DFL legislators have introduced legislation to make 2C-E a Schedule One substance in Minnesota following the death of one teenager and the hospitalization of 10 others after ingesting the drug. The bill would list the substance along with illegal substances like heroin, LSD and ecstasy. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said earlier this week she will include 2C-E in a drug banning bill she introduced last week dealing with synthetic marijuana.

2C-E is a synthetic drug in the phenethylamine family, a group of psychadelic substances developed in the 1970s. It’s been made a controlled substance in Denmark, the UK, Sweden and New Zealand. It’s currently illegal in Minnesota.

The death of a 19-year old man in Blaine on March 17 is the first suspected death from the drug.

Minnesota HF1285/SF1015 would make it a Schedule I drug, which would impose the harshest controlled substance penalties in line with familiar drugs like heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

The bill was introduced on Wednesday by DFL Reps. Joe Mullery of Minneapolis, Kerry Gauthier of Duluth and Linda Slocum of Richfield, as well as Sen. Linda Berglin of Minneapolis.

On the federal level, Klobuchar said she would try to get the drug banned in her Dangerous Synthetic Drug Control Act of 2011.

“These dangerous drugs pose serious risks to the public and have tragically killed and injured Minnesotans,” she said in a statement. “These drugs should be made illegal and the chemicals used to make them should be banned so that they can no longer be easily purchased online and in stores around the country. We need to take action now before these substances endanger any more lives.”

(Lavverrue, Flickr)

An unprecedented number of bills has been introduced this legislative session that would grant same-sex couples legal status similar to that of married couples. But the five bills have died quiet deaths, as leaders say they don’t have the votes to pass them, even out of DFL-dominated committees.

Advocates say the energy around marriage equality this session is new. “We went from fighting a constitutional amendment just three years ago to now seeing marriage equality bills being introduced … and instead of having a ‘defeat the constitutional amendment’ rally there was a ‘Freedom to Marry’ day rally,” said Jo Marsicano, communications director for OutFront Minnesota.

“This has clearly been made possible by the election in 2006 of a fair-minded majority with the majority being fortified in 2008.”

But for many, this session has been a disappointment. All bills in the Legislature must make it through a committee by deadline in order to stay alive. None of the marriage equality bills made it that far.

One measure, HF 1655, SF 1988 would have created a study group to “determine the extent to which structural barriers exist that negatively impact single people, same-sex couples, and co-habitating couples.” Another, HF1740, SF1732, would have allowed marriages performed in states where same-sex marriage is legal to be recognized by Minnesota. HF0999, meanwhile, would create civil union contracts as the standard across the state by removing the religious-based “marriage” from statutes.

HF893, SF120, the Marriage and Family Protection Act, would make marriage a gender-neutral institution in Minnesota, and
HF1644, SF1210 would beef up that language by specifically exempting religious leaders from having to perform or participate in any marriage for any reason.

Rep. Joe Mullery, DFL-Minneapolis, is the chair of the Civil Justice Committee, the first hurdle for the bills. He is also chief author of the civil unions bill. He had scheduled informational hearings for the bills — but not a vote — which left the bills sitting in committee. Advocates said they had enough votes to pass the bills, but Mullery insisted they didn’t.

Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, the chief author of the Marriage and Family Protection Act, agreed with Mullery.

“I strongly support Joe Mullery and his decision to have an informational hearing only. Why? The votes do not exist in that committee at this time to pass these bills. Many supporters believe that a vote to defeat the bills is more harmful than no vote.”

David Strand, one of dozens of citizens who have been lobbying legislators almost daily for marriage equality this session, said, “We learned that we and Mullery were counting the votes differently as one of the votes in favor has vascilated back and forth,” he said. “Without certainty whether the votes were there to pass the bills, he didn’t want the bills to be killed for the biennium by a tie vote.”

Doug Benson, a citizen who wrote the Marriage and Family Protection Act and lobbied heavily for its consideration, was disappointed that the bill is technically dead for the session.

“I naively assumed that huge DFL margins in both houses of the Legislature in a non-election year would provide a secure enough environment for the DFL leadership to allow some effort to end state sponsored discrimination against our families to progress this session,” he said. “My education continues.”

But he says they will continue to work on the issue next year. “There is a lot of outdated thinking, fear-mongering and passive anti-gay bigotry that must be dealt with at the Capitol in order for us to move forward. Those obstacles will be overcome.”

Marsicano of OutFront Minnesota agreed that marriage equality still faces serious roadblocks. “We know that marriage equality won’t become a reality under the current governor,” she said. “So we’re looking ahead to the election of a pro-equality governor as one of the vital steps in this campaign.”

