Explanations, Part I

I’m going to spend a little time going over the votes of the Republicans who supported the stadium.

Let’s start with the Senate.

You can look at a fairly interesting map of the votes in the House and Senate; the map isn’t entirely unpredictable; third-ring exurban Republicans voted (mostly) against it; Republicans in swingy districts, and moderates, voted “yes”.

Let’s break ’em down:

Democrats voting yes

I’m not going to bother analyzing them – they’re all hopeless anyway.

Bakk (Cook); Bonoff (Minnetonka); Cohen (St. Paul); Goodwin (Columbia Heights); Harrington (St. Paul); Higgins (Minneapolis); Kelash (Minneapolis); Koenen (Clara City); Langseth (Glyndon); Latz (St. Louis Park); Metzen (South St. Paul); Pappas (St. Paul); Reinert (Duluth); Rest (New Hope); Saxhaug (Grand Rapids); Sheran (Mankato); Sieben (Newport); Skoe (Clearbrook); Sparks (Austin); Stumpf (Plummer); Tomassoni (Chisholm); Wiger (Maplewood)

Democrats voting no

Now, I’m pretty sure Mark Dayton has to be loving the fact that the GOP is the party tearing itself apart over this – the only eight DFLers voted against the bill:  Dibble (Minneapolis); Dziedzic (Minneapolis); Eaton (Brooklyn Center); Hayden (Minneapolis); Lourey (Kerrick); Marty (Roseville); McGuire (Falcon Heights); Torres Ray (Minneapolis)

Republicans voting no

No arguments here.  They’re the good guys and gals:

Benson (Ham Lake); Brown (Becker); Chamberlain (Lino Lakes); Dahms (Redwood Falls); Daley (Eagan); DeKruif (Madison Lake); Gazelka (Brainerd); Gerlach (Apple Valley); Hall (Burnsville); Hann (Eden Prairie); Hoffman (Vergas); Kruse (Brooklyn Park); Lillie (Lake Elmo); Limmer (Maple Grove); Newman (Hutchinson); Ortman (Chanhassen); Parry (Waseca); Thompson (Lakeville); Vandeveer (Forest Lake); Wolf (Spring Lake Park)

  Republicans voting yes
Now here, we have some ‘splainin’ to do.  Let’s go over ’em, Senator by Senator:

Carlson (Bemidji); Fischbach (Paynesville); Gimse (Willmar); Howe (Red Wing); Ingebrigtsen (Alexandria); Jungbauer (East Bethel); Koch (Buffalo); Magnus (Slayton); Michel (Edina); Miller (Winona); Nelson (Rochester); Nienow (Cambridge); Pederson (St. Cloud); Robling (Jordan); Rosen (Fairmont); Senjem (Rochester)

I have to say I’d hoped for much better from Niennow, who has been as solid a supporter of the taxpayer as there is (UPDATE:  And rightly so.  Nienow’s vote was apparently a parliamentary dodge.  My apologies).  And I didn’t expect much from a few of the others – especially the retiring Michel, who has nothing to lose – sad to say.

But for the rest?

I think an explanation is in order.

10 thoughts on “Explanations, Part I

  1. Note: Robling, Michel, and Jungbauer are retiring. A ballot box doesn’t impede their zeal to sell out the taxpayers and the Republican Party. I noticed Gen Olson was excused at 10pm and was voting along with the turncoats…until it got past her bedtime. But have no fear, the old lady, who is also retiring, will trip the green button on her way out the door.

  2. Nienow’s “Yes” was apparently so he could call for Reconsideration of the bill. I’m told it’s the same as a couple of DFLers voting for the marriage amendment with the intention of trying to get it pulled from the ballot this fall. I’ll wait for his final vote this afternoon. That said, I’m not a fan of these types of procedural gimmicks.

  3. SmithStCrx: You are correct. It was a parlimentary move. Nienow is now on the floor, bashing the hell out of the conference committee bill.

  4. My State Senator Jungbauer was a surprising yes. I had him on my radio program April 1 and he said he would only support a site like Arden Hills with all its economic development opportunities. Wonder what changed?

  5. I am convinced that Ingebrigtsen is a RINO! He voted against Right to Work, because he’s a public police union goon and his cronies held his feet to the fire. I’m not sure that that wasn’t the case here.

  6. Claire Robling used to be my State Senator and I remember door-knocking in college with her and Carol Molnau when she was first elected. I think that her vote on this was the most disappointing one of all!

    🙁

  7. The Prince of Darkness is happy, he has been a longtime Vikings fan and despite all my dealings in the underworld I still haven’t managed to get them to the superbowl in the last 35 years. This will help, I also collected a lot of souls for this stadium too, Vikings fans are almost as bad as Packers fans when it comes to that but at least the Packers have titles. SKOL VIKINGS

  8. I was also surprised/disappointed seeing Jungbauer on that list of pro Wilfarists. He has been a reliably conservative vote on nearly every issue for the entire time he has been my State Senator. Unlike my State Rep Jim the EnAbler.

  9. The “they’re not up for re-election” is not an excuse for this. Senator Gerlach isn’t up for re-election either but it doesn’t stop him from doing what’s right.

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