Less than a week after ending the Minnesota government shutdown, Gov. Mark Dayton sent out a fundraising plea for the DFL based on his shutdown experience.

"While we were able to end the shutdown – putting thousands of people back to work and preventing some of the GOP's worst policies from taking effect – damage has still been done. The only way to ensure our state government truly works for the people of Minnesota is for Democrats to take back the House and Senate," he wrote in his rare fundraising email. "
I saw first-hand how intransigent the GOP can be when it comes to protecting their rich and powerful friends."

While Dayton has been a prodigious fundraiser for the party and his own campaigns over the years, most of his fundraising has been accomplished, he has joked, by pitching the man in the mirror.

The email says: "The only way to ensure our state government truly works for the people of Minnesota is for Democrats to take back the House and Senate. The best way to do that is to give to the DFL today. They are running a campaign to get the truth about the Republican radical agenda out to the voters."

The plea makes this interesting statement: "Minnesotans are smart. Once they know the truth, they'll make the right choice," indicating that only people who don't know the "truth" would vote for Republicans.

It also comes with this letterhead: