platform doesn’t make a substantive difference because a Republican candidate is not going to run on banning gay marriage,” he said. 

State Sen. Branden Petersen

Senate District 35 is such a solidly Republican area, stretching across the Twin Cities’ northern suburbs, that several names have surfaced as possible replacements for Sen. Branden Petersen, who recently announced he is not running for re-election.

Those possible candidates include Republican party activists Andy Aplikowski and Don Huizenga, state Rep. Abigail Whelan and former state Rep. Kathy Tinglestad.

The district, which covers Andover, Anoka, Coon Rapids, and Ramsey, reflect the subtle differences in the make-up of Minnesota Republicans.  

“Politically it’s an interesting mix,” said Aplikowski, who is vice chair of the Sixth Congressional District Republicans and treasurer of the Senate District 35 Republicans.  “You have Anoka, which is more of the traditional social conservative Republican.  You have Ramsey, which is more exurban, libertarian leaning.  And you have Andover and Coon Rapids, traditionally business friendly. It’s the wheelhouse for Republicans.”

The mix played in favor of Petersen, a solid conservative with a libertarian bent. In 2013, he was the only Republican in the Senate to vote in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. Party leaders considered reprimanding him for the vote, but rescinded formal action and the party leadership subsequently changed.

Don Huizenga has been a longtime party activist and was a candidate for the House in 2014. He considers himself a Petersen supporter and says he may run now that the seat is open.

“There is a chance I’ll be looking at joining forces with Branden and some of the other libertarians in our neck in the wood,” Huizenga said.  “There’s some good people in the district already and if they decide they want to run… I wouldn’t want to run against them. But if we think there’s some desire to make the area a little more libertarian, then I’ll make the run.”

Kathy Tingelstad, who served six terms in the state House from 1997-2009, describes herself as a moderate Republican who matches the district. She says she also may run. “As soon as Branden announced, my phone started ringing,” she said.  Officially, I’m considering it. If I pursue it, I will go in with my eyes wide open.”

Former state Rep. Jim Abeler of Anoka, who now works as a lobbyist for health care-related companies, was also tempted to run. But he, like Petersen, noted the long hours and short pay as disincentives to jumping into the race. 

“It’s not likely,” Abeler said. “I was there 16 years and almost went bankrupt.  It would be fun to get back, but once you’re out of it you don’t realize how hard it is to be there.”

Abeler’s successor from Anoka, freshman state Rep. Abigail Whelan, says she is eyeing a move to the senate, but cautiously. “I’m thinking about it right now,” she said.  “I really like the House and I don’t know I want to give up the relationships. I don’t want to make any rash decisions.”

Aplikowski, who lives across the street from Petersen in Andover, says he’s considering running only because Petersen is not.  “The number one thing is the opening.  I don’t like running against Republicans who are doing a good job.” 

As a GOP Senate district officer, Aplikowski said he is directly contacting other possible candidates for the seat to assess how broad a field might emerge.

But as an officer for the entire Sixth District, he noted, “It shouldn’t take a lot of money to win this seat,” he said.  “We shouldn’t be spending a lot of money competing with each other.”

And no matter how many candidates come forth, he said, Senate District 35 shouldn’t siphon money away from less reliably Republican districts.

Anne Neu

When it comes to elections, there's no such thing as an off-season for the Minnesota House. Fresh off the 2015 legislative session (and special session) — the DFL and GOP are already girding for the biennial tug-of war that determines political control of state government's lower chamber.  

On either side of that rope are Anne Neu, executive director of the House Republican Campaign Committee, and Zach Rodvold, campaign director for the House DFL caucus.

Both have their attention trained on the same turf — the 11 seats that Republicans flipped in 2014 to give them the majority in a year when the DFL swept all statewide offices. 

“There is the reality that we have not done well as Democrats in the mid-terms,” Rodvold said.  

But, he said he’s seeing a significant uptick in interest from prospective candidates compared to 2014. “I think there’s several factors particularly around the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns,” he said. “With higher turnout and voter and volunteer engagement, there are more opportunities.”

