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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 Democrats

Rep. Franson offers proposal to limit unionization

Posted by: Baird Helgeson Updated: December 19, 2012 - 8:52 PM

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State Rep. Mary Franson is trying to head off new unionization efforts with a proposal to block groups from forcing independent contractors to join a union.

The Alexandria Republican said DFL Gov. Mark Dayton wants to allow labor leaders to unionize home childcare providers and in-home health assistants as payback for political support.

“Dayton is helping his union allies at the expense of family care providers,” Franson said. “His efforts are nothing but a raw political and financial power grab, and I won’t stand for it.”

The governor does not believe anybody should be forced to unionize, a spokeswoman said.

“Governor Dayton believes it is the right of individuals to vote on whether or not to form a union—holding an election is the American way of resolving differences in a group,” said Katharine Tinucci, a Dayton spokeswoman.

Dayton signed an executive order last year calling for a unionization vote for state-subsidized home childcare providers, which a judge threw out after union opponents filed a lawsuit.

Tinucci noted that even if child care workers had voted to form a union, no individual would have been forced to join.

Franson called the unionization effort a “money laundering scheme” to divert taxpayer money through at-home daycares and home healthcare providers back to unions, which typically support Democrats.

The children, the sick and the elderly “don’t deserve to be caught up in a money laundering scheme,” Franson said.

Union leaders said legislators like Franson have spent years cutting their wages and making it harder for them to make a fair living.

“We need to join together as a union to protect ourselves from politicians like Mary Franson," said Lisa Thompson, president of Child Care Providers Together/AFSCME. "They’ve cut our pay. They’ve eliminated quality improvement grants for our profession. And they’ve ignored the 7,000 parents who are waiting for child care so they can go to work.”

To see the proposal or sign a petition supporting the idea, check here.

Franson’s proposal is not likely to get far in the Legislature. Starting in January, Democrats take over control the House and Senate and are not expected to embrace proposals to limit unions. It's also not clear whether Franson's proposal has broader support among GOP members.

 

Rep. Terry Morrow of St. Peter will step down to take new job

Posted by: Jim Ragsdale Updated: December 19, 2012 - 4:44 PM

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He was just re-elected without opposition, but Rep. Terry Morrow, DFL-St. Peter, announced Wednesday that he will be leaving the Legislature instead of serving a fourth term.

Morrow announced that he has decided to take a job in Chicago with the Uniform Law Commission, a nonpartisan organization that works with states and foreign nations in drafting uniform statutes. Morrow said the opportunity arose after he was re-elected on Nov. 6.

He said he plans to step down at the end of his current term in early January.  A special election will have to be called by Gov. Mark Dayton to choose a successor.

"It's been a fantastic six years," Morrow said. "Getting to know the people in my district, people from all political persuasions, getting work done together. These six years have not only restored but confirmed my faith that Americans can govern, and can govern themselves, despite what we may sometimes see in the media."

Morrow said Republican Rep. Morrie Lanning of Moorhead was among his closest friends. The two worked together to help pass a Vikings stadium bill last session. He said he is also proud of working to improve Highway 14 in his district.

Morrow is a lawyer and professor who teaches at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, where he directed the college's pre-law program.

He said the Uniform Law Commission works to develop uniform statutes among states and nations in such areas as wills, trusts and estates, and developed the uniform commercial code to standardize sales and transactions. The commission also works with nations on such issues as human trafficking.
 

 

Corey Day, executive director of DFL, arrested for DWI

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: December 17, 2012 - 5:25 PM

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The executive director of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party was arrested Saturday under suspicion of drunk driving after hitting two parked cars, a police report said.

Corey Day, who has been with the party since October 2011, was still in Hennepin County jail late Monday afternoon.

According to a police report, police were called to 26th Street and Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis Saturday night on a report of an accident involving a possible drunk driver and found two parked vehicles had been struck. Day, 36, was arrested and booked for driving while intoxicated.

It is not his first time in trouble with the law, according to a public records search.

Day had previously been charged with driving while under the influence in 2009, according to public records.

DFL Party chair Ken Martin said the weekend violation would not impact his work at the state party.

“As far as I’m concerned, it is a personal issue. This didn't happen on work time,” Martin said. "It's obviously a lapse in judgment and a mistake that he made. And I don't condone it."

He said he was not aware of Day’s previous record and that the party does not routinely run criminal background checks on employees, nor does he specifically ask about arrest records during the interview process.

“We hire folks based on their skill set,” Martin said.

A call to Day’s cell phone was not returned Monday.

Sandy Date and Matt McKinney contributed to this report.

Bipartisan bunch pushes National Popular Vote

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: December 17, 2012 - 11:39 AM

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On the same day Minnesota's presidential electors will ceremonially cast their votes for President Barack Obama, a bipartisan bunch of Minnesota lawmakers proposed exchanging the power of the Electoral College and making the national popular vote supreme.

The new system, backed by a diverse group of legislators, would give weight to the number of actual votes presidential candidates get, rather than just number of Electoral College votes, in presidential elections. A diverse group of Minnesota backers say it would  mean every vote would have equal value during presidential campaigns, removing the candidates' incentive to focus primarily on the handful swing states.

"Everyone understands that places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, swing states, this is a really good process for them right now. Unfortunately, the rest of the country gets hosed," backer Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, said Monday.

The idea of swapping the power of the electoral college for a popular vote system is not new. A Minnesota measure to join a national compact pass a single committee passed a Republican-controlled House committee last year but never got a full vote in either the House or the Senate.

But, with another presidential election in which Minnesota was all but ignored in the rear view, supporters hope the change will be embraced.

"It's an idea whose time is come," said backer Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope. Rep. Steve Simon, incoming chair of the House elections committee and a St. Louis Park Democrat, is a support and outgoing House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, supported the 2011 measure.

Detractors fear the a popular vote system would mean that candidates would focus only on populous states and fear the specter of a national recount, which could paralyze the process.

This year's national Republican Party platform took a strong position against the idea.

"We recognize that an unconstitutional effort to impose “national popular vote” would be a mortal threat to our federal system and a guarantee of corruption as every ballot box in every state would become a chance to steal the presidency," the GOP platform says. The national Democratic platform lacks a similar position.

The current proposal would not dump the electoral college system completely, which would require a constitutional amendment. Instead, if it wins approval, it would guarantee that presidential electors would give their votes to whomever wins the popular vote. 

For the change to take effect, states across the country, whose votes are worth 270 electoral college votes, would have to approve a compact giving power to the national popular vote. So far, nine states, with 132 electoral votes, have approved the plan.

"We're almost half way to where we need to be to change the system constitutionally," said Pat Rosenstiel, consultant to the National Popular Vote campaign.

At noon on Monday, Minnesota's presidential electors -- all Democrats -- will meet to cast their ballots for Obama at the State Capitol.

 

Franken: Not the day to discuss gun control

Posted by: Baird Helgeson Updated: December 14, 2012 - 4:04 PM

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Hours after a mass school shooting in Connecticut, Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken said now is not the time to discuss reforming the nation’s gun-control laws.

“This is the day for us to have the victims and their families in our hearts, in our prayers and in our thoughts,” Franken said Friday.

The Minnesota senator was at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus to hear from residents about the potential impacts of the so-called fiscal cliff.

He began a news conference after the meeting by discussing the school shooting in which a gunman killed 20 elementary school children and six adults.

“This has been a very sad day,” Franken said. “It’s a horrific event and certainly every Minnesotans' prayers and thoughts are with the families and the friends of those who were killed or wounded, and those who are heeling from those wounds.”

 

inside the StarTribune