Al Franken will comfortably advance from today’s primary election to take on Norm Coleman in the U. S. Senate race. With more than 80 percent of the results in, Franken is carrying 67 percent of the vote in the seven-candidate field. His most credible challenger, attorney Priscilla Lord Faris, is currently garnering support from 29 percent of voters.

Dean Barkley will be joining Franken and Coleman on the ballot as the Independence Party candidate. The former Senator, having served briefly after the death of Paul Wellstone, is routing the seven-candidate field with more than 60 percent of the vote.

In House races, only Reps. Michele Bachmann and Keith Ellison faced primary opposition. Both incumbents are earning support from more than 80 percent of voters in results so far reported by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office.

A pair of House districts featured primary battles to determine who will take on the incumbent. In the most intriguing showdown, GOP-endorsed challenger Brian Davis currently leads state Sen. Dick Day by a 62-38 margin in the First Congressional District and will advance easily. Less interesting is the contest in the Seventh Congressional District, where Glen Menze and Alan Roebke are battling to see who will run against nine-term incumbent Collin Peterson.

There were a handful of intriguing state-legislative contests taking place today. It appears to be a split decision for the override six. Two-term incumbent Neil Peterson is paying the price for his vote to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of the transportation bill earlier this year, losing to GOP-endorsed challenger Jan Schneider by a 57-43 margin. Rep. Jim Abeler, however, is headed to the general election, carrying 64 percent of the vote.

Minneapolis Rep. Willie Dominguez is finished serving at the Capitol after just one term. He was trounced by challenger Bobby Joe Champion, who garnered the DFL endorsement. Meanwhile veteran Reps. Phyllis Kahn and Joe Mullery have handily beaten back intra-party challengers.

Finally it looks unlikely that Rep. Mark Olson — who was kicked out of the Republican caucus and denied endorsement after being arrested for domestic assault — will be headed to the state senate. He’s currently trailing Alison Krueger in a contest to see who will represent the GOP in the general election.

(Photo courtesy of cursedthing)

There’s a primary election today in Minnesota. You can be forgiven for not having noticed. With the temporary Republican takeover of the Twin Cities and a U.S. Senate race that’s been billed as a two-candidate duel for months, it’s easy to overlook the September balloting. But there are some intriguing questions to consider in looking at tomorrow’s results:

1. How comfortably will Al Franken advance out of the Democratic primary? There’s little doubt that the DFL-endorsed candidate will ultimately emerge from the six-candidate scuffle. His most serious challenger is Priscilla Lord Faris, an attorney and former Sunfish Lake City Council member, who filed at the last minute after citing concerns over Franken’s viability. But Lord Faris has run a schizophrenic campaign, initially running TV spots attacking Franken, but then pulling the ads (only to see Sen. Norm Coleman adopt the footage for his own attacks). The other challengers are the usual cast of gadflies, including perennial candidates Ole Savior and Dick Franson. Coleman faces just one challenger on the Republican side: fugitive arsonist Jack Shepard. Anything less than a Franken romp could indicate lingering questions about his candidacy among the DFL faithful.

2. Who will survive the Independence Party scrum? Jesse Ventura ultimately proved more interested in press attention than running a political campaign, but there are seven contenders for the IP crown. Three notables stand out from the pack. Dean Barkley enjoys the greatest name recognition, having served as director of the Office of Strategic and Long Range Planning during the Ventura administration and briefly as a U.S. senator following the death of Paul Wellstone. He also has the backing of the former Governor. Jack Uldrich is an author and former IP chairman. Southeastern Minnesota farmer Stephen Williams earned the party’s endorsement prior to the emergence of his two chief rivals. Whoever survives Tuesday’s primary will face the formidable task of siphoning off attention from the much anticipated Coleman-Franken showdown.

3. Does Dick Day have a chance in hell? Almost certainly not. But the eccentric state legislator from Owatonna could benefit from low turnout. He’s raised no money (almost literally), but enjoys widespread name recognition in the First Congressional District and is popular with the far right. Conversely, Brian Davis has raised a formidable war chest and enjoys the GOP’s official backing, but is a political neophyte. The winner gets the opportunity to take on Rep. Tim Walz.

4. Who will survive to get throttled by Collin Peterson? The suspense is agonizing. Alan Roebke is a convicted felon who doesn’t have enough money to pay for gas to campaign in the sprawling Seventh Congressional District. Glen Menze is the GOP-endorsed candidate and a veteran of the 2000 campaign, when he lost to Peterson by a mere 40 percentage points. The powerful chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, who is seeking his tenth term, would have to be caught in a compromising position with livestock to lose this election.

