Gov. Mark Dayton met privately Friday morning with House Speaker Kurt Zellers, hoping to sway the key Republican leader to help pass a public subsidy package for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium.
In a symbolic move, the DFL governor came to Zeller's office and the two met alone for 35 minutes after asking their aides to leave. "Come on in," Zellers told the governor.
Emerging from the meeting, the governor was asked whether the controversial stadium project could pass the House without political help from Zellers, who has so far been vague on how much he will do.
"I think a stadium bill is going to pass the House with 68 votes. I didn't ask the Speaker what his vote would be," said Dayton. "There have to be enough advocates for this project in the House and the Senate and the Minneapolis City Council.
"That's the real challenge," he said.
Zellers may be the key figure at the state Capitol to the stadium's political chances this spring and, standing next to Dayton after the meeting, he again gave little indication of his own stadium political strategy.
"It was a good, constructive conversation. I think we better assessed where things are," said Zellers. "[But] until we see that bill, until it moves through committee, it's hard for any of us to say, 'Here's five votes, here's [another] 10 votes' " for it.
Dayton planned to spend much of Friday lobbying for the stadium legislation, which was expected to be made public later in the day and perhaps have its first committee hearings next week. The governor planned to meet separately with the state Capitol's top four legislative leaders Friday.
