“The Republican Party unconditionally supports the state party platform calling for a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” said party chairman Tony Sutton.

Sutton said the platform represents the views and values of the majority of Republicans.

“The party recognizes that not all Republicans might agree with all of the party platform at all times; debate is healthy, but at the end of the day the MNGOP stands behind and supports its activist and passage of the marriage amendment,” Sutton said.

Sutton also went after the DFL for not offering a constitutional amendment in support of same-sex marriage.

“Standing behind party activists is how the Republican Party differs from the Democrats. When Democrats held a legislative majority they could have passed a constitutional amendment changing current state law and the definition of marriage,” he said. “They chose not to even raise the issue in the legislature because they feared voter reaction. In other words, they abandoned a constituency they claimed to care about for political expediency.”

While the DFL did not offer a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, it did offer numerous bills to both legalize same-sex marriage or equalize Minnesota statutes to benefit same-sex couples.

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, and Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, offered a bill in 2009 and 2010 called the Marriage and Family Protection Act, which would have legalized marriage for same-sex couples. The bill never passed out of committee because some DFLers worried about voting on the controversial bill in an election year with the threat of a veto from Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

In political ads during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, the Minnesota Family Council and the National Organization for Marriage attacked the DFL for bringing up that bill and claimed it was the reason that an amendment banning same-sex marriage was needed. Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, the chief author of the anti-gay marriage amendment, told reporters in May that he authored the amendment because of Marty’s and Kahn’s bills.

The DFL also authored a series of bills between 2007 and 2010 aimed at equalizing the law for same-sex couples including hospital visitation, domestic partner benefits and end of life issues. Those were vetoed by Pawlenty.

Tim Pawlenty ended his campaign for president on Sunday morning following a poor performance in the Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday evening. Initially the campaign said it would forge ahead despite coming in a distant third to Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, but on ABC’s This Week, Pawlenty made the announcement that his campaign was over. Almost immediately, however, high ranking GOP officials began suggesting Pawlenty take on Sen. Amy Klobuchar in 2012.

“We needed to get some lift to continue on and to have a pathway forward. That didn’t happen. So I’m announcing this morning on your show that I’m going to be ending my campaign for president,” Pawlenty said. “But I’m very, very grateful for the people of Iowa, the people of this country, who I had a chance to make my case to, and for my supporters and staff and friends who’ve been so loyal and helpful. I really appreciate all of them.”

“I wish it would have been different,” he added. “But, obviously, the pathway forward for me doesn’t really exist. And so we’re going to end the campaign.”

Already, pundits were guessing what would come next for Pawlenty.

Republican Party of Minnesota chair Tony Sutton told WCCO’s Esme Murphy on Sunday morning that he would be approaching Pawlenty to run against Klobuchar.

“I think he’d be great candidate against Amy Klobuchar,” said Sutton. “I think candidate like Tim Pawlenty would be very exciting.”

Sutton said he’d wait a few days but would be approaching Pawlenty about running.

As heated discussions continue over the national debt, two of Minnesota’s major political parties are wresting with significant debts of their own. According to Federal Election Commission reports filed at the end of July, both the GOP and DFL continue to carry debt from the 2010 election cycle. The Republican Party of Minnesota owes the most — more than $600,000 while the DFL owes close to $300,000. The GOP also had a negative cash-on-hand balance.

The DFL ended June with $291,950.71 in debt while the GOP ended in the red to the tune of $608,147.51. At the end of 2010, the GOP had $681,066 in debt and the DFL had a deficit of $217,004.

The GOP spent more and took in more than the DFL over the last six months, with $1,155,662.18 in receipts and $1,132,739.48 in spending. The DFL spent $660,252.56 and took in $652,944.91 in the first half of the year.

The FEC reports only count debt for the federal activities of the parties. In March, the Star Tribune reported that the DFL was nearly $700,000 in debt and the GOP had nearly $780,000 in obligations from 2010 it still has to pay off.

GOP chair Tony Sutton, who recently announced he would start drawing a six-figure salary from the party, told the Star Tribune in March that “he expects to pay down about $500,000 of their debt by the end of May.”

The Service Employees International Union’s Healthcare Minnesota and Minnesota State Council came out against the budget deal Gov. Mark Dayton and GOP legislative leaders reached Thursday.

As Dayton and the Legislature work to complete the budget and call a special session Monday to end the shutdown, SEIU released a statement decrying the compromise.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and SEIU Minnesota State Council President Julie Schnell said the union does not believe Dayton should have given ”in to the demands of the GOP leadership, who have refused to negotiate in good faith, and who would use the state’s children, middle class and working families as a human shield to protect 7,700 multi-millionaires from having to share any of the burden of the state’s fiscal problems, resulting from the past eight years of shifts and gimmicks under Tim Pawlenty.”

