Minnesota Independent

Dayton unveils budget with program cuts and tax increases

By Andy Birkey | 02.15.11 | 1:16 pm

Gov. Mark Dayton’s budget proposal, unveiled Tuesday, includes a tax hike for the wealthiest Minnesotans, cuts to health care for 7,200 low-income adults, an increase in spending for K-12 education, a 6 percent decrease in the state workforce,and steady funding for local governments. “I have always said that a budget is about values and priorities, as well as dollars and cents,” Dayton said. “My budget represents my values and priorities, one of which is to keep my promises that I made to the people of Minnesota last fall.”

Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R-Buffalo)

Republican job creation proposals scrutinized

By Andy Birkey | 01.11.11 | 8:47 am

Republican leadership in the Minnesota Legislature unveiled its job creation proposals on Monday and filed the first bills intended to boost employment and reduce the deficit. The House bills would create “priority-based budgeting” and scale back the environmental permitting process, while the Senate introduced a bill to reduce income and property taxes for businesses. The latter policy drew strong criticism from DFLers, unions and nonprofit groups.

Who’s in for 2010: GOPers eyeing the governor’s mansion

By Paul Demko | 06.22.09 | 3:47 pm

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s announcement earlier this month that he will not seek a third term has unleashed a political gold rush among Republican politicians in the state. Minnesota’s current political landscape includes an eye-popping 18 declared and possible gubernatorial contenders.

Paulsen campaign paid his wife, nicked Dem rival for not having one

By Chris Steller | 05.13.09 | 3:04 pm

U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen’s campaign paid his wife more than $10,000 in the last five months of 2008, according to Federal Election Commission records. (No such revelations about his DFL opponent, a bachelor.)

Medical marijuana bill introduced in the Senate

By Andy Birkey | 01.20.09 | 9:00 am

A bill to allow incurably ill patients to legally purchase marijuana is up for consideration in the Minnesota Senate. The Medical Use of Marijuana bill is nearly identical to a bill that passed the Senate last year and almost passed the House. It enjoys partisan support this year, although last year Gov. Tim Pawlenty indicated he would veto such a bill so long as law enforcement opposed it.

WaPo listing of Erik Paulsen in Top 5 U.S. House campaigns needs a fix or 2

By Chris Steller | 12.31.08 | 8:53 am

Minnesota’s U.S. Representative-elect for the Third District, Republican Erik Paulsen, ran one of the best five House campaigns in the country, according to the Washington Post blog The Fix. Paulsen “beat back the anti-Republican trend,” writes Chris Cillizza, “by focusing on his own accomplishments in the state legislature.” The Fix tracked the Third District contest closely throughout the campaign season as one of the nation’s most competitive congressional contests. But in several ways Cillizza’s summary this morning doesn’t exactly square with how home-state observers might recall the race.

Census data puts lie to Paulsen camp’s ‘demographics’ line

By Chris Steller | 10.06.08 | 11:48 am

Is the Republican Party of Minnesota unaware of current demographics in the West Metro congressional district it has held for 50 years? U.S. Census data suggests that the suburban-identity politics that Republicans advanced last week writes off a third or more of the 3rd district’s residents.

MnIndy video: Madia talks economy, opponent’s attacks in Wednesday news conference

By Chris Steller | 10.01.08 | 5:23 pm

Here’s five minutes of video from a press conference held today by Ashwin Madia, DFL candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota’s 3rd district. In this clip, Madia addresses the economy; Republican characterizations of his background as less well suited to the district than that of his opponent, state Rep. Erik Paulsen; ads by outside groups attacking Paulsen that have been called inaccurate; and an incident in which a Madia campaign volunteer removed Paulsen signs from a public right-of-way. Also: six-minute clip of GOP response.

3rd District update: Madia ad swats back, Paulsen plays bachelor card, KSTP gives DCCC mailings an ‘F’

By Chris Steller | 10.01.08 | 12:13 pm

The knives are out in the 3rd District congressional race. A new Ashwin Madia attack ad answers Sen. Erik Paulsen’s, a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee mailing reaches with a strip-club charge, and a Paulsen stand-in plays up Madia’s marital and residential status (single, renter) and calls him “carpetbagger.”