The Minnesota State Legislature will reconvene in early
January, with a newly-minted Republican-majority House of Representatives. One thing you can pencil in for 2015 is another
state government “shutdown.”
Remember back to 2011, the last state budget cycle where
Republicans held any power at the state legislature. Democrat Governor Mark Dayton delayed for two
weeks past the end of the fiscal year before accepting the Republican-passed budget.
As the Washington
Post reported
at the time,
In the Democrats’ calculus, any time that the government
shuts down, Republicans take the blame.
Democrats are the party of government, so therefore, they always want
government open. Republicans are the
party of limited government, so they must be ok with government shutting down.
In the Democrats’ mythology, the two-week partial shutdown
of state government in July 2011 was the key factor in their election victories
of 2012. In their telling, Minnesota voters were
furious with Republicans for denying them some of the free goodies that
government benevolently bestows for those few days the previous July.
Democrats’ belief in this myth is bolstered by the sheer
resources the party devoted to creating it.
In 2011, the Democrat-front-group Alliance
for a Better Minnesota reports spending $777,851 on “budget battle advertising,
which ABM describes as,
Increase public awareness of the
implications of Minnesota ’s
state budget deficit. Develop public
understanding of the implications of state budget decisions at the Minnesota
State Legislature.[1]
Of course, national Democrats tried this same tactic in
2014. Despite blaming House Republicans
for the partial shutdown of the national government in October
2013, Democrats suffered a historic election defeat in 2014 in both House and Senate races.
Despite the recent evidence to the contrary, I think that Democrats
believe that a 2015 Minnesota
government shutdown will lead to 2016 election wins.
The Minnesota State Senate is led by Democrat Tom Bakk, who must defend his
majority in the 2016 election cycle.
Bakk is a past candidate for Governor, whose campaign committee
continues to be active, according to records on file at the state Campaign
Finance Board.
Governor Dayton is eager to regain one-party rule in St. Paul for the last two
years of his final term.
Shortly after this month’s election, Mark Dayton was quoted by
MinnPost as saying,
At a news conference Wednesday (November 5th)
Dayton was
refreshed, relaxed, and pointed about how he intends to work with the
Republicans who will have an 11-seat house majority.
“I’m going to be as conciliatory as I can be and I’m
just pointing to the past,” he said, referring to the government shutdown in
2011, the last time Republicans had control of the legislature.
Democrats seem to believe that they have everything to gain
from another shutdown. ABM will throw
resources into spinning the outcome and a compliant local media will go along
with the Democrat narrative.
Circle July 1 on your political calendar.
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