SEIU Local 284 Executive Director Carol Nieters said it’s “irresponsible” for the state to put its budget difficulties on its children.

“In these tough economic times, borrowing from our schools is just a cut by another name,” Nieters said in a statement. “What this means for our children is simple: class sizes will rise, programs will be cut, achievement will suffer, and more districts will look to raise property tax levies just to keep the doors open – taxes borne disproportionately by all of us so that multi-millionaires can avoid paying their fair share.”

The union has more than 30,000 workers around the state.

Another union, AFSCME Minnesota Council 5, said in a press release that the budget is “not a deal until it’s done.”

“Until [the Legislature passes the bills without changes], we continue our work to make sure we help achieve the best deal possible,” a statement on AFSCME’s website said. “Our phone banks continue, our rallies continue, our shutdown actions continue. Until we see the details of the actual budget bills, there is nothing solid to comment on, so we will have no comment.”

According to the Memorandum of Understanding between the state, AFSCME and other state employee unions, laid-off employees will be called back to the same job they held before the shutdown, the site said. Employees will receive a written, oral or electronic recall notice and, once they receive the notice, they must report back to work within three working days of the recall date.

Meanwhile Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman Tony Sutton said in a statement that “it is those most disappointed with the governor who will benefit most from his decision to accept Republican terms for a budget framework.”

Sutton added Dayton’s plan to increase taxes on the rich would “hurt most the people he wants to help by killing jobs and opportunities.”

“It’s a good day for Minnesota with the promise of better days ahead,” Sutton said at the end of the statement.

Gov. Mark Dayton criticized the Republican Party of Minnesota on Tuesday for using the shutdown as an opportunity to fundraise. The party sent out an email to supporters asking for money to retain legislative majorities and blaming Dayton for the state shutdown. At the same time, the party announced that chairman Tony Sutton would start drawing a $100,000 salary — even as the party remains in debt and owes several counties money from the 2010 recount nine months ago.

The GOP asked for contributions of $25, $50 or $100 to counter Gov. Dayton and “build the resources all of our candidates will need for the next election so we can maintain our majorities. Our Republican majorities are all that stand between him and his desire to raise taxes on the hard working citizens of Minnesota.”

The email continued, “In spite of promising not to shut down state government over taxes – he did just that! Instead of calling legislators back to St. Paul to pass a temporary spending bill to keep government running while they negotiate, Dayton unnecessarily shut down state government – throwing thousands of government workers out on the street!”

“I don’t think it’s appropriate that we raise money off this,” Dayton told reporters on Tuesday.

GOP leaders said it’s completely appropriate because the DFL does it too.

The DFL sent an email asking supporters to sign a petition in support of Dayton’s position, and like many emails sent by the party, it contained a contribute button in the sidebar.

“We can’t allow these government officials to put the interests of a few millionaires ahead of the needs of all Minnesotans,” the Democrats’ email said. “It’s up to us to stand up and demand that a reasonable compromise be found. Speak out today and tell the GOP lawmakers that they need to stop their grandstanding and start compromising.”

The fundraising campaign came the same day that Sutton announced he would be drawing a salary for the first time as head of the party.

It’s also at the same time the party finds itself in debt to several Minnesota counties who are owed money from the 2010 gubernatorial recount (the state party’s debt is unknown as the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure database is unavailable due to the shutdown).

As of last week, several Minnesota counties still had not been paid for expenses incurred during the recount.

The Republican Party of Minnesota owes nearly 20 counties payment for expenses incurred by the counties during the 2010 recount between Tom Emmer and Gov. Mark Dayton. The fact that so many counties haven’t been reimbursed in seven months led one Republican senator to offer to pay some of the bills out of his own pocket.

The Rochester Post Bulletin got a hold of a letter by Sen. John Howe, R-Red Wing, that called the GOP debt to the counties an embarrassment.

“This is embarrassing and painfully indefensible. This damages us not just on the local level, but statewide as well,” he wrote to GOP caucus leaders. “It is spreading through the political blogs, and must be a reason for much head shaking in water cooler conversations.”

Howe said he would donate money to help the debts be repaid.

GOP chair Tony Sutton told the Post Bulletin that the party paid eight counties last week and the party still had 20 more to pay off.

As Blue Stem Prairie notes, Sutton has missed his own promised deadlines to pay the counties.

The GOP and Sutton filed suit against several counties for not being swift enough in pulling together recount documents last fall.

