Mark Dayton, Libertarian Reformer? I Don't Think So

We have seventeen months to go before the 2014 elections, which means that the contest is well under way.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, a progressive Democrat, is running for re-election as a…libertarian reformer.  At least that’s what the infinitely credulous reporters at the Minneapolis Star Tribune claim.

Page B-3 of Sunday’s paper includes a “hot dish politics” column that discusses Dayton’s re-election plans.  The governor just signed into law the largest budget in the state’s history and the largest tax increase in the state’s industry, and approved the removal of such reforms as the sunset commission, teacher testing, and student testing.

The Star Tribune reports,

Dayton said he wants to spend more time overhauling the inner workings of state government.  He is beginning to amplify a criticism that he had when he took office: that cumbersome permitting and other obstacles “bogs everything down.”

“I vacillate every day from being a ­liberal to being a libertarian,” Dayton said.  “I believe in government, but I want government to work better, to be more efficient, to be more cost-effective.”

I’ve met quite a few libertarians in my day, and I suggest that the governor get out of the office and meet a few more, himself.  He doesn’t quite have the term “libertarian” nailed down yet.

The Star Tribune’s analysis,

Republicans have tried to frame Dayton as a big-government, big-­taxing Democrat.  But his government streamlining pitch could appeal to independents, who could become a make-or-break factor in his re-election chances.  Dayton’s approval among independents has slipped in recent polls.

I suppose the Star Tribune could be correct.  If independents have not been paying attention at all to state government in the last three years, then yes, a reform message may hold some appeal.  Unlike the Star Tribune, I suspect that Dayton’s falling approval rating among independents is evidence that they have been paying attention to state government, and are not liking what they are seeing under one-party rule.

As the head of the executive branch of state government, Dayton could start streamlining any day.  If permitting is cumbersome, he can change that.  He needn’t wait for another election, or even another session of the legislature. 

Dayton does make one statement that I agree with,

But Dayton said he is pessimistic when looking out over the national political and economic horizon.

The nation faces an aging population and soaring health care costs, global economic instability and relentless financial pressure on the middle class.

“I think it’s going to be a very tough 20 years,” Dayton said in an interview with the Star Tribune.

It will be a very tough 20 years, but once the last of the baby boomers have retired (around 2030); demographically-speaking, things will start to look up.  But, as usual, Dayton draws the wrong conclusion,

It is increasingly difficult for governors and leaders in Washington to embrace difficult solutions to big problems in the face of an often fickle and restless electorate, Dayton said.

It’s been my experience that the electorate hungers for real leadership.  It is only because they are not getting real leadership that they seem “fickle and restless.”  Dayton has nothing to offer but the solutions of the 1970s and 1980s.