Shot in the Dark

Jackpine Snipers

After a session of being neutered and stripped of their leadership positions by the increasingly metro-dominated DFL, there’ve been rumors bouncing around CD8 circles that Senators Bakk and Tomassoni were going to bolt the DFL.

And according to Tom Hauser, that may be in the near offing…:

…although not quite to the point of joining the GOP.

Rumors are bouncing about as to which party the “Independent Caucus” will work most closely with – but either way, Bakk and Tomassoni are going to be the most popular guys on Capitol Hill when the session starts.

It doesn’t seem a stretch that on issues of mining and gun rights – and, likely, a few more – the Senate has gone from 34-33 GOP to 34-31-2, and the DFL agenda just got even farther out of reach.

What’ll it mean for Governor Klink’s emergency powers?

My guess – and it’s only a guess – is that the House DFL will dig in harder and get more extreme.

Thoughts?

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Mitch Berg

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16 responses to “Jackpine Snipers”

  1. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    I don’t see how anyone can refute that both parties are completely out of control.

    MN could benefit from more “Blue Dog Democrats”.

  2. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    I don’t think Bakk can change from the leftist party apparatchik that he has been. I don’t know about Tomassoni, but according to a friend of mine in Everett, he is more of an old line Democrat. He also said that he believes Tomassoni and Pete Stauber are friends.

  3. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    boss, there is probably no small amount of revenge in Bakk’s action from having had some leadership position (Minority Leader or something?) taken from him last year or so. But yes, he has usually been a reliable “leftist party apparatchik”. We’ll see how independent he/they are.

  4. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    … sorry, somewhat redundant comment to the post. Never mind.

  5. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    Self preservation is the golden rule for politicians. Stauber’s win, and Peterson’s loss in southern Minnesota, is changing the calculus outstate. Of course the metro DFL will double-down; there’s hardly anyone left to tell them “no”.

  6. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    MN could benefit from more “Blue Dog Democrats”.

    Take it up with the entire DFL. The last of the relative moderates got expunged. Tim Mahoney – an old-school union DFLer from the East Side of Saint Paul – retired before he would have been primaried out by John “BURN IT TO THE GROUND” Thompson.

    That’s on you guys.

    I don’t see how anyone can refute that both parties are completely out of control.

    I can refute it easily, with four words.

    • Kurt Daudt
    • Paul Gazelka

    Anyone who calls either of them “out of control” is either reading from a chanting point, or has a definition of “out of control” from a planet with multiple moons orbiting it, certainly not this one.

  7. Mr. D Avatar
    Mr. D

    Night Writer has it correct. Bakk and Tomassoni can hear the footsteps.

  8. Pete Strunk Avatar
    Pete Strunk

    It’s not just the crooked politicians fleeing the rotting Democrat party. The base is abandoning them too. Even Mexican border jumpers can’t believe their eyes.

    “President Donald Trump picked up more Latino voters in several key battleground states than he won in 2016, according to results of a nationwide exit poll.
    The President captured almost half of the group in Florida, up from 35% in 2016. Former Vice President Joe Biden earned just over half of the Latino vote in the state, compared to 62% who supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton four years ago.

    Biden also lost support among Latino voters in Georgia and Ohio, important states to capturing the White House. The former vice president was up only about 16 percentage points in Georgia and about 24 points in Ohio, compared to Clinton’s margin of 40 percentage points and 41 points in Georgia and Ohio, respectively.”

    In 2022, the slate of reprobate candidates will look like a combination of Ringling Bros. circus, the island of Dr. Moreau and a Sandinista National Liberation Front reunion.

  9. SmithStCrx Avatar
    SmithStCrx

    I still remember when Tomassoni took the job working for a group that lobbies the MN Legislature for funding, but we were assured that there wouldn’t be any conflict of interest because he wouldn’t be lobbying or taking a salary from the organization while the Legislature was in session. I know it’s traditional for Iron Range DFLers to get sweat gigs like that after they retire from the Legislature, but that was jumping up the timeline.

    Despite my dislike for Tomassoni, I’m really looking forward to what these guys do, and if they get any more members. I’ve heard from more than one person with experience down at the Capitol that Bakk is the worst member to cross. He knows how to use the system to get even.

  10. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    Bakk is the worst member to cross. He knows how to use the system to get even.

    Case in point…

  11. Maximum Overlord Avatar
    Maximum Overlord

    Of course the DFL will move further left. There is no backstop on the Left. calling for burning down the homes of citizens doesn’t get DFL candidates booted. The DFL base & the DFL governor are destroying the economy of Minneapolis & no one will call them out on it.

  12. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Look at the failure of Proposition 16 in California to see how out of touch the most liberal Democrats are. In a state that is only 37% white and voted 60%+ for Biden, the electorate rejected the reinstatement of affirmative action, a cornerstone of liberal Democratic identity politics, with 56% of the vote.

    Proposals to defund the police and eliminate private health insurance did not gain Democrats votes.

  13. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Regarding the DFL’s need for “blue dogs”, it strikes me that any Democrat who doesn’t see, and object to, the direction Nancy Pelosi and “the Squad” are taking is going to have the guys running the EEG scratching their heads because obviously nothing’s going on in there.

  14. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    In a state that is only 37% white

    Unknowingly, Emery has put his finger on the reason why the Democrats did so poorly this time around.

    Check one box: White, Black, Native American, Asian, Hispanic.

    Uh…which box do black Hispanics check?

    Ummmmmm, I’ve met people in Guatemala who don’t speak Spanish and never have. Which box do they check?

    And uh, who says that Hispanics aren’t white?

    I mean gosh, if there was a box for German, would I check that?

    In other words, while people might be proud of their heritage, I certainly am, less and less voters are responding along racial and ethnic lines.

    Sorry, but identity politics only exists for white suburban liberals to feel good about themselves.

  15. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Good points, Greg.

    We saw that with Kamala Harris, who identified as an Indian-American, but, as soon as she dropped out of the running for POTUS, she became black. Her father outed her as being a descendant of slave owners, but, as usual with leftists, as long as you were the right kind of slave owner, everything in peachy. Put an (R) behind her name and Katy bar the door!

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