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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. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about 7th District

Peterson, Walz break party line, vote for Republican student loan bill

Posted by: Corey Mitchell Updated: April 27, 2012 - 5:33 PM

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Democratic U.S. Reps. Collin Peterson and Tim Walz voted Friday for a Republican bill that would take money from President Obama's health care reform law in order to keep the rates on federally subsidized student loans from doubling this summer.

The bill -- the Interest Rate Reduction Act -- would keep the rates for federal Stafford loans at 3.4 percent until next summer. If Congress doesn't take action, the rates will double to 6.8 percent come July 1.

Peterson and Walz were among 13 Democrats who supported the bill, which passed the Republican-led U.S. House by 20 votes, 215 to 195. 

The Republican bill would take roughly $6 billion from the Prevention and Public Health Fund of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, a frequent target of Republicans on Capitol Hill. The White House has already threatened to veto the bill.

"As a teacher and a parent, I know how critical a high-quality education is to our country's economic future, and I also know how much anxiety middle class families feel about the rising cost of tuition. The path to the American Dream runs through a college education. Piling even more debt onto the backs of our students is unacceptable," Walz said in a statement.

"While I strongly disagree with how this bill is paid for, I will not let politics get in the way of keeping college affordable. This bill will get us to the next step towards solving the problem to ensure students and middle class families won't see their interest rates double on July 1."

Peterson's office did not issue a statement over his vote, but the self-described conservative Democrat has often voted for Republican-backed legislation. The rest of Minnesota's representatives voted along party lines on the bill.

The issue picked up steam this week when President Obama visited colleges in three swing states this week to discuss college affordability and his efforts to keep the rates on Stafford loans at 3.4 percent. Likely Republican presidential Mitt Romney agreed the rates should be capped and Congressional Republicans soon followed suit.

The dissent has come over how to pay for the one-year extension.

With Friday's passage in the House, the bill now heads to the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate,  where leaders want to cover the extension's $6 billion price tag by closing tax loopholes for some small businesses. That isn't likely to mesh well with the House Republican bill.

Republican U.S. Rep. John Kline, the chair of  the House Education and the Workforce Committee has called the Prevention and Public Health Fund a "slush fund" that allows bureaucrats to use the money as they please.

In a statement, released today, he said: "The Interest Rate Reduction Act is not a perfect solution. But it will allow us an opportunity to continue working toward a long term solution on student loan interest rates, one based on the free market instead of the whims of politicians in an election year."

 

Minnesota redistricting lawyers: State should pay our fees

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: April 24, 2012 - 5:22 PM

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Minnesota has court-ordered political maps in place but the legal fight over redistricting continue.

A Democratic attorney has asked for $180,000 in legal fees and the chief Republican attorney has put the redistricting court panel on notice to expect a bill, too.

"This is the same kind of motion that has been made in every redistricting case since the early 70s," said Alan Weinblatt, a Democratic attorney involved in the redistricting case but not representing the DFL party. The party's legal team has yet to make any filings regarding fees.

And in every case since then, courts have said the state should pay the costs, Weinblatt said. Ten years ago, a Minnesota redistricting panel said the state was on the hook for more than $350,000, a partial payment of all the fees.

The court this year told the parties they have until May 14 to detail their costs.

Those court filings will, for the first time, show exactly how much the parties paid to fight over the political maps.

Update: Ken Martin, DFL Party chair, said the party is "talking about" joining in the request for fees.

Peterson: 'No wonder no one likes Congress'

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: April 18, 2012 - 12:31 PM

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As Congress takes up a new farm bill, U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, offered a searing review of a Republican budget plan that slashes domestic spending while largely sparing the Pentagon.

“It’s often said that the Agriculture Committee is the least partisan of all the Congressional committees,” the Minnesota Democrat said in an opening statement Wednesday. “We have a bipartisan tradition of being reasonable and a commitment to working together in the best interests of our constituents. While I still think that’s true, today is one very unfortunate exception.”

He noted that Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan’s budget plan has little chance in the Democrat-led Senate, and suggested that ongoing negotiations to fit the next five-years’ farm programs under the GOP spending limits are a “political exercise.”

“In fact, I would contend this entire process is a waste of time,” he said. “It doesn’t mean anything. The Senate has not agreed to (the Ryan budget) and…. almost certainly will not touch this bill.”

Under the budget plan, the committee has been asked to cut costs by about $33 billion over 10 years, mostly in savings from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.

“Reducing government spending is never an easy task,” said Republican Committee Chair Frank Lucas of Oklahoma. “We face difficult choices, but it is our responsibility to find ways to cut our costs so that we can once again live within our means.”

Turning to the GOP budget plan, Peterson said “You can’t have a serious conversation about getting our budget under control when you take large items like defense off the table, which is really why we’re here. Taking a meat ax to nutrition programs that feed millions of hard-working families, in an effort to avoid defense cuts, is not a serious way to achieve deficit reduction. No wonder no one likes Congress.”

U.S. House incumbents Kline, Peterson flush with campaign cash

Posted by: Corey Mitchell Updated: April 11, 2012 - 10:57 AM

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Early returns show that two U.S. House members -- 2nd District Republican John Kline and 7th District Democrat Collin Peterson -- have healthy campaign accounts as they gear up for the November election.

Kline has more than $1 million banked and with about 42 percent of donations coming from political action committees. Records show that he donated $5,000 to the Republican Party of Minnesota, which is struggling with debt. Kline's own political action committee, Freedom and Security, also donated $5,000 to the party.

His lone Democratic challenger, Northfield City Council member Patrick Ganey, has not yet filed campaign finance documents for the reporting period that covers January through the end of March. The 2nd congressional district covers areas south of the Twin Cities.

Peterson, whose district covers much of western Minnesota, has about $752,530 on hand for his re-election bid against Lee Byberg, a familiar opponent. The Republican Party of Minnesota has endorsed Byberg, who ran against Peterson and lost in the 2010 election by more than 17 percentage. Byberg's campaign had yet to file campaign finance reports as of Wednesday morning.

Considered a conservative Democrat, Peterson has generally won re-election by wide margins. As the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, many of Peterson's first quarter donations came from political action committees with ties to the farming industry.

 

Republicans start air war against Peterson

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: March 28, 2012 - 4:57 PM

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Every year, the GOP vows to make a race out of Minnesota’s Republican-leaning 7th congressional district in northwest Minnesota, which has been represented since 1991 by guitar-picking centrist Blue Dog Democrat Collin Peterson.
 
The closest they got in the past decade was in 2010, when Peterson won by some 17 percentage points, largely, as usual, on the strength of his farm cred.
 
But they’re back again this year, starting with a $41,000 television ad buy in Fargo by the National Republican Congressional Committee. The week-long ad, starting Thursday, focuses on Peterson’s support for the Obama administration’s health care overhaul and his vote against the GOP budget plan.
 
The ad appears timed for this weekend's GOP endorsing convention, which pits Peterson's unsuccessful 2010 challenger, Lee Byberg, against State Sen. Gretchen Hoffman.
 
Speaking privately, Republican sources in D.C. say they are bullish about Hoffman's candidacy.

 

The ad says that Peterson has “changed.” Now the GOP has to hope that it's fortunes in the 7th district will change change as well. 

 

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