Neu, of course, holds the opposing view. “The seats the Republicans picked up in 2014 are going to be easier to hold,” she said, noting that eight of those seats are in districts that Mitt Romney won in 2012.

Not only does the Romney performance provide a comfort level, Neu believes there are other positive signs in other districts.  She and her team are looking at races where the Republican candidate lost by fewer than 500 votes. 

Of particular interest is House District 48A, which represents parts of Minnetonka and Eden Prairie, where DFL-er Yvonne Selcer got past challenger Kirk Stensrud by just 41 votes. Neu says Republicans have a candidate to take on Selcer who hasn’t yet filed to run. 

Zach Rodvold

The DFL has its own most wanted: House District 56B in Burnsville. In 2014, Roz Peterson defeated DFL incumbent Will Morgan there by 1,187 votes. The margin went beyond nail-biting territory, but Rodvold believes the GOP victory was an “outlier in suburban races,” where the DFL has made a steady incursion into formerly Republican districts.

Next year, Peterson will face DFL candidate Lindsey Port, who was featured in a Mark Dayton campaign ad in 2014. 

Rodvold says Port is well ahead of schedule in fundraising and organizing.

Organization is critical in House districts that are small and require the retail politics of door-knocking and community events. “Running a campaign is hard work,” Neu said.  “Whoever chooses to run has to have the ability to run hard.” 

And in that requirement, Neu and Rodvold are looking for the same kind of candidate. 

U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer is facing a discharge of conservative discontent for the votes, alliances and choices he’s made in his first six months in office. But he’s not apologizing.

In fact, at a Republican social event in Edina on Friday, Emmer fed the group policy wonk tidbits, not red meat as he explained his votes for the Trade Promotion Authority and funding for Homeland Security, and offered humorous anecdotes of his friendship with John Boehner, for whom he voted for Speaker of the House.

These are the issues, and more, that drove the leadership of the Minnesota Tea Party Alliance to devote a podcast to a discussion of Emmer’s conservative failings.

“When Tom went there and he cast that vote for Boehner, I felt like I lost somebody that I look up to and trust,” said Jack Rogers, the Tea Party Alliance president said on the July 7 podcast he co-hosts with Tea Party Executive Director Jake Duesenberg. “He’s not doing what we want him to do.” (Neither Rogers nor Duesenberg replied to a request for an interview.)

TPA is high on their list of sins

What Rogers and others in the Tea Party movement want is for Congress to deny President Barack Obama any additional authority or autonomy. The Trade Promotion Authority is high on their lists of sins because it gives the president authority to negotiate international trade agreements that Congress can approve or disapprove but not amend or filibuster.

“The TPA is a good thing, based on what we’re doing,” Emmer told his Friday audience, which included his father, Tom Emmer Sr., and mother Patsy, Edina residents. “It’s not fast-tracked. It will slow it down. Now you and I will have the opportunity to study any proposed trade agreement in detail.”

In an interview later, he said, “I think when people look at this they should look at the forest, not just a couple of the trees.”

Emmer struck the same wait-and-see tone about the Iran nuclear arms agreement, even while he made it clear he may well vote against it.

“What the president is doing, if I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt, he’s listening to the people, so they’re going to have this vetting of this agreement,” he said. “If I’m suspicious of it, I think the president is looking at this as – ‘You know what, I’m not going to be able to take this directly to the U.N., I’m going to have to follow a process in order to make it legitimate.' The question is, how is that going to work through in the next couple of months.”

Duesenberg and Rogers and many of their supporters aren’t interested, though, in congressional politics or process.

Talk of an endorsement challenge

“The vast majority of these guys – and Tom Emmer has shown he’s one of them really – don’t care about the average folks,” Duesenberg said in the podcast, adding, “He has to worry about an endorsement challenge.”

“What he has to do is prepare for it,” Rogers replied.

Emmer shrugged when told of the podcast. “Those comments are miniscule compared to what I’m getting in positive feedback,” he said.

