{"id":41136,"date":"2014-01-14T10:47:41","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T16:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=41136"},"modified":"2014-01-14T19:33:59","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T01:33:59","slug":"bad-lieutenant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=41136","title":{"rendered":"Bad Lieutenant"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Can you fog a mirror? Then you too can be a lieutenant governor!<\/p><\/div>\n

As\u00a0Yvonne Prettner Solon bids farewell to the office of Lieutenant Governor, should Minnesota do so as well?<\/p>\n

When it comes to political shockwaves, the announcement that Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon would not seek a second-term as Mark Dayton’s running-mate<\/a> barely constitutes a ripple in the political waters. \u00a0And why not? \u00a0Over the past four years, Prettner Solon joined a long and undistinguished list of Minnesota lieutenant governors<\/a> who served their time largely under the radar of the media and electorate. \u00a0Even Prettner Solon’s own webpage touts her “actions”<\/a>\u00a0as a small collection of out-of-state\/out-of-country travels, with a dash of in-state touring on behalf of federal initiatives (helpfully spelling as a typo as well).<\/p>\n

Prettner Solon’s (in)actions say less about her tenure than about the limitations of the office of lieutenant governor itself.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

John Nance Garner’s infamous quote about the Vice-Presidency as<\/span> “not worth a bucket of warm piss”<\/a> (often sanitized as “warm spit”) might as well apply to Minnesota’s lieutenant governors. \u00a0With perhaps the exception of <\/span>Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau<\/a>, who served as the commission of Transportation in the Pawlenty administration, Minnesota’s lieutenant governors have served almost no active role in policy direction or political leadership.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Indeed, the trend-lines for the state’s lieutenant governors have seemingly further minimized an insignificant position. \u00a0Whereas past lieutenant governors had gone on to serve in higher office, such as Rudy Perpich, Sandy Keith, Karl Rolvaag, C. Elmer Anderson and Edward Thye, the past several decades haven’t even seen lieutenant governors make a post-office political impact. \u00a0Joanne Benson, Joanell Dyrstad, and Marlene Johnson all made bids for higher office in the 1990s (Governor, U.S. Senate and St. Paul Mayor, respectfully) and lost – badly. \u00a0None of them even made to the general election.<\/p>\n

All of this begs the question – does Minnesota require a Lieutenant Governor?<\/p>\n

Seven states forgo the position, with two of those states, Tennessee and West Virginia, having the office of lieutenant governor be only an honorary title on the Speaker or President of the State Senate. \u00a0The line of succession, often the only value to the office, goes either to the Senate President or the Secretary of State. \u00a0In Minnesota, about the only other value to the office is as a gender counterweight to the top of the ticket. \u00a0Lou Wangberg<\/a>\u00a0was the last male lieutenant governor of the state – a fact useful only as trivia for political nerds. \u00a0Otherwise, every winning ticket (and most of the losing tickets) have had a female running-mate since 1982.<\/p>\n

Closing the office of lieutenant governor won’t save Minnesota much. \u00a0The combined office budgets of the Governor and his lieutenant are only $3.3 million<\/a>. \u00a0But if Minnesota could willingly end a constitutional office like State Treasurer<\/a>, which had at least some active management in state affairs, then why not do the same for a office that has strayed far from any meaningful policy or political moorings? \u00a0Every candidate for governor claims they will reinvent the office of lieutenant governor with their selection. \u00a0Dayton himself promised that Prettner Solon would become a “strong partner”<\/a> if elected. \u00a0If travelling to Canada and opening a Duluth office<\/a> were parts of Dayton’s idea of partnership, he didn’t say in 2010.<\/p>\n

Outside of the endorsement process for both parties, the role of lieutenant governor serves absolutely no purpose. \u00a0And in an era where it appears both parties are drifting away from placing much value on being the endorsed candidate for governor, whatever justifications remain for the office are quickly disappearing.<\/p>\n

ADDENDUM<\/strong>: Even Prettner Solon seems to have expected more out of her office<\/a>, if her comments at her press conference were accurate:<\/p>\n

She has said she and the governor have a distant relationship. She said she anticipated being more involved in more policy initiatives as lieutenant governor, but she carved out a niche of her own working on initiatives for seniors and Minnesotans with disabilities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As\u00a0Yvonne Prettner Solon bids farewell to the office of Lieutenant Governor, should Minnesota do so as well? When it comes to political shockwaves, the announcement that Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon would not seek a second-term as Mark Dayton’s running-mate barely constitutes a ripple in the political waters. \u00a0And why not? \u00a0Over the past four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,53,20,105,144,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-14","category-the-universe-and-everything","category-democrats","category-first-ringer","category-governor","category-minnesota-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41136"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41141,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41136\/revisions\/41141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}