DFL transportation bill up for veto override; GOP playing tough with own members?

A bill seeking to recover up to half of the current shortfall in state transportation funding is up for a veto override vote today.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed the bill, which passed with a large bipartisan majority in the House, last week before heading out of town. Sources in the House, in which the DFL majority is five votes short of an override, have put the chances of a successful override at about 50-50.

On the other side of the aisle, GOP leaders are taking their opposition to the bill seriously — perhaps a bit too seriously.

Reports emerged early this weekend that the Republican Party unit in House district 49B has withheld its endorsement of incumbent Kathy Tingelstad, R-Andover, due to her alleged support for the bill. Tingelstad is seen as one of several GOP representatives for whom a vote in favor of overriding Pawlenty’s veto is a strong possibility.

Later in the weekend, a Capitol source indicated that the GOP House leadership is going even further: the source indicated that at least one moderate GOP representative seen as a strong possibility to join the DFL on the override vote was threatened with the removal of staff resources at the Capitol — media, research, constituent services, all would be removed except for the member’s legislative assistant. It is unclear whether the minority caucus would even have such authority, but the message from GOP leadership to its more moderate members, if true, is clear — vote with us or else.

A phone call to that GOP representative has gone unanswered to date.

The bill includes a modest increase in the state gas tax, as well as several other funding mechanisms to funnel more money to long-neglected transportation projects.

An override of Pawlenty’s veto might be seen as a slap in the face to a GOP leader with national ambitions. Standing up to large majorities of the party opposite makes a leader strong (see Napolitano, Janet, D-Ariz.; Sebelius, Kathleen, D-Kan.), but once those majorities start getting legislation passed over the governor’s veto, the words “ineffective” and “irrelevant” start creeping into the public consciousness.