Leaders on both sides of the aisle balked on a bipartisan proposal to end the Minnesota budget stalemate through a combination of across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts Thursday.

The commission, led by former Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale and former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson, was praised by Democratic leaders, although Gov. Mark Dayton ultimately rejected their proposal of a tax increase for everyone, rather than just the very wealthy, which Dayton has proposed.

Democratic leaders used the commission’s findings to nudge Republicans towards compromise.

“The bipartisan commission agrees that we need a balanced budget approach that combines responsible spending cuts and smart reforms with new, permanent revenue that allows us to protect our key priorities,” Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) said in a statement. “This is also the position of Gov. Dayton, Democrats, many moderate Republicans, the vast majority of Minnesotans, and even the state’s economist.”

But House Speaker Kurt Zellers (R-Maple Grove) told the Star Tribune that the proposal was a “retread of failed tax-and-spend policies.”

The commission was never popular with Republicans. Minnesota Republican Party Chair Tony Sutton released a statement earlier in the week that criticized the effort.

“At the end of the day, the budget resolution is not about Gov. Dayton’s obsession with expanding government or about former Gov. Carlson’s obsession with his ego,” Sutton said. “It is about creating growth and prosperity for all Minnesotans.”

With a week before the election, major daily newspapers and high-profile officials are making their picks for Nov. 2. Democratic state Sen. Tarryl Clark and U.S. Rep. Tim Walz both grabbed endorsements from the state’s largest newspaper on Sunday, and Independence Party candidate for governor Tom Horner gained the support of the Pioneer Press. Walz also got the nod from Republican former Gov. Arne Carlson over the weekend, while GOP candidate Chip Cravaack picked up the endorsement of the Duluth paper.

The Star Tribune’s endorsement listed a good number of Clark’s accomplishments — but it took three paragraphs of complaints about Rep. Michele Bachmann’s performance in Congress before it got to them.

“Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has appeared at least eight times since January on Fox News’ Sean Hannity Show,” the paper said. “How many mayors or county commissioners in Bachmann’s Sixth District swath of central Minnesota have had an equal number of conversations with her this year?”

Walz got the nod from the Strib this weekend as well.

“Walz has been a stellar advocate for veterans, responsive to his region’s key employers and consistently earned high marks from local officials for his assistance on matters small and large, particularly the weather-related disasters that have hit this district,” wrote the paper’s editorial board. “He’s more than earned the right to represent this swath of southern Minnesota for another two years.”

Likewise, Walz got the support of former Gov. Carlson, who calls the Democratic incumbent “the clear choice” in the First Congressional District race.

“I’m continually impressed with Tim’s leadership and his ability to bring people together in southern Minnesota communities,” Carlson said. “It is clear that people identify with Tim’s experience as a teacher, veteran and football coach and I think that helps them lay aside partisan predispositions and join with Tim to solve problems.”

Carlson has already thrown his weight behind IP candidate Horner, who continued racking up endorsements. The Pioneer Press joined the Star Tribune, Forum Communications paper and ECM Publishers in backing his gubernatorial run.

Walz also got the endorsement of the Rochester Post-Bulletin and the Albert Lea Tribune last week.

Republican Chip Cravaack also scored an upset endorsement from the Duluth News Tribune, a paper that traditionally backs Rep. James Oberstar.

Oberstar cried foul on the paper, which skipped face-to-face meetings this year in exchange for a raucous debate. TheUpTake caught up with him this weekend:

The Duluth News Tribune, however, disputed Oberstar’s criticisms:

Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner has been picking off endorsements from former Republican legislators, from past Gov. Arne Carlson and former U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger to a slate of 13 former statehouse legislators who yesterday announced their support for his candidacy. That announcement drew the ire of state GOP Chair Tony Sutton, who responded by stating, “There’s a special place in hell for these quislings.” Two of those former legislators — veterans of the Korean War and World War II — responded to Sutton today in a letter, writing that they found it “demeaning” that their choice to support Horner drew comparisons to Nazi sympathizer and traitor Vidkun Quisling.

