Polinaut: January 4, 2007 Archive

The Daily Digest: 1-4-07

Posted at 9:42 AM on January 4, 2007 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)
Filed under: Daily Digest

Fresh faces lead the digest. MPR has a story on the new faces at the state capitol and takes a look at the three new Minnesota faces in the U.S. House.

There are several stories detailing the state of session. MPR and the Star Tribune outline the comings and goings. The Pi Press leads with the historic vote in the Senate where DFLers named GOP Senator Dennis Frederickson for a Senate President Pro Tem

Forum Communications focuses on the vow to get along and the slate of rookies.

Some lobbyists also wrote some checks before the session began (check the end of this AP story).

Hennepin County wants a metro wide sales tax to help pay for light rail.

Governor Pawlenty keeps his radio show on WCCO-AM.

His state of the state address is scheduled for January 17th.

KSTP-TV says a statewide smoking ban could come this year. But it will pass without the support of the Iron Rangers.

The U of M Gopher stadium is more expensive. MPR and the Star Tribune have stories.

The day ahead
The House isn't in session. The Senate is in session at 11. Senate DFLers are expected to file the bills for their top six initiatives. Senate Tax Chair Tom Bakk of Cook also outlined his property tax reduction plan at an 8:30 news conference (rise and shine sleepy heads!). Here's a glimpse from the DFL news release:

The bill expands residential and agricultural land market value credits and increases homeowners' property tax refunds thus reducing property taxes. State aid to cities and counties will also be boosted under this legislation in order to help reverse dramatic cuts to local governments in recent years. This provision will help cities and counties across the state provide essential services to residents including police and fire, libraries, parks and recreation, while keeping property taxes in check.

Governor Pawlenty and the legislative leaders will speak at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce annual legislative session dinner this evening.

Congress

Congressman-elect Keith Ellison to be sworn in using a Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson

WCCO-TV's Pat Kessler interviews Ellison.

Collin Peterson and Jim Oberstar are mentioned in this column about pro-life Democrats.

Dems in the U.S. House will sideline GOP in the first 100 hours and GOP Congressman John Kline isn’t happy. For the record, the GOP used the same tactics when they held the majority.

DFL Congressman-elect Walz says he intends to scrutinize President Bush's war budget.

USA Today mentions DFL Senator Amy Klobuchar in this story on women making political history.

Blog Watch

Not much to report here. Please let me know if you see something or wrote something worth mentioning.

2008
The Hill mentions Norm Coleman's opposition to adding more troops to Iraq in this story.

2010

Mark Dayton says he may run for governor in 2010 and the GOP cheers.

Quote of the Day
"Your other right hand, Rep. Rukavina." Former GOP Rep. Ron Abrams (who is now a judge) as he prepared to give the oath of office to the 134 members of the Minnesota House. Abrams and Rukavina, a DFLer, have had friendly floor squabbles over the years.

The Digest goes high tech!

You can continue to read "The Daily Digest" on MPR's Polinaut Page or you can have it e-mailed directly to you. Click here to set that up.

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MFL: The rookies

Posted at 9:59 AM on January 4, 2007 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Quick housekeeping. I hope we can have the MFL blog (which will be embedded in the Minnesota Fantasy Legislature Web site, perhaps ats early as today. Until then, we're piggybacking on Polinaut. Also, later today, I'll have a link for managers on the site which be the form used to submit roster changes (trades or waiver requests). The deadline for doing this each week is Friday at 5 p.m.

Now, then, one of the goals of MFL is to provide a venue for some wider exposure for the legislators and the work they do. Now, I know the MFL managers are scouring the waiver wire and the newspapers (and radio news Web sites, I hope) looking for any advantage, especially early.

No bills were filed yesterday; a great disappointment to those of us who were standing by ready to award the first points of the season, and get an indication of who the prolific bill filers will be.

