Over the past couple of days, I’ve analyzed the votes of the Legislative GOP caucuses on the stadium votes over the past few weeks, and found that if you’re a conservative voter, you have some reason to take consolation; the legislators we sent to the Legislature in 2010 on a conservative platform largely – not perfectly, but largely – stuck with their principles.
How about the DFL?
Heres’ the interesting part: Look at the DFLers in the House and Senate who voted “no” on the Stadium deal. Don’t worry, it won’t take long; not many DFLers could bear the thought of not giving Wilfare to a billionaire:
- Allen
- Carlson (Lyndon)
- Clark
- Davnie
- Dibble
- Dziedzic
- Eaton
- Falk
- Greene
- Greiling
- Hansen (Rick)
- Hausman
- Hayden
- Hornstein
- Kahn
- Laine
- Lenczewski
- Liebling
- Loeffler
- Lourey
- Marty
- McGuire
- Mullery
- Murphy (Erin)
- Pappas
- Paymar
- Scalze
- Torres Ray
- Wagenius
With the exceptions of Rep. Falk and Senator Lourey, every last one of them is from the metro area. They represent (or, for some of us, “represent”) the people who will actually be stuck with the lion’s share of the tax burden for all of those purple-clad horn-blowing tail-gating Bud-chugging freeloaders’ “family traditions”.
The rest of them? From 18-term dinosaur Mary Murphy to first-term carpetbagger Carly Melin, from Eastsider Jon Lesch to suburban grandée Nora Slawik, from Iron Range glad-hander Tom Rukavina to smirky suburban snark-bot and Eddie Haskell impersonator Ryan Winkler, they’re the ones who figured billionaire Zygi Wilf deserves your money more than you and your family do.
Here they are: Anzelc,Atkins, Bakk, Benson (John), Bonoff, Brynaert, Champion, Cohen, Dill, Dittrich, Eken, Fritz, Gauthier, Goodwin , Harrigton, Higgins , Hilstrom, Hilty, Hortmann, Hosch, Huntley, Johnson (Sheldon), Kath, Kelash, Knuth, Koenen, Langseth, Latz, Lesch, Lillie (Leon), Mahoney, Mariani, Marquart, Melin, Metzen, Moran, Morrow, Murphy (Mary), Nelson (Michael), Norton, Pelowski, Persell, Poppe, Reinert, Rest, Rukavina, Saxhaug, Sheran, Sieben, Simon (Steve), Skoe, Slawik, Slocum, Sparks, Stumpf, Thissen, Tillberry, Tomassoni, Ward, Winkler and Wiger.
They’re the ones that practice Cy Thao’s classic if inadvertent dictum of “progressive” politics – “when we win, we take your money; when you win, you get to keep your money”. And Larry Pogemiller’s even better “it’s silly to think that the people can spend their own money better than the government can”.
Does the GOP need to get more conservative? Do its less conservative members need to shape up or get out? Absolutely. And hopefully we’re not done with that process this election season.
But let’s not forget who invented “overtaxation” and “subsidizing the 1%” in this state.
Tomorrow – what the MNGOP needs to do. Says me.
Step *off* the ledge? Mitch, your Freudian slip is showing.
Who was last week it that commented something about a Republican who votes almost everything the same way you would but voted yes on the stadium is better than a Democrat who voted no on the stadium but votes against your wishes with everything else?
Hello, Lyndon Carlson. His no vote on the stadium won’t make me vote for him in November. But thanks, Lyndon. You just proved a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Tommy Rukavina isn’t seeking re-election