Minority Leader Kurt Zellers held his first official press conference today and it was by no means his first press conference, but it certainly felt different than when he was just a regular lawmaker. People held doors open for him and eagerly shook his hand. Zellers repeated that his caucus will "try to restore fiscal sanity to government." He admitted he's still drinking from a fire hose and hasn't had time to call his mother, wife or the governor yet today.
For a guy who's served just over 5 years, we asked what kind of experience he has recruiting candidates and raising money. Zellers cited his resume working for four statewide campaigns including Sens. Rod Grams and Norm Coleman and noted his first job with a campaign was doing small dollar fundraising. At 39 years old Zellers compliments the 30-and-40-something DFL leaders in the House.
Zellers is also the first minority leader from the suburbs in years. He said "the one thing I do represent is the suburbs." He lives in the fast-growing Maple Grove where the father of two said the demographic is "38 to 42 with 2.5 kids and a black lab." For the record he has a black lab who he's talked about in debate along with his young children. We'll have a behind-the-scenes look at Zeller's first days in office this week on Almanac.