The first proposal that Republican state Sen. Dick Day brought to this page's attention, a good 15 years ago, would have expanded casino gambling to pay, at least in part, for a new professional sports stadium. Thus his new career move, announced Tuesday, is not a shocker. The six-term former Senate Republican leader from Owatonna is leaving public office to become, in effect, a lobbyist for a "racino," or casino at Canterbury Park racetrack in Shakopee. He'll head a new nonprofit advocacy organization called Racino Now, and one beneficiary of the tax proceeds the group envisions would be the Minnesota Vikings.
Day is by no means the first legislator to leave office at midterm and take a lobbying job. But as a former minority leader, he is making a particularly visible move -- one that's sure to renew calls for restrictions on lawmakers' ability to abruptly become pleaders among their former colleagues. The ability of interest groups to dangle offers of lucrative positions in front of the legislators whose votes they are soliciting has come under fire from reformers both in St. Paul and in Washington.
Minnesota's part-time Legislature has always been cool to ideas such as requiring a delay of a year before a former legislator can become a registered lobbyist. Day's move could put that idea in a warmer zone.