5. How many times will Republicans chant “Drill, Baby, Drill!” at Michele Bachmann’s victory party? Poor Bachmann. She’s been eclipsed by Sarah Palin as the designated GOP pinup girl for oil drilling. But the freshman legislator should be able to take solace in a thumping primary victory. Her challenger, St. John’s University psychology professor Aubrey Immelman, walked the entire district during the campaign — but will almost certainly be spared a similar trek to Washington. Elwyn Tinklenberg, running as a Blue Dog Democrat, and the Independence Party’s Bob Anderson await Bachmann in the general election.

6. Will alleged wife beater Mark Olson represent the GOP in November? In the most intriguing grass fire of the primary campaign, Rep. Mark Olson — who was kicked out of the Republican caucus after being arrested for domestic abuse — won the local GOP chapter’s backing for a state senate seat. This incited state party officials to denounce the endorsement, with Sen. Coleman even bizarrely entering the fray and GOP flak Michael Brodkorb trashing the candidate. The heavy handed tactics of GOP poohbahs seems to have backfired, however, with local activists rallying to Olson’s defense. We’ll find out tomorrow as he squares off against Alison Krueger in the primary. The winner will face Democrat Lisa Fobbe.

7. What will happen to the Override Six? The six Republicans who flouted party dictates by voting to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of the transportation bill last spring have faced stiff reprisals from their party. The GOP stripped the turncoats of their leadership positions and several were denied endorsement by local party activists. Will voters also punish them at the ballot box? We’ll get a partial answer tomorrow. Rep. Neil Peterson, who was denied the GOP endorsement in 41B, will take on Jan Schneider. And Rep. Jim Abeler will face a similar task in battling Don Huizenga for the right to appear on the November ballot.

8. Will Minneapolis pols Joe Mullery, Willie Dominguez and Phylis Kahn survive? All three legislators face seemingly formidable primary opposition. Six-term Rep. Mullery, who represents the North Side, was denied the DFL endorsement in favor of activist Peggy Flanagan. But after Flanagan dropped out owing to personal issues, park board member and Dairy Queen owner Jon Olson entered the fray in 58A. Rep. Willie Dominguez just completed his first term and will face off against attorney Bobby Joe Champion. The challenger secured the DFL endorsement and has been strongly backed by U. S. Rep. Keith Ellison, who formerly held the North Side post. Rep. Kahn has seemingly been serving in the legislature since the advent of electricity (1972, actually), cultivating a reputation for eccentricity and eliciting visceral hatred from conservatives. The DFL’er has survived many electoral challenges through the years, but this year she faces Joel Rainville, whose family has exerted an out-sized influence on Minneapolis politics for decades.

Flanagan said Tuesday that blocking the endorsement was a huge victory for her campaign. The convention went three ballots — two other candidates were dropped after the first ballot, and one threw his support behind Flanagan, where the votes on the next two ballots were deadlocked with Mullery leading 53-47 percent, well below the 60 percent threshold for an endorsement.

Continued: Click “Read more”Flanagan said the potential for new voter registration in the North Minneapolis district is high, citing the 46 percent of convention delegates who were new to the party process.  She also expressed excitement at being able to take the campaign to the streets in the primary. According to one independent report from the convention, Mullery may indeed be in trouble, at least as far as demographics go. The district was previously heavily eastern European, but has in recent years seen the addition of many minorities and members of the LGBT community move in. When I spoke with her last October about her then-nascent run, she noted that bringing those new community members to the political process was an important part of the campaign.

On the other hand, Mullery still has enough grassroots support among the party faithful to pull off a majority at convention despite an active challenger. He was not immediately available to comment, but gets a mulligan for being in the midst of a legislative session.

Tomorrow I’ll take a closer look at the Dominguez vs. Champion race, in the seat once held by Congressman Keith Ellison.  I’ll also take a look at the big picture in Minneapolis and across the state as pertains to endangered House incumbents.

Other guests include state Rep. Joe Mullery, state Sen. Linda Higgins, and ACORN finance director Jordan Ash, who was a part of Attorney General Lori Swanson’s Task Force Against Predatory Lending.

Ellison will be discussing federal legislation being proposed to oppose predatory lending as well as the growing rate of home foreclosures in the 5th District.

According to Sunday’s Star Tribune, 1.2 million homes were foreclosed on in 2006, a 42 percent increase over 2005, and 100,000 more homes than were sold in the same year.

What: Town Hall Forum on predatory lending

When: 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 26

Where: Jenny Lind Elementary School, 5025 Bryant Ave. N., Minneapolis