I think there's gold in them there waiver lists. Why? Because there are a lot of potential rookies in there who come into the Legislature with a new atittude. Oh, sure, we hear bipartisanship thrown about like loose change every year. But early indications are this year might be different. Sen. Larry Pogemiller (Downtowners, Caucus-O-Rama) appointing Sen. Dennis Frederickson (Quorum of Six, St. Pauliticos) as Senate president pro tem seems to indicate that. So rookies this year might be more effective for a number of reasons (1) there's a lot of them and (2) they might just be an emerging force and unlikely to demur as rookie legislators tend to do. Afterall, there's an election just two years away!

I hope we can learn about these legislators along the way. This morning, Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition interviewed one -- Rep. Kate Knuth, DFL-New Brighton (St. Pauliticos,Chambercation). She's one of the few rookies drafted in both leagues. She said she's not interested in being written off, and intends to work particularly with the suburban women in the Legislature. She, apparently, knows how to get things done as her dad was a legislator.

Another rookie, is Rep. Marsha Swails, DFL-Woodbury (Legiliscious). She went undrafted in the Gold League and the rumor bill has her being waived this week in the Maroon League. Disclaimer: I've never met Marsha Swails but my wife is a big fan and I'm a big fan of my wife. So make of that what you will.

Why could Swails be another successful rookie? Check out her committee assignments (Votetracker)(Memo to self: Update committee assignments on Votetracker!). She not only was put on the House Ways and Means Committee, she was made vice chair of Ways and Means. That should tell you something. She's unlikely to be a shrinking violet.

She's also unlikely to be heavily partisan, which could lead to greater success getting legislation passed -- and points accumulated. First, she's from "A Republican district," to quote Rep. Matt Dean (People First), in a comment on Polinaut some weeks ago. She also grew up a Republican, as I understand it, and ran a campaign in District 56B that stressed the ability to work across the aisle.

Swails is a teacher at Woodbury High School; that could tap into the emphasis on K-12, expected to be in play during this session. (My son went to WHS and remembers Swails with fondness because a classmate of his committed suicide last year. The school was closed -- I think for vacation -- the next day, but Swails opened it up and invited the kids to come in and write notes about their classmate for the family. Nice. ) She's on the K-12 education committee,and also is on the Housing Policy and Finance and Public Health Finance Division. With AG Lori Swanson's emphasis on some consumer protections, her spot on the Labor and Consumer Protection Division could also be, well, spot on.

My wife stopped by her reception at the Capitol yesterday and -- I don't think I'm talking out of turn -- learned that she doesn't have a legislative aide yet (did you know reps don't get to hire their own legislative aides? Me neither). That could slow her down early.

What rookies do you see out there with great potential this year?

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MFL: We have points

Posted at 11:53 AM on January 4, 2007 by Bob Collins

(Important update: The MFL blog is now up and running. It'll be embedded into the MFL home page shortly. It's also available here. All MFL chatter now shifts there).

Twenty bills were filed in the Senate this morning. While some of these could end up being omnibus bills, for now they're generating points. Trusty veterans provided most of the points this morning. Sens. Dick Cohen, Mee Moua, and LeRoy Stumpf had names on three of the bills. Rookies Sandy Rummel, Kathy Saltzman also posted single points.

The bills included SF1, increasing state aid to education and providing property tax relief, SF2 from Linda Berglin on health care (also stating every Minnesotans has a right to health care) , early childhood programs funding (SF3), a wheelage tax from Sen. Murphy (SF5), a sale tax increase for natural and cultural resources (you may recall this died last year) in the form of SF6.

Also: SF10 reduces the size of the Senate and House, SF 11 requires the state to factor inflation into budget reports and projects, SF14 would bring universal health care to Minnesota, SF16 makes failure to use seat belts a primary offense.

On the bipartisan scoreboard, Sens. Bakk and Senjem filed a bill that gives tax breaks to teachers.

Standings have been updated to reflect this morning's action.

You'll be able to follow these bills (or many of them) on MPR's Votetracker.

Update 1 p.m. Ready! Set! Waiver! The waiver form has been posted. You an find it on the MFL page under "resources."

Remember! You ALWAYS have to have at least two legislators of both parties on your team. You always have to have 6 total players (legislators).