And he suggested that Tea Party criticism has an element of self-service. “You can’t get people to listen to radio, they don’t want to watch TV, they don’t want to give money,” he said. “Unless there’s some kind of fight going on somewhere.” 

Up until now, it was understandable that Minnesota Democrats would keep their heads down as debate swirled around them on the videos showing two Planned Parenthood physicians discussing the sale of tissues from aborted fetuses.

The controversy appeared to be geographically removed – the doctors in question are based in Washington, D.C., and California. The heavy editing of the videos undermines their authenticity. And Planned Parenthood of Minnesota has stated (in a letter to the editor published in the Star Tribune that it does not have a fetal tissue donation program. 

But the Republican Party of Minnesota has raised the ante by asking Democrats Al Franken, Rick Nolan, Tim Walz and Betty McCollum to return Planned Parenthood campaign contributions, along with asking them to call for an investigation into Planned Parenthood practices.

Michael Broadkorb, former deputy chair of the state GOP and now a blogger for the Star Tribune, says it is completely appropriate for Republicans to raise questions.

“There is a substantive debate about what was going on [in the video], what was their intention, and I think it is relevant for anyone to bring up a discussion related to that,” he said. “In politics, that type of guilt by association is done all the time on both sides of the aisle.”

Republicans were on the receiving end of politicizing a sensitive current event last month, after the shooting deaths of nine black churchgoers in South Carolina. 

Rep. Tom Emmer was one of several Republicans who returned political contributions from the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist group linked to Dylann Roof, the man who faces 33 counts in the shootings on June 17.

Brodkorb pointed out that the ensuing debate over the Confederate flag crossed the Mason Dixon line at a Minnesota Republican Party news conference on an unrelated subject. The party’s deputy chair, Chris Fields, who is black, was asked for his thoughts on the flag controversy.

“If it’s relevant to ask Chris Fields about the Confederate flag, it’s relevant to ask about abortion, another politically divisive issue,” he said.

Minnesota Republican Party Chair Keith Downey framed the request to Franken, Nolan, Walz, and McCollum as matter of principle. The videos are “severely troubling” and concern “likely illegal conduct,” Downey said.     

But there are some basic political calculations in play. Abortion is not an issue even the most liberal politician treats lightly. In a socially conservative area, like the eighth congressional district represented by Rick Nolan, an association with Planned Parenthood could affect his re-election chances next year.

Given that even minor offenses are turned on end for partisan advantage, it is a certainty that abortion will join race relations as part of the 2016 election conversation. 

The Minnesota Hispanic Republican Assembly, one of the affiliates of the state party, has a new chair, Chanhassen businessman Frank Mendez. Although the group has played a limited role in the party’s decisions, it carries greater clout this election cycle as immigration issues have dominated the debate among candidates for the GOP nomination for president.

In an interview with MinnPost, Mendez defended the party’s arguments for border security, which he says many Hispanics support. But he also said when it comes to improving relations with Hispanic voters, Republican leaders need to break down the barriers to a voting bloc of people “who don’t look like them.” 

MinnPost: Why did you decide to take on the role of chair of the Hispanic Assembly?

Frank Mendez: I saw that the Hispanic community was basically being pursued by the Democratic Party. I decided to reach out. I thought, I’m Hispanic. I need to get involved in helping the Hispanic community be aware of Republican goals and dreams and values. And the best way to do that was to join an organization that declares itself in support, like the Republican Hispanic Assembly.

MP: You are giving a talk next week to the Minnesota Senior Federation titled, “What Hispanics really think about border security, sanctuary cities and Donald Trump.” Are you suggesting there is no consensus on these issues?

FM: I’m suggesting that the Hispanic community is in flux with respect to some of these issues. The flux is among mostly among non-citizens that we have here and we have to be sensitive towards any immigrants who are here. At the same time, we have our rules and regulations as to what citizenship is and what procedures we should take. The Hispanic voting community is totally in support of strong border security and not having sanctuary cities.

MP: Why is border security so important to you?