“The unacceptable foot dragging of St. Louis and Pine Counties cannot persist,” Sutton said at the time. “The Emmer for Governor campaign and the Republican Party of Minnesota should not have to go to court to get counties to respond to data practices requests in a timely manner. We will continue to pursue any counties that do not promptly meet their legal obligations during this process. Minnesotans deserve better.”

The Minnesota Independent contacted the county auditors in St. Louis and Pine counties. Unlike two dozen other counties, they have been paid.

Republican legislative leadership unveiled its budget targets on Thursday. Most government departments would see a cut under the budget proposals from the last two years, while a few, such as education and health and human services, would see a modest increase from the last biennium. Democrats immediately blasted the proposal, which will spend $34 billion in the 2012–2013 biennium — $3 billion less than the budget proposed by Gov. Mark Dayton.

Republican leadership set targets for committees as they begin to create the budgets for their respective policy areas. The numbers account for the difference in spending from the last budget cycle and don’t account for the automatic increases that most state agencies build into their budgets.

In the Senate, education would see an 2.5 percent increase with an accounting shift that puts off paying schools.

There’s a 16 percent cut to higher education proposed as well as an 11.4 percent cut to agriculture and rural economics. Energy, environment and commerce would see a 29 percent cut compared to last budget cycle, and jobs and economic growth would get a 47 percent cut. Sixteen percent is proposed to be cut from transportation, while other cuts will hit the judiciary and public safety (3.5 percent), state government and veterans (53 percent) and tax aids and credit spending (9.6 percent).

Debt service and capital projects would see a 35 percent increase, and the Senate proposal would include a 5.9 percent increase to Health and Human Services.

House leadership posted a similar level of cuts and increases.

The budget targets prompted strong reactions from many quarters.

“Much of it is continuing down the road of failed policies of Gov. Pawlenty,” Minority Leader Tom Bakk said at a press conference Thursday afternoon. “With $1.4 billion in additional cuts over what [Gov. Dayton] proposed, what is that going to look like?”

Bakk predicted three impacts if the Republicans’ budget became law: property taxes will go up, tuition will go up, and health care is going to be more expensive and cover less Minnesotans.

“My hope is that they give the public the opportunity to participate in this process,” Bakk said.

“Middle class families looking for relief from sluggish job growth and regressive property taxes will be sorely disappointed with the Senate Republicans’ budget targets,” said Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson in a statement. “Draconian cuts to job creation tools and our colleges and universities are job killers that take Minnesota backwards.”

The Republican Party of Minnesota praised Republican legislative leadership for the budget targets.

“Republican leaders in Minnesota are working hard to reign in auto-pilot spending increases and to make government live within its means,” said party chair Tony Sutton. “The budget targets released today protect essential services, including education, public safety, the judiciary, and health and human services, all without raising taxes.”

Gov. Mark Dayton’s office was less enthusiastic about the targets.

“Earlier today the governor reiterated his belief that budgets are a reflection of values and priorities and the decisions we make about the budget affect people’s lives,” Katharine Tinucci, Gov. Mark Dayton’s press secretary, said in a statement. “Based on the spreadsheets the GOP put out today it appears those values and priorities are cutting education, cutting health care, cutting jobs, cutting veterans, and raising property taxes. These cuts will hurt school children, tax payers, businesses and seniors.”

House Republicans passed a repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by a vote of 245-189, mainly along party lines — only three Democrats joined with the Republicans. The vote prompted sharp reactions from all sides of Minnesota politics: Rep. Michele Bachmann called for the repeal of President Obama, while Rep. Keith Ellison said that Republicans voted dump 32 millions Americans’ health coverage.

Minnesota’s congressional delegation also split along party lines. Rep. Collin Peterson, who voted against health care reform last spring, also voted against its repeal. That prompted an attack from the Republican Party of Minnesota.

“With his vote against repealing ObamaCare this evening, Collin Peterson demonstrates that he is too liberal for the Seventh Congressional District,” GOP chair Tony Sutton said in a statement. “While Peterson pretends to be a centrist, he continues to oppose repealing this dreadful bill which raises taxes on small businesses, cuts Medicare for seniors and contains an unconstitutional mandate requiring Americans to buy private insurance.”

The GOP claims that the health care reform will cut Medicare has been claimed false by numerous fact-checkers. The constitutionality of the law is still being decided; a court in Michigan ruled it constitutional, another in Virginia ruled it unconstitutional.

The GOP also went after Rep. Tim Walz.

