Seeking productive last 2 years, Dayton pushes for DFL-led Legislature

Gov. Mark Dayton is not on the ballot in November, but the success of his final two years in political office is at stake.

As Election Day looms, Dayton is sounding increasingly urgent appeals that voters restore full control of the state Legislature to his DFL Party.

The governor is engaging personally in dozens of legislative races, at a level allies said they've never before seen: hobnobbing with donors as a fundraiser guest of honor and trying to fire up volunteer door-knockers and phone-bank callers in precincts all over the state.

"My plea to Minnesota voters would be: I have two years left," Dayton, who announced his forthcoming political retirement a few years ago, said in an interview with the Star Tribune. "Give me a chance to complete the agenda I set forth with DFL majorities in the House and Senate."

Dayton still wants to secure about $700 million in additional state funding that would allow every public school district in Minnesota to offer voluntary prekindergarten classes. It would build on his first-term success in winning funding for an all-day kindergarten option in districts statewide. Also still atop his wish list are spending injections for the state's aging water treatment and transportation infrastructures; a more affordable public college experience; and fixes to Minnesota's health insurance system.

That last item has become a political hot potato in the fight for legislative control, after price spikes were announced for some 250,000 participants in the state's individual market. That prompted Dayton's offhand remark that the federal Affordable Care Act was "no longer affordable for a growing number of people," which Minnesota Republicans rapidly recirculated in their campaign literature. The GOP is trying to protect its House majority and topple the DFL in the Senate.

GOP House Speaker Kurt Daudt is brandishing the insurance problems as evidence that full DFL control of state government brings big downsides for Minnesotans. Minnesota adopted its health insurance exchange under Dayton and DFL majorities in 2013, but the governor argues that changes to the federal law are necessary to fundamentally improve the system.

In fact, that's the note that Smith struck as she whipped up DFL activists at a recent Sen. Bernie Sanders rally at the University of Minnesota.

"We can keep the state Senate, that's extremely important. And then we need to win just seven seats in the state House, and we can start to make progress again," said Smith, still eyeing a 2018 bid to succeed Dayton. "This is personal for me, because Mark Dayton has two years left in his term, and I do not want to waste one minute of that."

Dayton and DFL legislative majorities ran state government in 2013 and 2014. They raised income taxes on the wealthy, delivered all-day kindergarten and a two-year tuition freeze at public colleges and universities, legalized same-sex marriage and medical marijuana, and set Minnesota's minimum wage on a permanently upward path.

In his Star Tribune interview, Dayton said higher minimum wage increases would likely be on the table if the DFL gets fully back in power. Despite legal setbacks, activists in Minneapolis continue to mount a campaign for a $15-an-hour minimum wage there, which progressive majorities have enacted in a handful of U.S. cities.

"I've always thought the minimum wage should be such that someone working full time 40 hours a week should make enough to put their family at the federal poverty level, and then work their way beyond that with training and the like," Dayton said. "That'd be $12 an hour. There's trade-offs with employment in terms of a minimum wage, but I would support something up to that."

"I'm not going to say I'm wedded to this now, but the facts are a 10-cent-a-gallon gas tax increase would cost the average Minnesota motorist $75 a year," Dayton said. "So we're going to tell our young people, sorry, but $75 a year was more important to us than giving you a decent transportation system."

Dayton's first two years in office, in 2011 and 2012, saw him sparring with new Republican majorities in the House and Senate, and a 21-day state government shutdown ensued.

In the past two years, juggling a DFL Senate and GOP House, Dayton presided over another long budget stalemate, and his list of accomplishments was less robust than the previous two years. His most notable success working with Republican majorities remains the successful push for Vikings stadium funding in 2012.

To date, Dayton has appeared at over 50 fundraisers and other political events for DFL legislative candidates. The first week of October brought more than 14 separate appearances at rallies, organizing kickoff events and fundraisers, nearly all in direct support of aspiring or incumbent DFL lawmakers.

"He's helped pretty much every candidate who calls or e-mails him" — those in both competitive and long-shot races, said DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin. "For the governor, this is his swan song, and he wants it to be a good, productive two years."

Dayton thanked the wealthy-looking crowd for their support despite the fact that "some of you are paying" higher income taxes because of him. He complained about the congested traffic between St. Paul and Edina, citing it as an argument for more transportation spending. He accused Daudt of "crass political calculation."

"Frankly, it's been such a stalemate," Dayton told the crowd. "We haven't been able to get things that are important for all Minnesotans."