FM: A border is a border regardless of what nationality it is. There are rules that allow your entrance into whatever country you want to go into. It’s actually a back door invitation for people to not comply with them if you are not going to enforce them. The issue is homeland security. Those that are here and have become U.S. citizens understand. They are no longer Salvadorans, no longer Mexican. They are Americans.  

MP: What about Donald Trump’s remarks about Mexicans?

Frank Mendez

FM: I truly believe that he misspoke. He doesn’t script what he has to say and he says what’s on his mind. I’m not a mind reader but I can look at his history to say … you need to clarify that statement. I think he has to be more careful about dealing with issues and the problems that stem from those issues instead of directly picking on individuals and people. I would not say anything negative about him because that would then be taking it to a personal level and that’s the mistake he made when he started talking about the border issues. 

MP: Do you support the path to citizenship proposals that would allow illegal immigrants already in the U.S. to attain citizenship?   

FM: That’s after the fact, that’s after securing the border.  The issue for me is border security. After that has been done, then it’s fruitful to go on to step two and three. But it’s difficult to move on that [path to citizenship] quickly because you are dealing with people who are already here.

MP: How are you going to try to make the Minnesota Republican Hispanic Assembly more politically potent?

FM: The key here is for the Republicans to identify with the Hispanics as just another group of people who don’t look like them but have the same heart, desires, spirits, and dreams. It’s a matter of getting people to reach out. We need some who is not Hispanic to open the door and say, come on in. That’s the key. My goal is to get one more Hispanic Republican voter in every precinct in the state. That could have the effect of changing some elections.

MinnPost: Has the Republican Party — in Minnesota and nationally — done enough to reach out? 

FM: I think they’re beginning to understand they need to do it more. The bottom line is we need to have more people educating the Republican Party to things that they can do and to promote the Republican brand.

Jim Abeler

Former state Rep. Jim Abeler has changed in his mind about considering a run for the state Senate seat being vacated by Republican Branden Petersen. 

Abeler has established an exploratory committee, putting him in the company of at least five other possible candidates in Senate District 35, which covers Andover, Anoka, Coon Rapids and Ramsey.

Abeler represented Anoka in the Minnesota House for 16 years, leaving the post in 2014 for a run for the U.S. Senate. He works as a lobbyist for health care related companies. 

A Senate seat would the culmination of those experiences, he said. “I’ve had 16 years in the house, and experience on the national campaign trail, and now in the halls,” he said.  “I want to put that to good use.”

A chiropractor by training, Abeler was the chair of the House health care finance committee and was considered a Republican point man on health care issues.

“I feel that there is a void in the Senate on health care expertise and I can fill that,” he said.

Senate District 35 is solid Republican territory but with a libertarian bent that Abeler has reflected in his voting record. Although he is a critic of the federal health-care-reform law, he worked to establish the state’s health care exchange, MNsure.  In 2008, he voted to override then Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of a gas tax.

Among those who have said they are considering running for the seat — a list that includes Don Huizenga, state Rep. Abigail Whelan and former state Rep. Kathy Tinglestad — Republican activist Andy Aplikowski, vice chair of the Sixth Congressional District Republicans, has the most organized campaign thus far, with a campaign website that includes a page for contributions.

Republican presidential candidate Wisconsin governor Scott Walker seems to be making the Midwest a proving ground for his campaign.

A day after he countered a protester at the Iowa State Fair with a vigorous defense of his policies in Wisconsin, he unveiled a major policy initiative Tuesday in the Twin Cities, capped by an appearance at a fundraiser for Republican activist group.

At a manufacturing company in Brooklyn Center, Walker offered his alternative to the Affordable Care Act. The plan includes tying tax credits to age, not income; “eliminating Obamacare’s regulations,” i.e., reducing insurance mandates, which he says would lower insurance costs by 25 percent; and expanding contribution limits to Health Savings Accounts. The Walker proposal would retain the current provision that prohibits insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions. 

The Democratic National Committee immediately criticized the plan as a catastrophe for the 16 million people who now use the federal health care plan and “a vague grab-bag of conservative wish-list items.”