“With his vote against repealing ObamaCare this evening, Tim Walz has once again shown that he is too liberal for Southern Minnesota,” wrote GOP chair Sutton. “Walz is wrong to support higher taxes on small businesses, deep Medicare cuts for seniors and an unconstitutional mandate requiring Americans to buy private insurance.”

Walz own statement directly contradicted Sutton’s.

“Repealing the Affordable Care Act will eliminate consumer protections, put insurance companies between you and your doctors, raise taxes on small businesses, and explode the deficit,” said Walz. “It will be bad for our economy and jobs in places like southern Minnesota that have a robust health care industry.”

He offered a story of constituents who have already been helped by the new law. “[J]ust a few weeks ago, I received a letter from a dad in southern Minnesota named Paul. Paul’s son Joe is 21 years old, works part time and has Type II diabetes,” Walz wrote. “Joe couldn’t get the insurance he needed to pay for the expensive equipment and treatment he needs. But because of the new law we passed, Joe was able to get back on his parent’s insurance and his new insurance card came a couple of weeks ago in the mail.

He added, “A vote to repeal this legislation is a vote to tear that insurance card out of Joe’s hand and so I voted against it.”

Minnesota’s other DFL representatives explained their vote against repeal as well.

“Repealing the health reform law and enacting the Republican ‘No Care/No Jobs’ bill means dumping 32 million Americans from health coverage – including almost 12,000 young adults in Minnesota,” wrote Rep. Keith Ellison. “Additionally, this ‘No Care/No Jobs’ bill adds another $230 billion to our federal budget deficit.”

“Denying health care to millions of Americans doesn’t create jobs,” he added. “The American people deserve better from their elected leaders.”

Ellison’s neighbor to the east, Rep. Betty McCollum, was concerned that a repeal might negatively impact American Indian and Alaskan Native communities.

“Tribal leaders from across the country worked tirelessly to pass this law,” she said. “Today, Republicans in Congress are voting to repeal expanded health care for Native Americans, and they are abandoning the federal government’s trust responsibility to provide these services to tribal members. Two million American Indians and Alaskan Natives would have vital health care services stripped by House Republicans.”

A press release from the White House featured 14 Democratic state legislators railing against repeal efforts, including Minnesota’s own Reps. Erin Murphy of St. Paul and Tom Huntley of Duluth.

“Repealing the Affordable Care Act means repealing affordable coverage for Minnesotans with preexisting conditions like asthma or diabetes,” said Murphy. “Repealing the Affordable Care Act represents a fatal step backwards and the consequence is a less stable, more costly health care system for Minnesotans.”

Huntley said, “Every day, Minnesotans are coming to appreciate the Affordable Care Act more and more. Adult children are being offered coverage on their parents’ policy, seniors are getting help with the costly donut hole, and small businesses are adding jobs because the tax credit is helping them provide health coverage.”

Republicans on the other hand were vociferous in their support for a repeal of the health care law.

“Obamacare, as we know, is the crown jewel of socialism. It is socialized medicine,” Bachmann said from the House floor just before the vote. “The American people spoke soundly and clearly at the ballot box in November and they said to us, Mr. Speaker, in no uncertain terms, ‘Repeal this bill.’”

(An ABC/Washington Post poll released this week challenges the assertion; it found that only 18 percent of Americans favor repealing the entire health care reform law. Thirty-seven percent favor repealing all or part of the law.)

Bachmann added, “And to those across the United States who think this may be a symbolic act, we have a message for them: this is not symbolic. This is why we were sent here and we will not stop until we repeal a President and put a President in the White House who will repeal this bill, until we repeal the current Senate, put in a Senate that will listen to the American people and repeal this bill.”

Rep. John Kline said that health care reform costs too much.

“Almost one year ago Democrats launched a nearly $1 trillion government takeover of health care that increases national health care spending by $311 billion over 10 years and levies more than $500 billion in new taxes on individuals, consumers, and businesses,” he said. “The 2,700 page law has led to more than 4,000 pages in new rules and regulations – and the law is only 10 months old. The uncertainty of what this all means for individuals and businesses today – and in the months and years to come – is having a chilling effect on the country’s job creators.”

Freshman Rep. Chip Cravaack was a bit more measured in his tone.

“I agree all Minnesotans should have access to high quality, affordable health care,” he said. “However, I do not support the increased regulation, taxation and government interference found in the 2,400 page, $1 trillion legislation President Obama signed into law last year. The country can’t afford it, and it serves as a massive over-reach on behalf of the federal government.”

“Fortunately, this will not be the only vote I take on health care,” Cravaack added. “Now that the House has voted to repeal Obamacare, I intend to work to ensure it is replaced with legislation that expands the accessibility of coverage, lowers costs and focuses on the quality of patient care – without laying the bill at the feet of Minnesota taxpayers and future generations of Americans.”

