Almanac: At the Capitol

House Research has completed the brief of amicus curiae that supports a complaint in Ramsey County District Court against Gov. Tim Pawlenty's unallotment.

Nonpartisan House Research attorneys were asked on Monday to write the brief by the House Rules Committee. The Rules Committee agreed to side with the plaintiffs in the case on a 14-8 party-line vote. A House DFL spokesman announced this afternoon that the amicus brief has been filed with the court.

The complaint was filed by six low-income and disabled Minnesotans who have received benefits from programs that were cut earlier this year when Pawlenty used his unallotment authority to cut the 2010-2011 state budget. Judge Kathleen Gearin on Monday heard attorney's arguments in the case.

Former GOP state Rep. Ron Erhardt of Edina is exploring a run for his old House seat as a Democrat.

“I’m looking to run. I raised money earlier in the year,” said Erhardt today in a telephone interview with PIM.

Erhardt, a moderate, spent nine terms in the House. When Republicans controlled the House, he was chairman of the Transportation policy committee. In February 2008, Erhardt and five other House Republicans joined all DFLers to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of a transportation bill that included a gas tax increase.

In the revolt that ensued, Republicans in District 41A endorsed the more conservative Keith Downey. Erhardt ran as an independent and DFLers endorsed Kevin Staunton. Downey won with 37 percent of the vote. Erhardt received 32 percent and Staunton received 31 percent.

A rematch in 2010 is in the making.

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Minnesota Speaker of the House and DFL gubernatorial candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher has collected another union endorsement, this time from the American Federation of State, County and Muncipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 65, which represents 13,000 employees in greater Minnesota.

"Our members worry about how to pay for health care or whether they will be laid off on a daily basis," Steve Preble, Council 65's executive director, said in a statement. "We need a governor who really cares about those issues and can do something about them. We believe that person is Margaret Anderson Kelliher."

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"If you were elected today, what's the first thing you would do to kickstart Minnesota's economy?" This question, from Cook Hill Girard Associates and MGRC's Sarah Strong, is posed to GOP candidates for Minnesota governor Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Delano), Sen. David Hann (R-Eden Prairie), Pat Anderson, Bill Haas, and Rep. Marty Seifert (R-Marshall) at The Commodore in St. Paul Tuesday night, 11/17.

The Minnesota Department of Revenue (DOR) is crediting the state-imposed cap on local levy limits for slowing the increase of property taxes.

DOR announced this morning that levies in 2010 are likely to increase an average 3.5 percent statewide. Next year’s county and city budgets have been proposed, but not yet adopted.

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This morning the 13,000-member International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 49, announced that it's backing the gubernatorial candidacy of House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher (DFL-Minneapolis).

“We need to get the economy working again in Minnesota.  Margaret is a proven leader who has been fighting for the issues and values of our state’s working men and women for years,” said the union's business manager, Glen Johnson, in a media release. “The transportation bill override was the largest job-creating bill in decades, and Margaret made it happen.”

It's the second high-profile endorsement for Kelliher in the past week. Last Thursday she garnered the backing of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees. 

Betsy Sundquist has more about union endorsements and the larger question of their impact in today's Capitol Report. 

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate and three-term Rep. Allen Quist officially launches his campaign against U.S. Rep. Tim Walz (R MN1) today. He'll be making stops in the First Congressional District key population and regional commerce centers of Austin, Mankato and Rochester.

The current buzz in GOP circles is that with Quist in the race, other possible contenders for the GOP endorsement won't challenge Quist because Quist has been blessed by U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R MN6).  As one prominent Republican told me, "Bachmann is the 800-pound gorilla in GOP politics." 

Officially, according to communications director Dave Dziok, Bachmann is not endorsing anyone -- for Congress or for governor -- before the party holds its endorsing conventions next year.

However, people tell me that the fix is in the First. Bachmann can't officially endorse Quist, but he's her pick.

Certainly the fact that Quist's better half, Julie Quist, is Bachmann's state director strikes some as significant. But I talked to the politically savvy Julie Quist last week, and she seemed most genuine in explaining that Bachmann was not endorsing in the First -- while, at the same time, pointing out that she was not authorized to speak for Bachmann on the subject.

The Minnesota Department of Management and Budget (MMB) has rolled out an online map that shows where federal economic stimulus money has been allocated in the state.

The map, which was launched earlier this month, is available at the state’s www.recovery.mn website for stimulus information.

State officials were pressed to improve the presentation and availability of stimulus funding information this summer after a report from government watchdog groups gave Minnesota low marks. The economic stimulus package, officially called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was signed on Feb. 17 by President Obama.

Users can click on the Minnesota map to obtain specific dollar amounts allotted to counties.

Users can also search for categories in counties including health and human services, education, transportation, energy and environment, housing, economic development and public safety.

MMB asked the Minnesota Geospatial Information Office for help in creating the map.

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PIM was on hand at the Commodore on Tuesday night for the second leg of MGRC's candidate forum, this time with the GOP contingent. The candidates had to scurry off to another event immediately after the Q&A, but lobbyists stuck around to hobnob at the classic St. Paul club. We'll have more on the night's proceedings in Friday's Weekly Report.

Two DFL candidates registered campaign committees with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board this week to challenge two prominent state Senate Republicans.

Gregory A. French of Byron seeks to unseat Senate Minority Leader David Senjem, R-Rochester, in Senate District 29, and Ron Case of Eden Prairie is challenging Assistant Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, in Senate District 42.

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Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak is wasting no time assembling a staff for his pursuit of the DFL endorsement to run for governor next year.

His mayoral chief of staff, Tina Smith, has been named campaign manager (taking a leave of absence from the mayor's office, according to an e-mailed press release this afternoon). Jeremy Hanson Willis, who has been Rybak's communications director since 2005, assumes the post of chief of staff while Smith works on the campaign.

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Note: this story first appeared in the November 13, 2009 edition of the Weekly Report.

When Save the Vikes first surfaced online, we assumed -- along with everyone else in public affairs who was paying attention -- that the site was manufactured grassroots being orchestrated by the Vikings, its PR firm, Himle Horner, or by Tunheim Partners, the PR firm recently hired by the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission.

The site has a professional look and feel to it, and it includes somewhat detailed information on how to lobby the governor and legislators. Plus, Save the Vikings is a much better looking site than the astroturf site registered by the Vikings, Minnesota Momentum-- "Citizens for Minnesota Vikings Stadium Development." All of which furthered our assumption that professional help was involved. 

That's not the case. Save the Vikings was organized by Cory Merrifield, a private sector IT pro. Merrifield, who signs his Save the Vikings-related emails, "Founder/Advocate," told PIM the site was created and is maintained on his own dime and on his personal time. 

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Two first-term DFL state senators have announced their support of Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, for Minnesota governor.

In a letter, Sens. Ann Lynch, DFL-Rochester, and Kathy Saltzman, DFL-Woodbury, praised Bakk as a leader who can "work across party lines, make difficult decisions and get the work done."

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Longtime state Sen. Steve Dille, R-Dassel, has announced he won't seek re-election in 2010. Dille, a farmer and veterinarian, has been a key legislator on agriculture issues.

Dille was elected to the House in 1986. He was elected to the Senate in 1992.

In an e-mail, Senate Minority Leader Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, said Dille "often defused partisan rancor with his well-known sense of humor and warm personality." 

Dille will leave the Senate as the ranking Republican on both the agriculture  and veterans policy and finance committees.

Dille has worked extensively on livestock issues. In particular, he has worked in recent years to bring peace to the "feedlot wars" that have divided environmentalists and farmers. 

In 2007, he co-authored the Freedom to Breath Act that bans smoking in restaurants and bars. He has also been a co-sponsor of legislation that would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for medical purposes.

