Capitol View: February 8, 2011 Archive

Dayton's cabinet

Posted at 11:13 AM on February 8, 2011 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: MN Legislature, Mark Dayton

Governor Dayton finalized his cabinet today after he appointed his commissioner of Administration, Human Rights and Mediation Services.

Here are the 24 members of Dayton's cabinet:

Department of Administration - Spencer Cronk
Agriculture Department - Dave Frederickson
Bureau of Mediation Services - Josh Tilsen
Commerce Department - Mike Rothman
Department of Corrections - Thomas Roy
Education Department - Brenda Cassellius
Office of Enterprise Technology - Carolyn Parnell
Department of Employment and Economic Development - Mark Phillips
Department of Health - Edward Ehlinger
Office of Higher Education - Sheila Wright
Housing Finance Department - Mary Tingerthal
Human Rights Department - Kevin Lindsey
Department of Human Services - Cindy Jessen
Iron Range Resources - Tony Sertich
Department of Labor and Industry - Ken Peterson
Minnesota Management and Budget - Jim Schowalter
Metropolitan Council - Susan Haigh
Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission - Ted Mondale
Department of Natural Resources - Tom Landwehr
Pollution Control Agency - Paul Aasen
Public Safety Department - Ramona Dohman
Revenue Department - Myron Frans
Department of Transportation - Tom Sorel
Veterans Affairs - Larry Shellito

Dayton appoints Frederickson and Lessard to DNR posts

Posted at 1:08 PM on February 8, 2011 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: MN Legislature, Mark Dayton

Gov. Mark Dayton announced today that former GOP state Sen. Dennis Frederickson will be southern director for the Department of Natural Resources. He also announced that former Sen Bob Lessard will be a senior adviser to DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr. Chris Niskanen, the outdoors writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, will also be communications director for the DNR.

Frederickson served as a state Senator from 1980 - 2010. He decided against running for reelection. Lessard served in the Minnesota Senate from 1976 - 2003. He was a member of the DFL Party and the Independence Party during his time in office.

Niskanen is a prominent outdoors writer who worked for the Pi Press for 17 years.

"We went out and found the very best people we could to lead us into the future," said Landwehr in a news release. "I'm very excited about leveraging their skill and experience to better reach out to the people of Minnesota and represent their needs and concerns."

Here's part of the release:

DNR assistant commissioners include: Assistant Commissioner for Legal and Government Affairs Mary McConnell. She formerly served as vice president and general counsel of Polaris Industries Inc. and previously held a similar role at Genmar; Assistant Commissioner for Customer Relations and Outreach Erika Rivers, a seven-year DNR employee who was most recently project manager for the Lake Vermilion State Park development; and Assistant Commissioner for Field Operations and Community Outreach Mike Carroll, previously director of the Northwest Region and former director of the Division of Forestry.

Regional directors include: Southern Region Director Dennis Fredrickson, a 30-year state senator with extensive experience in natural resource legislation; Central Region Director Keith Parker, a media and community relations professional formerly with Twin Cities Public Television as director of Minnesota Partnerships; and Northeast Region Director Craig Engwall, who has held that position since 2006. The Northwest Region directorship is currently vacant.

DNR's new communications director is Chris Niskanen, who served as outdoors editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press for the past 17 years. Niskanen is an award-winning journalist, the author of a new book on state parks, and an advocate of social media who previously wrote a popular blog on the Pioneer Press website.

In Commissioner's Office appointments, Bob Meier is named special assistant to the commissioner for legislative affairs. Bob Lessard, a 26-year veteran of the Capitol and a long-time champion of the outdoors, also will become a special assistant to the commissioner for community outreach. The Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council takes part of its name from Lessard, who was among the first legislators to suggest using the state's sales tax to fund to fish and wildlife conservation. He will work with conservation organizations and other groups around the state to ensure that the agency is listening and responding to their ideas and concerns.

Divisional leadership includes: Laurie Martinson, director of the new Division of Operations Services; Larry Kramka, director of the Division of Lands and Minerals; Ed Boggess, formerly acting director and now director of the Division of Fish and Wildlife. Courtland Nelson remains director of the Parks and Trails Division; Jim Konrad remains director of the Enforcement Division; Steve Hirsch remains director of the division of Ecological and Water Resources; and Dave Epperly continues as director of the Division of Forestry.

MN House Committee approves Photo ID bill

Posted at 1:46 PM on February 8, 2011 by Tom Scheck (8 Comments)
Filed under: MN Legislature, Mark Dayton

A Minnesota House panel has advanced a bill requiring Minnesotans to show photo identification before voting.

The Government Operations and Elections Committee approved the measure today on a 9 to 6 vote. Under the bill, voters who don't have a drivers license would receive a free, government-issued identification card. The measure also eliminates the practice of vouching as a way for people to prove their residency on Election Day. Republican Representative Mary Kiffmeyer of Big Lake said the danger of vouching is that it relies on honesty.

"We're putting a lot inside this polling place with our election judges," Kiffmeyer said. "Using technology and using provisional ballots, I think we structure the process to treat the voters on election day in the same sort of way that anybody else that registers before election day goes through."

DFL opponents of the bill, including Governor Dayton, have said it's a solution looking for a problem. Dayton wouldn't completely rule out vetoing a photo ID but expressed skepticism about the claims of voter fraud in Minnesota.

"So if we could fine tune that and make it even better to assure voters as we must that every vote is counted and counted properly, then I'm all in favor of that," Dayton said. "But to just cast aspersions on the system and try to do some drastic overhaul runs the risk of A: being a lot more expensive, and B: just making the situation worse, not better."

Dayton says he'd be willing to create a panel to study the issue.

Comment on this post

Party bosses trade accusations over flier

Posted at 4:57 PM on February 8, 2011 by Tim Pugmire (1 Comments)
Filed under: MN Legislature

The state's DFL and Republican party leaders are trading barbs today over a campaign flier circulating in the northern Minnesota House district where a special election is scheduled next week.

The flier from GOP candidate Paul Jacobson shows a hunter aiming a gun under the message "take your best shot." The piece criticizes DFL candidate Carly Melen as "full of holes" on gun issues. But in the aftermath of the Tucson shootings, DFL state Party Chairman Ken Martin called on Republicans to tone down the rhetoric.

"It's not necessarily the fact that they used this issue," Martin said. "I think there's more important issues that they should be focusing on. It's the way that they decided to portray this in this literature piece which is really despicable."

State GOP Chairman Tony Sutton defended the brochure. Sutton said the message was about 2nd amendment issues and nothing else.

"Rather than talk about the issue, they try and have this diversionary attack," Sutton said. "It is unconscionable that they would for political purposes try and exploit the tragedy in Arizona, when it's obviously when you look at the piece, it's obviously a hunter."

Jacobson and Melin are running for the seat formerly held by DFLer Tony Sertich of Chisholm. Cynthia Kafut-Hagen is the Independence Party candidate.

Comment on this post