Rep. Erik Paulsen, who has been a champion of medical technology corporations in Minnesota, said his vote for repeal was in part to help them.

“Repeal is the first step in bringing meaningful, affordable and patient-centered health care reform for all Americans in an open and transparent manner,” he said. “The repeal today will also stop a $20 billion tax burden on the life-saving medical device industry, a burden that falls on the hundreds on medical technology companies that reside in my district.”

The Republican Party of Minnesota still owes counties for a massive document request leading up to the recent election recount, according to the Mankato Free Press. For the past several weeks, more than a dozen counties have been wondering if they’ll get paid for hundred of thousands of documents that were requested by the GOP on behalf of the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Tom Emmer. Those counties were threatened with lawsuits if they didn’t comply with the GOP’s requests for election documents.

“They just insisted they had to have the machine tapes right away,” Patty O’Connor, Blue Earth County elections director, told the Free Press.

“I sent bills for $800, of which Dayton paid and Emmer did not. I have requested at least three times, where’s my payment, and they’ve responded to nothing.”

Two weeks ago, southern Minnesota counties complained that they weren’t being paid after they assembled election documents under threat of lawsuit by the GOP.

GOP chair Tony Sutton, in an early November statement complaining that counties were not responding quickly enough to the party’s request, said, “We will continue to pursue any counties that do not promptly meet their legal obligations during this process. Minnesotans deserve better.”

Bridgette Kennedy, Nicollet County Auditor, told KEYC-TV back on Dec. 1, “Not that I relish the thought of completing the task and getting all the copies made, but I would feel horrible if the taxpayer dollars have been used fruitlessly with having 10,000 copies sitting here.”

The GOP told KEYC that they were looking into it. But as the Free Press reports, the counties haven’t heard a word from the GOP on whether or not they will get paid.

According to the Federal Elections Commission, the Republican Party of Minnesota faces a debt of $621,116 as of Nov. 22.

At his home in Delano this morning, Republican Tom Emmer is expected to concede the governor’s race. An unfavorable Minnesota Supreme Court opinion released Tuesday as well as a new poll showing a vast majority of voters want him to concede preceded the announcement.But more insurmountable for Emmer is the math: The State Canvassing Board will meet Wednesday morning to go over challenged ballots, but that number has shrunk to 181, far short of the approximately 9,000 Emmer would need to overcome Mark Dayton and win the governor’s mansion.

According to the Associated Press, Emmer will concede the governor’s race at 10:30 am Wednesday from his home in Delano.

Before Thanksgiving the Emmer team argued that all of Minnesota’s 87 counties must reconcile their ballot counts with precinct rosters rather than the standard set since 1982 of counting ballot receipts.

The Minnesota Supreme Court rejected that argument in late-November and released their opinion on the matter on Tuesday, shutting down an important legal angle for Emmer.

The justices wrote:

Because Minn. Stat. §§ 204C.20, subd. 1, and 206.86, subd. 1 (2008), use obsolete language that does not include the terms “polling place roster” or “voter’s receipts,” they do not unambiguously require local election officials to determine the number of ballots to be counted based only on the number of signatures on the polling place roster or prohibit reliance on the number of voter’s receipts.
Construing the legislative intent of the ambiguous language in Minn. Stat. §§ 204C.20, subd. 1, and 206.86, subd. 1, based on the purpose to be achieved by the statutes, the language of current and former statutes on the subject, and the longstanding administrative interpretation of the statutes, it is clear that the Legislature intended to permit reliance on either signatures on polling place rosters or voter’s receipts to determine the number of ballots to be counted.

The opposition took the court opinion as a clarion call for Emmer to concede. “It’s time to read the tea leaves: the party’s over,” said DFL Rep. Ryan Winkler of Golden Valley. “Today’s Supreme Court ruling leaves only 181 contested ballots in front of the state canvassing board, and an impossible 8,500 vote gap between Tom Emmer and the Governor’s Office.”

Winkler’s argument was boosted by a Public Policy Polling survey released on Tuesday that found a majority of Minnesotans agreeing Emmer should concede. Only 22 percent said he should continue the fight, with 68 percent saying it’s time for a concession speech.

Also on Tuesday, Emmer withdrew more ballot challenges; the count now stands at 90 challenges by Emmer and 91 challenges by Dayton. About 30 of Emmer’s challenges are considered frivolous after the campaign dropped more than 2,000 others over the last four days.

As Emmer considers his concession on Wednesday morning, the margin in the race is around 9,000 votes.