On Thursday, Sutton backed off the statement slightly, stating he only meant that the GOPers backing Horner are traitors, not Nazis.

On Thursday, Sutton told the AP he used the word as a common term for traitor.

“It would be like saying someone’s a Benedict Arnold,” Sutton said, explaining his use of the word the rarely used term “quisling.” “To make it out to be something other than that would be ridiculous.”

That didn’t stop Horner from responding Thursday afternoon.

“I was disappointed to see the chair of the Republican Party compare some of those veterans and former public servants to traitors of the worst degree simply due to their support of my candidacy for governor,” Horner said in a statement. “The comments were disrespectful and uncalled for.”

Horner’s campaign also sent out a letter from two of the legislators who decided to back Horner yesterday, former Sen. Bill Belanger, an Army veteran who served in Korea, and former Sen. George Pillsbury, a Marine who served during World War II. Needless to say, the duo was displeased at Sutton’s choice of words.

“Those of us who support Horner and his centrist view of governance have nothing in common with Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling, a Nazi sympathizer who collaborated with the Germans to enslave millions of his countrymen during the Second World War,” they wrote. “We proudly wore the uniforms of our nation, one of us as a Marine Lieutenant in the Philippines during World War II, one of us a few years later in Korea as an Army Corporal. For you to besmirch that service is demeaning.”

The DFL pounced on the statement. Party chair Brian Melendez said, “I wonder what’s going on inside the Republican Party that Tony Sutton feels the need to send a message that you are going to hell and we liken you to Nazi sympathizers if you support Tom Horner.”

Here’s the full text of Belanger and Pillsbury’s letter:

October 7, 2010

Tony Sutton
Chairman, Republican Party of Minnesota
525 Park Street, Suite 250

St. Paul, MN 55103

Mr. Sutton:

As veterans of the United States military and former state legislators, we were highly offended to pick up our morning Star Tribune newspaper and read that you were accusing us of being traitors to our country for supporting Tom Horner for governor. (“There’s a special place in hell for these quislings.”)

Those of us who support Horner and his centrist view of governance have nothing in common with Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling, a Nazi sympathizer who collaborated with the Germans to enslave millions of his countrymen during the Second World War. We proudly wore the uniforms of our nation, one of us as a Marine Lieutenant in the Philippines during World War II, one of us a few years later in Korea as an Army Corporal. For you to besmirch that service is demeaning.

We support Tom Horner for governor precisely because we care so much about our state and our nation. We sought elective office after our years of military service because we care about our country and its future. We did not believe our service ended when we were discharged. For decades, we have continued to volunteer in our communities to make our society stronger.

We are supporting Tom Horner for governor because we believe his moderate, centrist view of government is precisely what Minnesota needs right now. We are concerned that Sutton’s candidate, Tom Emmer, is too far to the right, and that Mark Dayton, the Democrat, is too far to the left. We believe it is best for all concerned to have a governor who can work with both political parties, to do what’s right and not worry about who gets the credit.

We went to war to defend the Constitution, which included fighting for your right of free speech, so you are free to say whatever you want. We would appreciate it if, in the future, you were more careful not to criticize American veterans just because you disagree with our choice of candidates.

Sincerely,

George Pillsbury
First Lieutenant, United States Marine Corp (ret)
Veteran of World War II
Former State Senator, Wayzata

Bill Belanger
Corporal, United States Army (ret)
Veteran of the Korean War
Former State Senator, Bloomington

In a new television ad released Friday, Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner touts his experience running a small business. The campaign also says it has two new radio ads, including one that features former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson.

In one radio ad, Carlson says, “Right now, Minnesota is in a serious financial pickle, and we better elect our best and brightest if we want to succeed. Tom Horner is the right choice.”

Horner’s first round of ads featured former Republican Sen. Dave Durenberger.

The ads are running statewide, the campaign said in a press release on Friday.

“Frankly, we don’t have leaders who are willing to make any courageous decisions,” Carlson told KARE 11. “One of the things we are going to discuss is how to get [Pawlenty] to comply with the law.”

