Dayton: Minnesota's First Wonk

Lots of wonks roam the Minnesota Capitol halls, but the wonkiest of them all may work in the governor's office.

As Gov. Mark Dayton has proved time and again, he is Minnesota's First Wonk.

No matter the audience, his innate nerdiness leaps out.

To a group of on-deadline reporters last week, the governor had this to say about the state's new revenue forecast:

"The increase in real GPD, as I indicated, is one that has improved over a projection made just three months ago. So it is a pretty remarkable increase of 39 percent of the projected rate of growth from the 2.3 percent to 3.2 percent. I think it's significant that the consulting firm now places a 20 percent probability on the most optimistic scenario for the future compared to a 15 percent probability on the pessimistic."

He then added this flourish: "Secondly, I'd say this improvement shows, at the macroeconomic level, the triumph of Keynesian economics."

The six numbers and mention of John Maynard Keynes, a British economist who rose to fame in the 1930s, did not make it on the evening news or your daily newspaper.

Then he silenced it with this bit of poetry: "From 2002 to 2008, Minnesota had the greatest cut of any state in the nation in state and local taxes and other revenues on a per $1,000 of income." Phrases like "per $1,000 of income" do not tend to get a crowd on its feet.

Minnesotans had clues of their chief executive's inner nerd during the campaign.

As Dayton campaigned from city to city last year, he traveled with all 3,000 pages out of the state's current budget. And he actually read it.