Update:
Bruce Mirken from the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., writes to
say that while Dille in 2007 co-sponsored the medical marijuana bill, he voted against medical marijuana in 2009. 

Surprising results in the latest Rasumussen Reports poll of who GOPers and DFLers would back to run for governor.

On the GOP side:

Norm Coleman -- 50 percent (Coleman still mum on whether he's in or out)
"Undecided" -- 26 percent
Marty Seifert -- 11 percent
"Another candidate" -- 7 percent
Laura Brod -- 5 percent (Brod's not even a current candidate)
Tom Emmer -- 1 percent

On the DFL side:

Mark Dayton -- 30 percent
R.T. Rybak -- 30 percent
"Undecided" -- 20 percent
Margaret Kelliher -- 8 percent
Matt Entenza -- 6 percent
"Another candidate" -- 5 percent

Over Republicans’ charges of political gamesmanship, the state House Rules Committee this morning agreed to issue a friend-of-the-court brief opposing Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget cutting unallotments earlier this summer.

The resolution passed on a 14-8 party-line vote.

The move won’t make the House a plaintiff in the complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court by six disabled and low-income Minnesotans. But it puts the DFL-controlled House on record as supporting the plaintiffs’ charge that Pawlenty misused his statutory authority when he cut $2.7 billion out of the 2010-2011 budget after the 2009 legislative session adjourned.

The Senate, which is also controlled by DFLers, hasn’t taken a public stance on the case.

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(Editor's note: Politics in Minnesota's new Comings and Goings feature will make note of new appointments, resignations, promotions and other movement of people within and adjacent to government in Minnesota. The new feature will replace the St. Paul Capitol Report's Capitol Notebook. Let us know if you have an item for Comings and Goings.)

State Rep. Joe Mullery, DFL-Minneapolis, was honored as Legislator of the Year at the annual conference of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Minnesota.

NAMI's executive director, Sue Abderholden, praised Mullery's advocacy for the mentally ill, noting that he was chief author of legislation that authorized funding for discharge planning out of prisons and jails and made it easier for 911 operators to dispatch mental health crisis teams.

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Politics in Minnesota was at the Center for Changing Lives in Minneapolis this Saturday for the Minnesota DFL Veterans Caucus Governor Candidates Forum. David Brauer was the moderator for a spirited conversation between the candidates and members of the Veterans Caucus and other supporters. A few other legislators and other familiar faces were in the room, like Sens. Jim Carlson (DFL-Eagan) and Linda Berglin (DFL-Minneapolis), John Wodele, and Ember Reichgott-Junge. Herewith, some photos from the event:




By the way, we were live-tweeting the forum all afternoon. Follow us on Twitter for all the latest politics news.

The House Rules Committee’s 14-8 vote today to file an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs in the unallotment court challenge is preceded by a history of other forays into the courts by the Legislature.

House Research Director Patrick McCormack and House Research counsel Joel Michael prepared memos for the Rules Committee that detail previous actions. They include the 1991 lawsuit challenging Gov. Arne Carlson’s vetoes and the 1995 action against Carlson’s decision to transfer House office space in the Capitol to the governor’s office.

McCormack’s memo makes a brief mention of the history of his office’s involvement in legal representation. House Research, McCormack writes, provides legal representation on a case-by-case basis and has turned down requests for representation by individual members in the past. The memo also addresses how House Research handles “awkward moments when issues divide the House members.”

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The state House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee this morning passed on a straight party-line vote passed a resolution that directs House Research to draft an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs in the ongoing unallotment lawsuit.

The vote on the ressolution was 14-8.

A complaint was filed in October by low-income Minnesotans who are challenging Gov. Tim Pawlenty's use of his unallotment powers this summer that cut spending in the 2010-2011 budget. 

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for later today in Ramsey County District Court. The Rules Committee's action stops short of joining the legal case. But the amicus brief by nonpartisan House Research attorneys will provide a rationale for supporting the plaintiffs.