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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.
Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Mike Kaszuba, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Brad Schrade and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger. Contributor in D.C.: Kevin Diaz.
Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Mike Kaszuba, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Brad Schrade and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger. Contributor in D.C.: Kevin Diaz.
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Senate billed for legal services to deal with ex-employee Brodkorb
Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger under Minnesota state senators, Republicans Updated: May 23, 2012 - 4:14 PM
The legal bill has come due for the Minnesota Senate.
Secretary of the Senate Cal Ludeman said Wednesday that the Senate had received an invoice for legal services performed to defend it from potential litigation regarding ex-employee Michael Brodkorb's firing.
Brodkorb was fired after he had an affair with then Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch. His employment was ended in December the day after she stepped down from leadership in the wake of senators confronting her about the affair.
Ludeman said the Senate received the bill on Tuesday but he would not release it publicly until the leaders of the senate authorized him to pay it.
"I'm going to wait until I have the signatures authorizing payment thereof," Ludeman said. "We are about a day away."
The Senate disclosed last month that it was paying private attorney Dayle Nolan $330 an hour for advice about the Brodkorb situation. Although her original agreement bespoke of monthly bills, until Tuesday Senate officials said they had not received any invoices.
Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, said Wednesday that he had not yet seen the bill.
Asked whether he was more inclined to settle with Brodkorb or fight it out, Senjem said: "How do you weigh it? In the end it is probably lawyers' fees versus [settlement]...It's just how much time do you put into something like this versus how much do you get out of it," Senjem said.
Brodkorb has threatened to sue over his termination, claiming sexual discrimination because female senate employees were treated differently when they had affairs. He has said he will seek more than $500,000 in damages and legal costs.
He has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a precursor to formal litigation, but has yet to file anything in a courtroom.
Seniors chop up AARP cards in Voter ID protest
Posted by: Jennifer Brooks under Minnesota campaigns Updated: May 23, 2012 - 4:43 PM
Conservative groups are calling on Minnesota seniors to boycott the American Association of Retired Persons over the group’s opposition to the photo identification measure on the November ballot.
To drive their point home, seniors gathered at a Wednesday press conference snipped AARP cards into shreds. They say there are conservative-affiliated groups that can give them the same senior discounts and that share their conviction that requiring a photo ID to vote will reduce voter fraud.
“I’m somewhat disappointed that my dues with AARP might be used against me,” said Joe Remley of White Bear Lake (valued member of AARP since 1996) before he sliced up his card with a pair of scissors. Remley said he has to show a photo identification for almost everything else in life – from a doctor’s visit for his injured hand to a trip to the Ramsey County compost site. “Ramsey county considers the compost heap more sacred than they do the voter booth.”
The protest didn’t faze the AARP of Minnesota, which has seen similar card-shredding protests over its support for the Affordable Care Act and its opposition to privatizing Social Security.
AARP state director Michele Kimball said the group has 670,000 members in Minnesota, and it's impossible to take policy positions that every single member will back every single time.
“We are staying the course,” said Kimball, whose group has registered with the state to campaign against the November ballot amendment. “This is about concers we have about the unintended consequences (that the amendment could have on) the ability of seniors and the disabled to vote.
Kimball estimates that as many as 64,000 Minnesota seniors could have trouble obtaining the type of photo identification they would need to vote.
But Jeff Davis, president of the Minnesota Majority, disputes the idea that the new ballot amendment would disenfranchise the elderly – even frail nursing home residents who no longer drive. He leads a statewide conservative coalition that is launching the new website ditchAARP.com to encourage seniors to boycott AARP.
“Polls have consistently shown that senior citizens support voter ID,” Davis said. “We think it’s wrong for a membership-based organization to take a position on an issue that’s diametrically opposed to a supermajority of its members….We think most members are simply unaware of the positions they’re taking on some of these issues.”
The website includes a list of conservative organizations that offer the same sort of senior discount cards that AARP members receive.
