Democrats: Distrust, Verify, Then Really Distrust

Matthew Torgerson – who claims to be a lawyer, I think – claims that “15% of Minnesota GOP legislators have a college degree”.

Here’s one of several tweets on the subject:

Now, Torgerson, like many DFLers, confuses “education” with “schooling” – but beyond that, he’s utterly wrong.

Here are the notes on legislators’ education, taken from the Senate and House bio pages, broken down by district, chamber, party, legislator and level of education.

Dist	Chamber	Name	Party 	BA
1	Sen 	Stumpf	D	MPA
1	A	Fabian	R	BA
1	B	Kiel	R	 -
2	Sen 	Skoe	D	BA
2	A	Eken	D	BA
2	B	Hancock	R	BA
3	Sen 	Saxhaug	D	BA
3	A	Anzelc	D	BS
3	B	Mcelfatrick	R	RN
4	Sen 	Carlson	R	BS
4	A	Persell	D	MA?
4	B	Howes	R	 -
5	Sen 	Tomassoni	D	BS
5	A	Rukavina	D	BA
5	B	Melin	D	JD
6	Sen 	Bakk	D	BA
6	A	Dill	D	 -
6	B	Murphy	D	BA
7	Sen 	Reinert	D	MS
7	A	Huntley	D	PhD
7	B	Gauthier	D	MS
8	Sen 	Loury	D	BA
8	A	Hilty	D	MA
8	B	Craford	R	BA
9	Sen 	Langseth	D	 -
9	A	Lanning	R	MS
9	B	Marquart	D	MS
10	Sen 	Hoffman, 	R	RN
10	A	Nornes	R	Cert?
10	B	Murdock	R	 -
11	Sen 	Ingebrigtsen	R	AA
11	A	Westrom	R	JD
11	B	Franson	R	BA
12	Sen 	Gazelka	R	BS
12	A	Ward	D	MA
12	B	LeMieur	R	 -
13	Sen 	Gimse	R	 -
13	A	Anderson	R	BA
13	B	Vogel	R	 -
14	Sen 	Fischbach	R	JD
14	A	O'Driscoll	R	BS
14	B	Hosch	D	MA
15	Sen 	Pederson J	R	MBA
15	A	Gottwalt	R	BA
15	B	Banaian	R	PhD
16	Sen 	Brown	R	BA
16	A	Erickson	R	BA
16	B	Kiffmeyer	R	RN
17	Sen 	Nienow	R	 -
17	A	Daudt	R	 -
17	B	Barrett	R	BS
18	Sen 	Newman	R	 -
18	A	Shimanski	R	AS
18	B	Urdahl	R	BS
19	Sen 	Koch	R	BS
19	A	Anderson	R	BS
19	B	McDonald	R	AA
20	Sen 	Kubly	D	MD
20	A	Falk	D	BS
20	B	Koenen	D	AA
21	Sen 	Dahms	R	BS
21	A	Swedzinski	R	BS
21	B	Torkelson	R	BA
22	Sen 	Magnus	R	BS
22	A	Schomacker	R	MPS
22	B	Hamilton	R	 -
23	Sen 	Sheran	D	MS
23	A	Morrow	D	JD
23	B	Brynaert	D	MA
24	Sen 	Rosen	R	BS
24	A	Gunther	R	BS
24	B	Cornish	R	 -
25	Sen 	DeKruif	R	  -
25	A	Gruenhagen	R	ChFC, CLU
25	B	Woodard	R	MBA
26	Sen 	Parry	R	 -
26	A	Kath	D	MS
26	B	Fritz	D	LPN
27	Sen 	Sparks	D	BS
27	A	Murray	R	MBA
27	B	Poppe	D	MS
28	Sen 	Howes	R	BS
28	A	Kelly	R	BS
28	B	Drazkowski	R	M.Ed
29	Sen 	Senjem	R	MA
29	A	Quam	R	MS
30	B	Norton	D	BS
30	Sen 	Nelson	R	ME
30	A	Liebling	D	MS
30	B	Benson	R	MNA
31	Sen 	Miller	R	AAS
31	A	Pelowski	D	MS
31	B	Davids	R	BS
32	Sen 	Limmer	R	BA
32	A	Peppin	R	MBA
32	B	Zellers	R	BS
33	Sen 	Olson	R	BS
33	A	Smith	R	JD
33	B	Doepke	R	BA
34	Sen 	Ortman	R	JD
34	A	Leidiger	R	MA
34	B	Hoppe	R	BA
35	Sen 	Robling	R	 -
35	A	Beard	R	BA
35	B	Buesgens	R	BS
36	Sen 	Thompson	R	JD
36	A	Holberg	R	BA
36	B	Garofalo	R	BS
37	Sen 	Gerlach	R	MBA
37	A	Mack	R	BA
37	B	Bills	R	MA
38	Sen 	Daley	R	MBA
38	A	Anderson	R	BS
38	B	Wardkiw	R	JD
39	Sen 	Metzen	D	BA
39	A	Hansen	D	MS
39	B	Atkins	D	JD
40	Sen 	Hall	R	BA
40	A	Myhra	R	BA
40	B	Lenczewski	D	BA
41	Sen 	Michel	R	JD
41	A	Downey	R	MIS
41	B	Mazorol	R	JD
42	Sen 	Hann	R	BA
42	A	Stensrud	R	BA
42	B	Loon	R	BA
43	Sen 	Bonoff	D	BA
43	A	Anderson	R	BA
43	B	Benson	D	MA
44	Sen 	Latz	D	JD
44	A	Simon	D	JD
44	B	Winkler	D	JD
45	Sen 	Rest	D	MBA
45	A	Pederson	D	BS
45	B	Carlson	D	BS
46	Sen 	Eaton	D	RN
46	A	Nelson	D	 -
46	B	Hilstrom	D	JD
47	Sen 	Kruse	R	BA
47	A	Dittrich	D	BS
47	B	Hortman	D	JD
48	Sen 	Jungbauer	R	BA
48	A	Hackbarth	R	 -
48	B	Abeler	R	Doc Chiropractic
49	Sen 	Benson	R	MBA
49	A	Scott	R	Cert
49	B	Peterson	R	 -
50	Sen 	Goodwin	D	BA
50	A	Laine	D	MA
50	B	Knuth	D	MS
51	Sen 	Wolf	R	BA
51	A	Sanders	R	BA
51	B	Tillberry	D	MA
52	Sen 	Vandeveer	R	BS
52	A	Dettmer	R	MA
52	B	Dean	R	BA
53	Sen 	Chamberlain	R	BS
53	A	Runbeck	R	BA
53	B	McFarlane	R	AA
54	Sen 	Marty	D	BA
54	A	Greiling	D	MA
54	B	Scalze	D	 -
55	Sen 	Wiger	D	JD
55	A	Lillie	D	BS
55	B	Slawik	D	MPA
56	Sen 	Lillie	R	MPA
56	A	Lohmer	R	 -
56	B	Kieffer	R	BS
57	Sen 	Sieben	D	BS
57	A	Kriesel	R	 -
57	B	McNamara	R	BS
58	Sen 	Higgins	D	BS
58	A	Mullery	D	JD
58	B	Champioin	D	JD
59	Sen 		D
59	A	Loeffler	D	BA
59	B	Kahn	D	MPA
60	Sen 	Dibble	D	BA?
60	A	Greene	D	MBA
60	B	Hornstein	D	MA
61	Sen 	Hayden	D	BA
61	A	Clark	D	MPA
61	B	Hayden	D	BA
62	Sen 	Torres Ray	D	MPA
62	A	Davnie	D	M Ed
62	B	Wagenius	D	JD
63	Sen 	Kelash	D	MPA
63	A	Thissen	D	JD
63	B	Slocum	D	BA
64	Sen 	Cohen	D	JD
64	A	Murphy	D	MA
64	B	Paymar	D	MA
65	Sen 	Pappas	D	MPA
65	A	Moran	D	BS
65	B	Mariani	D	BA
66	Sen 	McGuire	D	MPA
66	A	Lesch	D	JD
66	B	Hausman	D	MA
67	Sen 	Harrington	D	MA
67	A	Mahoney	D	 -
67	B	Johnson	D	MA