“State law requires that he submit a balanced budget for the out years and he is — frankly — avoiding that law,” said Carlson.

Carlson said there were rumors that some people are considering taking Pawlenty to court, adding that part of the tour’s aim is to “demand that the governor do his job as stated by law: no evasion, no dancing.”

Here’s Carlson’s full exchange on KARE 11:

“I intend to form a Paul Revere tour this summer challenging the Governor, the Legislature, and the gubernatorial candidates to speak truthfully about this [problem], which threatens over 20 percent of our state’s general fund,” said Carlson, according to the Star Tribune.

“This Paul Revere tour will embrace all parts of Minnesota and resemble the drives I took as state auditor and governor. If other leaders want to join, we can get a bus or several buses and enjoy a good old fashioned campaign,” he added.

Rep. Tim Walz and Allen Quist

Allen Quist has been largely out of the political spotlight for roughly a decade. But according to a recent report on Bluestem Prairie, the conservative Republican is mulling a run at U.S. Rep. Tim Walz in the First Congressional District.

Reached at his home in St. Peter, Quist certainly didn’t shoot down the possibility. “I’m not ready to comment on that,” he told the Minnesota Independent. “If I’m in a position to comment, it won’t be very long. That’s a big if.”

Quist served three terms in the state House and was the GOP-endorsed candidate for governor in 1994, but was handily beaten by Arne Carlson in the primary election. A darling of cultural conservatives, Quist sought the Republican endorsement again in 1998, but dropped out before the state convention in favor of Norm Coleman. Since then he’s worked with EdWatch, a conservative advocacy group that has championed home schooling and criticized public school curricula, and taught at Bethany Lutheran College.

Walz is currently serving his second term, winning re-election last year by 30 percentage points. The contest doesn’t make the cut for most lists of potentially competitive House races for 2010. Historically, the southern Minnesota district has leaned Republican, and the Cook Partisan Voting Index rates it +1 for the GOP, but Democrats have enjoyed considerable electoral success in recent years. Walz initially won the seat by knocking off six-term Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht.

There are no announced challengers for Walz yet. Another name that’s generated a lot of discussion: state Sen. Julie Rosen.

Steve Perkins, chairman of the GOP in the first district, says that others are eyeing the race as well, but he declines to name potential challengers. “Clearly there’s a lot of interest in it,” he says. “We’re certainly going to have a number of very strong, electable candidates. Allen may be one of those candidates.”

Perkins argues that Walz is out of step with the district on a number of issues, including his support for cap-and-trade legislation, the federal stimulus package and health-care reform. He doesn’t believe that the Democratic incumbent’s landslide victory in 2008 means that he’s not vulnerable.

“Why don’t you call on Gil Gutknecht and ask about winning by wide margins?” he laughs. “The horizon in 2010 is going to be infinitely different than what it was in 2008.”

Update: Quist officially announces his candidacy (11/20/09)

The background: Pawlenty turned down an invitation earlier this month to meet with a bipartisan group of current and former Minnesota leaders at the Capitol seeking a way out of the state’s budget woes. Instead he counter-programmed his own summit at a corporate HQ in Eden Prairie to toot the state economy’s horn.

So on his Sept. 18 show, Pawlenty sneered at the capitol summit, telling the WCCO audience “with the exception of Al Quie, there were no current Republicans there.” That dig seemed meant especially for former Gov. Arne Carlson, and it ushered in a war of words between the two.

On today’s show, Pawlenty took a swipe at the next guy who crossed him by attending the wrong summit: former House Speaker David Jennings. T-Paw railed against school districts that complained recently about delayed payments from the state, then reached back to recall the gall of an unnamed Minneapolis Public Schools superintendent who advocated for the district when “he knew — knew! – there were 900 empty classrooms.”

Jennings led the Minneapolis schools at a time when critics alleged the district wasted money by maintaining schools in which there were 600 or even 800 empty classrooms. (The 900 figure seems new, if the bile behind it is not.)

It’s like an Agatha Christie whodunit where guests at a country estate keep dropping. The rest of the attendees at the Minnesota Leadership Summit better watch their backs on future Friday mornings.