“They deceived the elderly and they’re dishonest and they’re dishonorable,” said Jack Rogers of the North Metro Tea Party, who said he held on to his expired AARP card just so he could destroy it in protest. “Go away from these people. Don’t be with them.”
AARP’s Kimball said her group is nonpartisan, and nonpolitical and will push ahead with its public information campaign in the months leading up to the November campaign. The group would prefer to see the constitutional amendment defeated so both parties could come together and work on a bipartisan solution to prevent voter fraud without disenfranchising anyone, she said.
Rep. Joyce Peppin pulls all-nighter to file first for re-election
Posted by: Jim Ragsdale under 1st District, 2012 Presidential election, 8th District, Minnesota congressional, Minnesota legislature, Democrats, Republicans Updated: May 22, 2012 - 3:04 PMState Rep. Joyce Peppin kicked off the candidate-filings season in Minnesota in her traditional way -- by pulling an all-nighter in a patio lounge chair outside the Secretary of State's Office so she could be the first to file in person Tuesday morning.
"It was better than tickets to Taylor Swift," Peppin, R-Rogers, said after paying her $100 filing fee to seek a fifth term in the House. It is also the fifth time she has camped out to file, which she views as a way of showing her level of excitement and interest in serving her district.
Rep. Joyce Peppin near her campsite
She was joined by johnny-come-latelys who arrived a few minutes before the office opened for business at 8 a.m. -- state Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, who is running for the 1st Congressional District seat held by Democrat Tim Walz; and former congressman Rick Nolan, a Democrat who filed for the 8th Congressional District seat held by Republican Chip Cravaak.
Dick Franson, an 83-year-old military veteran and perennial candidate, was among the early-filers, his 26th trip to the Secretary of State's counter. Franson, a Democrat, is challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. State Sen. John Howe, R-Red Wing, was also among the early-rising filers.
Tuesday marks the opening of the candidate-filing window for Minnesota's primary and general elections in 2012, in which all legislative seats, all congressional seats and one U.S. Senate seat are up for grabs in Minnesota. It is also a presidential election year, which likely means huge turnout, and two constitutional amendments will be on the general election ballot on Nov. 6.
The filing period runs through 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5.
Peppin is a former legislative staffer who said she was inspired by the example of former Rep. Henry Kalis, a Democrat from Walters in southern Minnesota, who also camped out to be the first to file in person. She said she has now done so five times since she was first elected in 2004. Peppin chairs the House Government Operations and Elections Committee.
She said she does it "to show my constituents that I'm still excited to do the job, and I look forward to the campaign season." She set up her recliner in the hallway outside Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's office at 2 p.m. Monday and alternated between that lonely outpost and her legislative office on the fifth floor.
"I got carded by Capital security," she said of her vigil, which included a sign she placed on her chair when she was away that read "Reserved for Joyce Peppin." She has hopes that her energy translates into success for her party in retaining control of the House in November. "I think we're in good shape," she said.
Parry and Nolan face stiff challenges in battling incumbents, and showed a spirit of bipartisanship when Parry loaned Nolan his reading specs so Nolan could decipher the filing form. Parry says he's already walked in three parades and is receiving a good reaction.
Nolan is expected to face a competitive primary on Aug. 14 with two fellow DFLers, former state Sen. Tarryl Clark and former Duluth City Council president Jeff Anderson.
The candidates were jovial in this ceremonial opening day. One candidate who was not present, and never has been present, also was heard from.
The Secretary of State's office said they have received a mailed-in form from Jack Shepard, a fugitive felon living in Italy who always files and whose presence on the ballot has been upheld by the courts. He joins Franson and Klobuchar in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary.
Back to school for Bills
Posted by: Jennifer Brooks under Minnesota campaigns Updated: May 21, 2012 - 12:27 PM
When Kurt Bills clinched his party's endorsement this weekend, he knew what he wanted the next day's headline to be: GOP Endorses Public School Teacher for US Senate.
So it was no surprise that the Monday morning after the state Republican convention found the candidate back in the classroom, instead of out on the campaign trail.