Note that of 109 Republicans in the House and Senate, 91 have some sort of post-high school education,from certificates or RNs or AAs up through JDs and PhDs.  28 Republicans have graduate degrees – MA, MS, MEd, MBA, PhD, and so on – alone, to say nothing of the 51 BA and BS, plus a variety of RN (which may or may not be four-year degrees), AA, AS and certifications.

And of 18 who don’t list post-high-school education, 14 are listed as business owners – the rest are farmers or tradespeople…

…and, most importantly, all of them convinced a majoirty of the people in their district that they should be in the Legislature,which is the only “credential” that means jack.

We’ll see if Torgerson changes his “story”.

UPDATE:  Torgerson apparently believes 74 GOP legislators are lying about having degrees on the legislative bio pages.  He’s sticking his (koff koff) “story”.

UPDATE 2:  He’s now saying he spoke in “gest”, which is I think a way of saying “jest”.

12 thoughts on “Democrats: Distrust, Verify, Then Really Distrust

  1. Mitch, can you post a link to Torgerson’s story? He needs to be buried underneath a pile of smelly, stinking…ridicule.

  2. Because, like, everybody knows you have to like, have a degree to be really, really smart. Just look at Bill Gates. Jeez.

  3. He’s now saying he spoke in “gest”, which is I think a way of saying “jest”.

    You only get 140 characters in Twitter, so I assume “gest” is actually “digest,” because he definitely had to eat that claim. What a maroon.

  4. In “gest”? Hmmm, must have been a Liberal Arts major. (He would have to have some kind of post-secondary indoctrination in order to cast aspersions on those who don’t, right?)

  5. No, casting aspersions is an equal opportunity inclination. It starts with “those people” and escalates.

  6. For someone who’s concerned about our legislators’ education levels, you’d think that Mr. Torgerson’s spelling would be a bit better, wouldn’t you?

  7. He must have wanted to believe that statistic pretty badly.

    Just not badly enough to check on it and make sure it was true.

  8. “And of 18 who don’t list post-high-school education, 14 are listed as business owners – the rest are farmers or tradespeople…”

    And I will take any of them for a leader over someone who spent $120,000 getting a World Citizen degree at Macalster.

  9. . . .the rest are farmers or tradespeople
    So Humphrey’s Democrat-Farmer-Labor party no longer considers farmers and laborers capable of serving representing the interests of the people?
    You really can’t satirize this.

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