A prayer at Friday’s session of the Minnesota House given by anti-gay preacher Bradlee Dean erupted a firestorm of criticism among DFL legislators and some in the GOP. Dean, whose fiery brand of anti-LGBT preaching riled opponents of GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer last fall, led the House in prayer, asserting that President Obama was not a Christian. Republican leadership, sensing controversy, asked the official House chaplain to conduct an unusual second prayer. Minnesota’s LGBT legislators said Dean’s anti-gay preaching “reveals the underlying hateful nature of the anti-gay constitutional amendment movement.”

In his prayer, Dean said, “I know this is a non-denominational prayer in this Chamber and it’s not about the Baptists and it’s not about the Catholics alone or the Lutherans or the Wesleyans. Or the Presbyterians the evangelicals or any other denomination but rather the head of the denomination and his name is Jesus. As every President up until 2008 has acknowledged. And we pray it. In Jesus’ name.”

According to Tom Scheck of Minnesota Public Radio, Dean was invited to give the prayer at the request of Rep. Ernie Leidiger, R-Mayer.

Rep. Terry Morrow, DFL-St. Peter, gave an impassioned speech on the House floor denouncing the prayer.

The controversial prayer did not mention LGBT Minnesotans, gay marriage or the pending amendment to the Minnesota Constitution, but DFLers and progressives seized on Dean’s past statements about the LGBT community.

Rep. Karen Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, one of the longest-serving LGBT elected officials in the country, and Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, that chamber’s only LGBT member, released a statement denouncing the decision to allow Dean to lead the prayer.

“In my 30 years in the House, I have never seen such a hateful person be allowed to deliver the opening prayer,” Clark said. “Bradlee Dean has a documented record of hate speech, and has suggested that extremists who call for the execution of American gays are morally justified. The decision by GOP leadership to allow his intolerance, fear and outright bigotry into the ‘people’s house’ is reprehensible. Minnesotans are a peaceful, loving and caring people. It’s this spirit of togetherness and shared hope
that the House of Representatives should strive to embody. The Republican leadership should be ashamed of themselves. It reveals the underlying hateful nature of the anti-gay constitutional amendment movement.”

Dibble questioned the timing of allowing Dean to lead the prayer.

“In this time of divisiveness, it’s disgraceful and appalling to see the Speaker of the House of Representatives the body that is supposed to represent all Minnesotans invite hatred into the opening prayer,” Sen. Dibble, a former House member, said. “Instead of providing a message of inclusion and hope, the House began this day with hate and discrimination. Mr. Dean has a long and well-known record of intolerance, something that should have no place in the legislature, let alone in a prayerful blessing. This morning’s action is a sad commentary on House Republican leadership’s apparent ambivalence for supporting the equal rights and beliefs of all Minnesotans.”

Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, called it the “most offensive ‘prayer’ ever,” and that it’s “never happened before.”

The Woodbury Bulletin reports that Rep. Greg Davids, R-Presto, leaned over and told a colleague during Dean’s prayer, “that is going to leave a mark.”

House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, took to the House floor to apologize for the prayer saying, “That type of person will never ever be allowed on this House floor again as long as I have the honor of serving as speaker.”

Zellers also released a statement on the matter, saying, “I respectfully apologize to all members in the MN House and all citizens of this state for today’s morning prayer. As Speaker, I take responsibility for this mistake. I am offended at the presence of Bradlee Dean on the floor of the MN House. I denounce him, his actions and his words. He does not represent my values or the values of this state.”

Rep. Steve Gottwalt, R-St. Cloud, the chief author of the bill to codify an anti-gay marriage law in the Minnesota Constitution, said, “I absolutely repudiate the man who spoke at the start of session and his message of hate. Respect and decency must rule!”

Bradlee Dean is no stranger to courting political controversy. His past statement, made on his radio program, that Muslim countries that execute gays and lesbians are more moral than American Christians was highlighted by detractors of GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer last fall after it was revealed that Emmer had donated to the ministry.

Dean’s website says he has hosted several notable Republicans on his radio show, the same show he frequently calls for the incarceration of gays and lesbians, including former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli, U.S. Senate candidate Dan Severson, State Sen. Paul Gazelka, R-Brainerd, State Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, and Rep. Michele Bachmann, who has also raised funds for Dean’s group, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, on numerous occasions.

Members of the DFL House caucus chastised Republicans Tuesday for introducing legislation in the House that would eliminate the 1984 Pay Equity Act. At a press conference, Democrats said the law is still necessary to ensure women are paid the same as men in local government units. But just as they were rallying against the bill, Republican Sen. Mike Jungbauer introduced a bill — the third GOP bill on the issue — to repeal the law in the Senate.

Rep. Erin Murphy of St. Paul said that during tough economic times, it doesn’t make sense to eliminate protections for women.