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning …

ST. PAUL: GOP guv candidates talk cuts. State budget would shrink to 2004 level, welfare would play hard to get. [Associated Press]

ST. PAUL: DFL guv candidates talk taxes. We’ll raise ‘em. So? [Minnesota Public Radio]

ST. PAUL: Mayors want say in guv race. The Coalition for Greater Minnesota Cities may run ads on issues like state-aid cuts. [Associated Press]

ST. PAUL: GOP lodges complaint against St. Paul mayor. Chris Coleman is running for governor off the books, say party leaders. [City Hall Scoop]

ST. PAUL: Pawlenty says state budget not looking so bad. As long as the next governor will stick by his unallotments. [Minnesota Public Radio]

ST. PAUL: Pawlenty needs advice on economy to run for prez. Here are three guys who would be just right. [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

Molnau at 2008 NLGA conference. Photo: MN North Star

Carol Molnau, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor and former transportation commissioner, has been re-elected chair of the National Lieutenant Governors Association’s (NLGA) Midwest Region.

From the official state press release:

“Lieutenant Governor Molnau was selected by a bi-partisan group of her peers from every region in the nation as a leader among her colleagues,” said NLGA Executive Director Julia Hurst.

“I am honored that my colleagues designated me to serve in NLGA leadership this year,” Lieutenant Governor Molnau said. “I look forward to working with them and share best practices that will benefit the constituents of Minnesota and other states.”

The state Senate stripped her of her commissionership following the I-35W bridge collapse, but Molnau envisions a political future for herself, even after Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s decision not to run for re-election.

She may run for governor or Congress in 2010 and in the meantime remains NLGA chair of all she surveys. Besides Minnesota, the Midwest region includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Including Molnau, five of the Midwest’s lieutenant governors are women, more than in any other region. Nationally, there are 12 women among the 55 lieutenant governors serving U.S. states and territories, with Molnau and Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman the only Republican women.

In the only two lieutenant-governor elections this year, in New Jersey and Virginia, both Democratic Party candidates are women (and both are Jewish). In fact, the tally of female lieutenant governors is guaranteed to increase because the Republican candidate in New Jersey is also a woman.

That’s unusual in most states but wouldn’t be so in Minnesota, where the last five gubernatorial elections have involved two or more women as major-party running mates, and the last five lieutenant governors have been female.

Marlene Johnson, elected on the Democratic ticket with Rudy Perpich in 1982 and 1986, was the first woman to hold the post. After Johnson came Joanell Dyrstad (Republican, elected with Arne Carlson in 1990); Joanne Benson (Republican, also elected with Carlson, in 1994); Mae Schunk (Reform Party, later Independence Party, elected with Jesse Ventura); and Molnau (elected with Tim Pawlenty in 2002 and 2004).

By constitutional mandate, redistricting takes place every 10 years: Each state’s legislature must redraw the lines that define congressional and legislative districts. But it rarely happens the same way twice; when politicians fail, judges step in to finish the job.

Stakes are especially high in Minnesota, as the state may lose a congressional seat after the 2010 U.S. Census reapportionment. And if Minnesota loses a congressional seat, the redistricting process will decide whether the district of Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann or another incumbent will be relegated to the history books.

The bill, carried by Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller (DFL-Minneapolis), takes up recommendations from a group led by former Vice President Walter Mondale and former Gov. Arne Carlson.

The Mondale-Carlson group (technically, the Advisory Board for the Minnesota Redistricting Project of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota) proposed saving time and sweat by getting judges to draw congressional- and legislative-district lines before legislators themselves get involved. The reverse sequence — Legislature, then courts — is responsible for the state’s current political lines.

But some who were among the closest to the work of reshaping Minnesota’s political boundaries last time around seem to think the existing system worked pretty well.

Redistricting reform got nowhere last session, but this year Pogemiller pushed through his bill by a vote of 39–28 in the final days before the state Legislature adjourned. Next stop: the House’s Committee on State and Local Government Operations Reform, Technology and Elections, which could hold discussions on the topic before considering the bill itself when the legislative session resumes in February, according to legislative staff.

