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Capitol View: January 10, 2013 Archive

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The Daily Digest ( Exchanges, standards, a senator walks into a bar...)

Posted at 6:33 AM on January 10, 2013 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Daily Digest

Bill introductions Wednesday set the tone and direction for the Minnesota Legislature's DFL majority. Expect more today as the sessions cranks up.

State


Lawmakers unveil bill to create insurance exchange (MPR News)
Bill calls for 3.5 percent premiums surcharge on health plans for coverage they sell on the exchange to fund the online marketplace.

First batch of bills shows DFL Senate priorities (MPR News)
They include a health insurance exchange, statewide all-day kindergarten and a minimum wage increase.

Norm Coleman rules out bid to recapture Senate seat (Associated Press)
Coleman, who lost his Senate seat to Al Franken in a tight 2010 race, says he isn't ruling a bid for governor "in or out," but signaled a decision was a ways off.

Bill would boost checks on vulnerable adult caregivers (Pioneer Press)
Law enforcement and lawmakers are backing a bill that would expand background checks on those who care for vulnerable adults.

GOP leader criticizes proposed history standards (Star Tribune)
Sen. David Hann says the would-be state school standards play down "the contributions of the United States and our economic and political ideals."

Nation


Justices worry about police power to order blood tests for suspects
 (Washington Post)

Expectations low for Joe Biden, NRA talks (Politico)

Obama's Pick for Treasury Is Said to Be His Chief of Staff (New York Times)

Court considers release of bin Laden images (Washington Post)

Bakk not gung-ho on new gun law


DFL Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk said at last night's Minnesota Chamber of Commerce dinner that it will be difficult to pass any restrictions on guns. "This is a state with a strong sporting tradition and a lot of gun owners who feel very strongly about it in a bipartisan way so I think it's very hard to change the current law," Bakk said.

Coincidentally on Wednesday, Minnesota gun control advocate Heather Martens met with Vice President Joe Biden as part of the president's gun policy review following the Connecticut school massacre. Biden, she said, made it clear action to reduce gun violence needs to happen at the state level, not just in Congress -- Tom Scheck and Brett Neely

No Swoon for June (primary)


The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is lending its lobbying weight to legislation that would move the primaries from August to June. But DFL House Speaker Paul Thissen isn't on board with that change.

Thissen said he opposed the idea but that doesn't mean the idea is dead for the session. -- Tom Scheck

A U.S. senator walks into a bar....


One of Minnesota's senators has a standup comedy gig booked for this March -- and it's not Al Franken.

Amy Klobuchar will be the Democratic speaker at the annual Gridiron dinner in Washington on March 9, according to the website FishbowlDC. It's an occasion for journalists and politicians to mock themselves and each other with the dinner's proceeds going to charity.

In 2009, Klobuchar brought down the house at the Washington Press Club Foundation dinner with jokes about raising money from ex-boyfriends. -- Brett Neely

(0 Comments)

Minnesota 'Grandma Brigade' taking names, digging data

Posted at 9:19 AM on January 10, 2013 by Paul Tosto (2 Comments)
Filed under: Political parties

The smiling senior citizen walking by your house and looking intently at your political lawn sign may be out for more than just a stroll. She may be a political operative.

ProPublica, a national investigative journalism group, features a fascinating story on Minnesota's "Grandma Brigade."

These are women middle-aged and older who, as DFL volunteers, "scour their local newspapers each morning for letters to the editor with a political slant ... pay attention to the names of callers on radio shows" and "drive through their neighborhoods and jot down the addresses of campaign lawn signs."

The info, the story notes, finds its way eventually into a DFL database "that includes nearly every voter in Minnesota."

Few places have data volunteers as dedicated as the ones in Minnesota, which has been held up as a model for other state Democratic parties.

Both Democrats and Republicans have centralized databases that, among other things, track opinions you share with local campaign volunteers.

Each piece of information the parties have stored about you might not be too interesting on its own. But taken together, they're incredibly powerful. Political campaigns are using this voter data to predict voters' behavior in increasingly sophisticated ways.

Click on the play button below to hear Lois Beckett, reporter for ProPublica, talk about the story.

(2 Comments)

First bills from House DFL

Posted at 11:45 AM on January 10, 2013 by Tim Pugmire (0 Comments)
Filed under: MN Legislature

The bill introductions began today in the Minnesota House, and the new DFL majority is showing which issues will be priorities this session.

There are noteworthy difference between the first batch of House bills and the first batch of Senate bills, which were unveiled yesterday.

House File 1 is aimed at paying back money owed to schools as part of previous budget deals.

House File 2 provides property tax refunds.

House File 3 allocates new money for the Minnesota Investment Fund.

House File 4 allocates new money for the Minnesota Trade Office.

House File 5 is the Minnesota Insurance Marketplace Act, which establishes the online exchange for consumers to shop for policies.

Like the Senate, the House will also consider an increase in the state's minimum wage (HF 10).


(0 Comments)

Tussle over staff pay erupts in MN Senate

Posted at 2:36 PM on January 10, 2013 by Tom Scheck (5 Comments)
Filed under: MN Legislature

Senate Republicans are criticizing their DFL counterparts for cutting staff salaries and jobs in the Senate Republican Caucus.

The Senate Rules Committee approved the staff roster for the 2013 legislative session this morning. It includes salary reductions of up to 40 percent for some Republican staffers - a cut GOP Senate Minority David Hann said is unreasonable.

"What happened today was extremely mean spirited and disingenuous," Hann said.

Complaints over staff layoffs and salary reductions are common whenever power in the Legislature shifts from one party to another. Democrats won both the House and Senate in November and have been replacing committee administrators and other staff with their own employees. But Republicans complained the cuts are unfairly falling on the GOP and would create a bad working relationship between Democrats and Republicans.

"This is poisoning the well," Sen. Sean Nienow, R-Cambridge, said.

DFL Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk says the Senate was forced to make cuts because the Senate budget will start running a deficit at the end of June. Bakk said some of the salary reductions are a result of paying some staffers too much two years ago.

Bakk also said former GOP staffer Michael Brodkorb's lawsuit against the Senate is playing a role in the current budget. Brodkorb is suing the Senate for wrongful dismissal. He was fired after it was revealed that he was having an affair with then-Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch.

"There's a gorilla in the room," Bakk said on the Senate floor. "And it's the lawsuit against this state Senate that was brought on by behavior of members of your caucus and employees that your caucus hired."

Bakk said the Senate has authorized nearly $200,000 in legal fees to defend itself in the suit.

The Rules Committee approved the staffing measure on a party line vote. Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, complained that Bakk should not have voted on the measure because his wife works for the Senate and is slated to earn $68,561. Bakk said his wife worked for the Senate before he became a member.

(5 Comments)
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The feature examines statements made by Minnesota politicians and checks them for accuracy. Based on data analysis, document reviews and interviews with non-partisan analysts, statements are rated true, misleading, false or inconclusive. More

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