Scrapping Obamacare on “day one” in office, Walker argued, would not have a negative impact. “In the end they’re going to have the ability to find affordable and accessible health care,” he told a group of reporters.  “They’re just going to be able to do that without a federal mandate. People will be eligible for the tax credit.”  

Walker could have chosen a more delegate-rich state to make a policy splash. (Minnesota sends just 38 delegates to the Republican National Convention; by comparison, Florida sends 99.) But at the fundraiser in St. Paul for the Minnesota Jobs Coalition, he acknowledged a comfort level with his Midwest neighbors.  

“For me, I think there’s a certain amount of Midwestern nice [from] people who are familiar with each other in the Midwest,” he said after an hour of hugs and photos with the crowd.  “I’ve been here a number of times in the past.  People are familiar as they are in Iowa and Illinois with our track record.”

He referred to that track record when told a member of Minnesota Hispanic Republican Assembly had questioned Walker’s outreach to Hispanic voters. “This is my first official visit as a candidate,” he said.  “Outreach to everybody is what I’m doing right now. But we’ll do well. When I was Milwaukee County executive, I carried almost all the Hispanic wards in the city of Milwaukee… because I talked about educational opportunities through school choice and entrepreneurship through helping small businesses grow.”

According to national polls, Walker is currently in the middle of the pack of the 17 Republicans vying for the nomination, although he holds a narrow lead in Minnesota. U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul are also considered contenders among the Minnesota's Republican activists. 

But Walker has the best-established ground game in the state to secure delegates for the March 1 caucuses where, in a 17-way race, neighbors may be a candidate’s best friends. 

It will be business as usual when the Democratic National Committee gavels its summer meeting into action Thursday at the Hilton hotel in Minneapolis as 300 committee members representing 50 states tend to their tasks of adopting resolutions, rules, and bylaws.

But Friday’s session will be unusual business as these Democratic influencers get their first look at Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Lincoln Chafee, Martin O’Malley, and Jim Webb — the contenders for the party’s nomination for president — under one roof.

Lori Sellner

“Its our first opportunity to hear from many of the candidates,” said Lori Sellner, a member of the Minnesota contingent. “A lot of people will have committed already but a lot of us haven’t gone that far.”

Sellner is one of seven Minnesota committee members. The number of members each state is allowed is based on population and Democratic turnout in election years.

“I want someone I’m going to agree with most of the time,” Sellner said, adding that she may not make a choice until after she sees debate performances.

She’s also looking on behalf of others.

“I’m interested in the reaction of those in the room, what kind of energy there is,” she said. “I’m looking for a candidate who can inspire volunteers to get out the vote. Frankly, we have to have volunteers out there to do most of the work because we know in Minnesota it takes a grass roots effort to win.”

Sellner said it was too early to say who is igniting the grass roots in the state. “I’ve organized a Farmfest booth and I’ve heard from both sides [Clinton and Sanders],” she said. “Certainly the Sanders activists are really vocal and I think the Clintons are less so. So it’s hard to measure.”

As for the other campaigns, “I haven’t seen much.”

Sellner and others will get a better look at all the candidates on Friday but it still may not be a comprehensive one.

The DNC committee members have been informed that Vice President Joe Biden, reported to be considering entering the race, will not be in Minneapolis Friday. 

It was, at a minimum, a contrast of speaking styles as Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Lincoln Chafee addressed members of the Democratic National Committee today at the Hilton Hotel in Minneapolis.

It was also a vivid display of the power Clinton holds among the 300 activists and about 100 members of the public who cheered and chanted at the very mention of her name during the pro forma program description.

Clinton called for action on women’s rights, racial equality, climate change and gun control, touching each subject with passion and without specifics. The crowd ate it up, interrupting her speech so often that Clinton almost doubled the 15-minute time limit that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz promised would be strictly enforced.

Clinton’s themes were broad, inspirational, and deferential to one Democratic president in particular. 