UPDATE: In an email, Committee Chair state Rep. Gene Pelowski promises that the committee “will be looking at redistricting over the summer and this bill will be included.”

Reform advocates, led by Mondale and Carlson, have argued (pdf) that the current system is “broken” — badly enough that it won’t do for the next round of redistricting after the 2010 census.

The new system would create a commission of five retired appeals court judges to make the first maps of new district boundaries based on the latest census data. The majority and minority caucuses from both the House and the Senate would appoint one judge each. The four judges would together choose a fifth to join them.

Their first plan would go to the Legislature for an up-or-down vote — no changes allowed. If that fails to pass, the commission would work up a second plan, which again would be subject to an up-or-down vote by the Legislature. Only if the second plan fails to pass would legislators have a chance at concocting their own plan.

Musical chairs

Demographic estimates predict the count in Minnesota may fall about 2,000 people short of the number needed to retain the state’s current complement of eight congressional districts. If that happens, the question of which party’s incumbent loses a seat in Congress will fall to the state’s redistricting process — and will likely make the decennially debilitating battles over creating new legislative boundaries look like cake walks.

So the rules for what could become a titanic game of musical chairs matter deeply. And exactly who applies those rules depends on who wins the race for governor next year. If Democrats retain control of the state Legislature but lack veto-proof majorities in both houses, then a Republican in the governor’s mansion keeps things complicated, as both the state’s legislative and executive branches must approve a new plan.

On the other hand, if a Democrat succeeds Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the struggle for the DFL becomes one of drawing the most advantageous plan possible under constitutional requirements.

The last time the state took on this task, after the 2000 census, it was not simply a matter for one party, or even two. For the first time, redistricting was a three-way partisan game: The Independence Party’s Jesse Ventura was governor, Republicans held the House, and the DFL controlled the Senate.

Each assigned a staffer to draw a redistricting plan. (Wielding somewhat less influence were the minority caucuses from each legislative body, whose redistricting staffers included one Michael Brodkorb for the Senate Republicans.)

Veterans of the trenches

Over the past few weeks, the Minnesota Independent interviewed key staffers from each party as well as the man who ran redistricting for the state Legislature: Peter Wattson, now secretary of the Senate.

All had a hand in drawing — or, in Wattson’s case, evaluating — maps that eventually got redrawn by the courts. But all seem satisfied by the result.

Wattson said the redistricting process last time was “pretty orderly, actually.”

Greg Peppin, who drew redistricting maps for the Republican House majority, recalls that “everyone felt that the plan was pretty fair.”

Vic Thorstenson, Peppin’s counterpart for Senate Democrats, said: “We were pretty happy with the court’s plan.”

Joe Mansky, who represented Ventura and the Independence Party, concurred: “We were pretty happy with the outcome,” he said.

That doesn’t mean all four oppose Pogemiller’s plan. Thorstenson and Wattson still work at the Capitol and wouldn’t give their opinions on the reform proposal.

Peppin, now a political consultant, said “the process is just steeped in politics” and reckons that a judicial panel assigned first crack at drawing maps “will not be able to do it better than the Legislature.”

Mansky supports the plan, in part because it hearkens back to a commission Ventura formed for the same purpose.

Popularity and obscurity

In his current role as elections manager for Ramsey County, Mansky became a familiar face this year to the dedicated followers of the Norm Coleman/Al Franken Senate race, due to long hours he spent on the witness stand of the recent election-contest trial.

But seven years ago, the trio toiled over their redistricting maps in relative obscurity — outside of the state Capitol, that is.

“We mapmakers were very popular,” Peppin recalls. Legislators of every stripe were eager to know how things were shaping up — particularly for their home districts. “There was a reason for changing the locks and giving us all fresh keys,” he said.

Thorstenson’s recalls his home-away-from-home during those days the same way: “I was in a room at the State Capitol that even the janitors weren’t allowed to go into.”

Coming: Scenarios past mapmakers see for the redistricting to come