The school year at Rosemount High School ends next week, and that's when Bills plans to climb aboard a retrofitted blue school bus and launch his full-time campaign against one of the most popular politicians in the state -- incumbent U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
But for now, there are textbooks to collect and last-minute life lessons to hand down to the seniors in his first-period advanced placement economics class.
"If you want to write a diatribe against me, I completely understand and it's probably well deserved," Bills joked, as he urged students to fill out an evaluation of the year's lessons in microeconomics and macroeconomis. He wants to know what he can improve next year -- if he comes back next year to teach. "Think all way back to the beginning -- what worked in the course? What was good for you, what was bad for you?"
This being an advanced-placement class, the students agreed that what Mr. Bills' class really needed was more quizzes, and steps to ensure that students who didn't do the required reading couldn't fudge the answers in class.
"Never do we waver from the path of economic knowledge," Bills joked as the students laughed and wrote faster.
“He’s a really quirky guy,” said senior Sara Devitt, who popped her head into the room before class to congratulate Bills on his weekend convention win. “Econ doesn’t sound very fun…But he’s so good at balancing the fun with econ, keeping it upbeat and keeping it very positive…I think it’s been a blast.”
Bills, she said, knows how to keep students interested in potentially dry subjects like microeconomics. One day, he put on some Van Halen, cranked up the volume, and yelled the day’s lesson over the soundtrack.
He kept teaching economics as he ran for local political office, then the statehouse and now for national office. Devitt said students have been following his campaigns with interest.
“We’re all very supportive, even if we’re not in the same political party,” she said. “He’s the best teacher I’ve ever had.”
Kriesel pens fundraising letter for Minnesotans United
Posted by: Jennifer Brooks under Political ads Updated: May 21, 2012 - 10:54 AMRetiring state Rep. John Kriesel, R-Cottage Grove, continues his campaign against the anti-gay marriage amendment on this November's ballot.
The anti-amendment group Minnesotans United for All Families circulated an email Monday morning from Kriesel, encouraging people to donate to the cause. His break with his party over the marriage amendment landed him on the cover of Lavender Magazine as their 2011 Person of the Year.
The email reads:
I joined the military at 17 because I love this country, I love this state and I love what they stand for.
In Iraq, I nearly died because of an IED explosion. Laying there in the desert, convinced my life was ending, I thought only of my wife and kids. My love for them kept me fighting; it pulled me through.
We’re facing a constitutional amendment this fall that threatens families. It aims to tell Minnesotans which committed couples are worthy of marriage in our state -- and worse, which ones aren’t.
One year ago, I pleaded with my colleagues in our state House of Representatives not to put this amendment on the ballot. I lost that battle -- but in the fall, we can still win.
To do it, we need thousands of grassroots donors to step up. Defeating this amendment won’t be cheap, and if we don’t meet our goals, we risk permanently tarnishing our great state.
Click here to do the right thing and contribute today so we can meet our crucial goal. We cannot let opponents of freedom decide the fate for thousands of loving Minnesota families.
I told my fellow legislators last year that this amendment didn’t represent the America I went overseas to defend. America has always been about expanding our rights and freedoms. Unfortunately, my protest fell on deaf ears.
The sad truth is that this amendment would take away basic freedoms from thousands of Minnesotans, and that’s unconscionable. That goes against all our values.
I’ll tell you what: I’m determined to defeat this amendment.
I need you to join me. We cannot afford to miss a single fundraising goal. We have to defeat this harmful amendment.
Click here to contribute right away to help us reach our critical fundraising goal. If we don’t act now, we’ll be in danger of losing one of our most fundamental freedoms.
Thank you for everything you do.
Sincerely,
John
John Kriesel
State Representative
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recent posts
- Senate billed for legal services to deal with ex-employee Brodkorb
- Seniors chop up AARP cards in Voter ID protest
- Rep. Joyce Peppin pulls all-nighter to file first for re-election
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