“Republican leaders want to make it much harder for working moms and women, harder for them to earn an equal salary,” she said. “We are here to demand that Republicans stop trying to take steps backward.”

Rep. Kate Knuth

Rep. Kate Knuth of New Brighton echoed Murphy. “Women for generations have fought for equality in this country and around the world, and I think all the women you see standing here are the results of this equality,” she said. “We are making progress in equality but despite the progress, women still only earn about 77 cents on the dollar of what men make. They are still not earning an equal amount to men.”

She added, “It doesn’t really make any sense to me that the Republicans would repeal legal protections that help us make this progress.”

The bill, HF7/159, contains a series of repeals of mandates on local governments including a repeal of the Pay Equity Act. It has 22 sponsors in the House and Senate, all of whom are Republicans.

Rep. Lyndon Carlson of Crystal was serving in the House when the bill was passed in 1984. He voted for that bill and authored another one that added state employees to the Pay Equity Act. “I have a long history of being an advocate for equity in pay for our women employees in the state of Minnesota and local units of government,” he said.

He added, “For those who wonder if this is still needed, just last year as a result of a review there was an adjustment of $1.59. The point is: it’s still needed. It’s still actively being utilized to bring about pay equity.”

Rep. Terry Morrow of St. Peter said the act need to stay in place for the future women of Minnesota, including his teenage daughters who are just entering the workforce.

“I am deeply disturbed that HF7 sends a threatening message about Minnesota’s commitment to equal pay,” he said. “Bills send messages, and as a dad I reject the misguided message that equal pay is no longer a right in Minnesota.”

He added, “My daughters and my wife are equal contributors and they deserve equal pay for equal work.”

As DFLers were speaking out against the bill, Jungbauer, an East Bethel Republican, announced a third bill to repeal the Pay Equity Act. SF 282 will be introduced in the Senate on Wednesday morning.

Rep. Kim Norton of Rochester told reporters at the press conference, “The only reason to remove this mandate when we have a deficit like this is to cut the pay of women and save money.”

Photo: johnmarty.org

Late results of a very early straw poll in the race for DFL governor show state Sen. John Marty slightly ahead of former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton for the lead, with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman running neck-and-neck close behind. The number of DFL gubernatorial candidates (and near-candidates) who gathered at Farmer John’s Pumpkin Patch outside Austin on Saturday: Ten. Number of straw-poll voters: 129. Here are the results (via mnpACT):

21 – John Marty (16.28 percent)

20 – Mark Dayton (15.50 percent)

16 – Chris Coleman (12.40 percent)

16 – R.T. Rybak (12.40 percent)

12 – Tom Bakk (9.30 percent)

10 – Matt Entenza (7.75 percent)

10 – Susan Gaertner (7.75 percent)

10 – Paul Thissen (7.75 percent)

6 – Steve Kelley (4.65 percent)

4 – Margaret Anderson-Kelliher* (3.10 percent)

4 – Tom Rukavina (3.10 percent)

*Anderson-Kelliher was in Philadelphia for a legislative leadership conference and sent state Rep. Terry Morrow in her stead, according to mnpACT’s Dave Mindeman.

The first part of the process is comparing the two bills side by side, which is prepared by the legislature’s nonpartisan staff. (Citizens can do the same going the state Office of the Revisor of Statutes website.)

Morrow says that while there are “no insurmountable differences” between the House and Senate versions of the transportation bill, the big monster in the closet is the proposed 10-cents-per-gallon gas tax increase, which Gov. Tim Pawlenty has said he will veto. “I keep hearing about a 5-cents-per-gallon gas tax on the floor,” Morrow says. The governor has not expressly said he would veto a 5-cents-per-gallon increase, only that he would not sign it, which means he may let it become law without his signature.

The problem with the 5-cents-per-gallon increase is that it would only raise an extra $170 million per year. Put into context, the proposed budget for the one-mile reconstruction of the SH-62/I-35 interchange is $300 million.

In his own district, Morrow notes that $170 million is about the cost of widening U.S. 14 from North Mankato to New Ulm — judged to be one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in the state, if not the country — to four lanes. “There have been two deaths [from two separate accidents] on that road in the last six to seven weeks,” Morrow says.

The gas tax is not all that the conference committee will have to reconcile. Another issue is how much of the state’s transportation dollar will go to transit and how that will be split between the metro area and rural Minnesota. A third is whether to increase the legal weight of semis on Minnesota roads from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds. Morrow says this issue is not as simple as one might think, as heavier trucks actually can do less damage to roads because they are required to have more axles, which spread the weight more evenly. Further, he says, a recent MnDOT study indicates that larger trucks can actually be safer.

From college classroom to the intricacies of highway engineering: It’s all in a day’s work for St. Peter’s Terry Morrow.