“In America, if you work hard and do your part you should be able to get ahead and stay ahead.  That’s the bargain that makes this country great,” she said.  “When my husband [Bill Clinton] put people first he made that bargain mean something.  For the first time in decades we all grew together.”

She skewered the field of Republican presidential candidates with humor.

“They say I play the gender card,” she said. “Well, if calling for equal pay and equal health care is playing the gender card deal me in.”

She promised “to elect Democrats up and down the ticket,” acknowledging later in a news conference that she is playing the numbers game to secure the nomination.

MinnPost photo by Brian Halliday

Lincoln Chafee preceded Clinton with remarks that were more a recapitulation of his résumé than a campaign speech.

Lincoln Chafee, the former Rhode Island governor, former mayor, former U.S. senator, and former Republican, preceded Clinton with remarks that were more a recapitulation of his résumé than a campaign speech. And while he was applauded politely, there were a smattering of boos when he told the group, “In all these years of service I’ve had no scandals.”

In his comments at a news conference, Chafee said he meant no reference to Clinton and the controversy surrounding her use of private email account while she was secretary of state.

But he did take a swipe at that record. “We differ on the approach to the world,” he said. “A little belligerent, a little too close to that unilateral approach to the globe that causes so much trouble, that I personally disagree with vehemently.” 

Clinton did not acknowledge Chafee or any of the other candidates, even when asked specifically about Vice President Joe Biden, who is said to be considering a run.

She left the Hilton Hotel immediately after talking to the new media, headed for a fundraiser. Her closest rival at the moment, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley will address the DNC this afternoon.

The members of the Democratic National Committee meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Minneapolis were thoroughly engaged by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's speech on Friday. But they were inflamed by the speeches that followed as candidates Martin O’Malley and Sen. Bernie Sanders pushed the party’s progressive agenda leftward.

O’Malley called for an expansion of Social Security, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and a stronger defense of unionization — remarks that brought the crowd to its feet more than once. 

And while the former Maryland governor took the obligatory club to the Republican party — “Let their party be led by a hate-spewing carnival barker” — O’Malley didn’t spare the very people he was appealing to. He was blunt in his criticism of the DNC decision to sanction only six debates.

“This is totally unprecedented in our party. This sort of rigged process has never been attempted before,” he said. “Whose decree is it? Where did it come from? To what end? For what purpose? What national or party interest does this decree serve? How does this help us tell the story of the last eight years of Democratic progress?”

O’Malley left the stage to a standing ovation and more applause than greeted him at the start of his remarks.

The applause became ear-pounding noise with the arrival of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — who, far from criticizing the 300 DNC members, praised them. “What you are doing is the most patriotic thing we can do as Americans,” he said.

Then he let the rhetoric rip. Some excerpts:

“What we need is a political movement that is prepared to take on the billionaire class that will work for all of us, not just a handful of the wealthiest people in this country.”

“Let me be as clear as I can be. Democrats will not retain the White House, will not regain the House and Senate, will not be successful in dozens of races unless we ... produce a huge voter turnout. That turnout will not happen with politics as usual. ... We need a movement which tells corporate America and the wealthiest people in this country that they will start paying their fair share of taxes.” 

“We do not need more establishment politics or establishment economics.”

Sanders' positions were not so much a poke at Hillary Clinton as a magnification of similar policies she has offered. She wants to overturn Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that allows corporate and union money to flow unfettered to political campaigns. He says he wouldn’t appoint a Supreme Court justice who doesn’t pledge to rehear and overturn the ruling.

MinnPost photo by Bill Kelley

Martin O’Malley called for an expansion of Social Security, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and a stronger defense of unionization.

Clinton has a plan to help students with college loan debt. Sanders wants free tuition at every American college and university.

Sanders admitted that his policies initially put his campaign for presidency in a long-shot position.

“The word fringe was heard more than once,” he said.  “A lot has changed in the last few months.”

So much has changed that while DNC members appeared to give Hillary Clinton an edge in their applause and appreciation, Sanders is holding on to the loyalty of the party’s more liberal members.