Getting along

Minnesota Public Radio has a story today on why Republicans and Democrats can't get along. Iron Range State Rep. Tom Rukavina is quoted near the end. His diagnosis: not enough free beer. His solution: more free beer. Makes sense to me.

A one paper state?

Mainstream media, especially newspapers, continue to struggle in the Internet Age. As I've said before, there remain many questions about what will happen to the mainstream media this decade and beyond. But one things seems clear: The Twin Cities will probably be a one paper town sooner than you'd think. Minnesota will have only one newspaper that reaches a statewide audience. What it will be called, who owns it and what political agenda it may push remain to be seen. What I do know is that we'll be told that the change is good for readers and that investigative and political reporting will remain fair and deep. This will be a lie.

Minnesota is Mullet Country

My friend and former Minnesotan Paul Ryan sent me this Star Tribune link about the 3-year-old winner of the Minnesota Mullet Contest. There's a picture at the link. It is indeed a fine mullet, but this is no day to celebrate. A mullet is a conscious choice for which a child cannot legitimately give consent.

Sertich's take on state budget fix

Iron Range State Rep. Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm), the Minnesota House Majority Leader, offers his take on the state budget fix over at MNPublius.

Snow no

Forecasters are calling for more snow, about six inches in some places, for parts of northern Minnesota tonight and tomorrow. The melt off to this point has already flooded many roads up here. This brings to mind an interesting question. Should I be building an ark and, if so, should it have skis?

The Senate District 3 endorsing convention is tomorrow in Bovey. This is the only district in the state influenced by the Twin Cities, Duluth and Fort Frances, Ontario, media markets. I'm thinking driving in this wet spring snow will be a big problem on Saturday. Stay tuned.

MinnesotaBrown featured in 'Politics in Minnesota' weekly report

My thanks to Politics in Minnesota and their morning report editor Peter Bartz-Gallagher for profiling me in the new Blogger Q&A feature in their Weekly Report. To be the first blogger included in this feature is an honor deserved more by some of the fancy big city bloggers out there but I wasn't about to turn it down. Here is an excerpt of my comments about the political relevance of the Iron Range:

The average Iron Ranger votes much more regularly than in other areas. Our voter turnout percentage ranges from 80 to 90 percent in most local towns. However, I see fewer candidates for small town and county elections and an absolute drop off in civic club participation. Those days as we knew them might be fading. I do the blog as a way of trying to keep the Iron Range tradition alive in the Internet age. I think my generation of Iron Rangers will one day feel the fire in the belly to reverse some of these trends, but probably not the same way their parents and grandparents perceived civic engagement.

And that's just a taste. The naked pictures and my detailed list of Iron Range communists working in local government are all in the full feature.* Go to Politics in Minnesota and sign up for their morning and weekly reports. They provide (almost) all you need to know about Minnesota politics. The rest, of course, can be found here.

*Feature may not include naked pictures or communists.

UPDATE: I failed to mention that the Weekly Report is a paid subscription service. The Morning Report is free.

JNP trying to poach Range area Franken delegates

It's been fairly quiet on the DFL Senate endorsement front lately, but I did get a tip last night that yields some insight on the Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer strategy to close what seems to be a wide deficit between him and Al Franken in pledged delegates. Apparently, JNP is inviting pledged Franken delegates to meet him Thursday at Chisholm's Tom and Jerry's, a classic Iron Range bar co-owned by former State Sen. Jerry Janezich. No doubt the conversation will include a pitch for these delegates to switch sides on the first or subsequent ballots.

I'm not sure that this strategy will work, in fact I doubt it greatly. I suppose Nelson-Pallmeyer has few other options, though. With little exception Al Franken performed extremely well in the quest for pledged state delegates. I have not seen a hard count but many in the chattering class are speculating that a first or second ballot endorsement for Franken is possible.

The fact that Nelson-Pallmeyer is now working the Iron Range is rather symbolic. Back on March 15, when SD 05 and Itasca County held their conventions, Franken crushed Nelson-Pallmeyer by a combined 26-11 in pledged delegates. Why? Franken -- the "famous" frontrunner was there and talked to any county delegate who had a question. JNP -- the "grassroots" candidate -- sent a surrogate. Also, Franken had labor backing, had been out earlier and, frankly, had run a better campaign to that point. So Nelson-Pallmeyer has every right to woo delegates on the Range tomorrow or any day, but he'll never win over as many elected and pledged Franken delegates as he needed to win last month on convention floors across the state.

This is the equivalent of pulling the goalie when you're down three goals in the last minute.

Thank you, sir, may I have another?

The TV weather people are being administered oxygen on the air. See, there's a blizzard coming to northern Minnesota. All this after last weekend's oppressive snow storm. And in April! Here's what I'm hearing around the region.

I hear it's the storm to end all storms!

I hear the snow from this blizzard are the frozen tears of a dying Zeus!

I hear this blizzard will cause us to convert to an ice-based economy!

Which of these is true? Only the weather of the next 24 hours will tell. But for everyone who reads this blog, let me answer all your repetitive small talk questions.

Yes, I heard that it might snow. Yes, I heard that it might be a lot of snow. Yes, it is too bad that we haven't seen spring yet. Yes, it would be nice to have Friday off. No, I am not driving to the Cities on Friday. Yes, this sucks. Yes, it's supposed to nice in April. No, I don't know how many inches we'll get. Probably a lot. Or else not as many as they're saying. No, you can't trust the weathermen. Yes, maybe they'll be right this time. Or not. No, I can't believe the Twins are building an open air ballpark. Yes, I bet they regret that. No. No. Yes. Uff-da. Eh? Random grunts to indicate interest.

Enjoy the blizzard, people.

* Graphic from Duluth News-Tribune, 4/10/08

Pawlenty's bonding vetoes bring mixed bag for Northern Minnesota

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced line-item vetoes on several items in the bonding bill Monday. This was a modest surprise for some in state political circles because it was believed that Pawlenty might veto the whole thing to force legislators to make the unpopular choices about which projects to cut. Instead, Pawlenty did the dirty work himself, but cut the bill down to $718 million -- well below the $825 he originally proposed (the legislature passed a $925 million bill). The Star Tribune has a write-up that lists some of the projects.

In northern Minnesota, bonding priorities enjoyed mixed results. Pawlenty is allowing the $28 million for Essar's Minnesota Steel infrastructure near Nashwauk. He also OK'd the funds to mitigate the flood threat at the Canisteo Pit near Bovey, two of DFL freshman Rep. Tom Anzelc's top 2008 goals. But the science classrooms at Mesabi Range Community and Technical College (indeed, upgrades at MNSCU colleges across the state) got the ax, as did improvements to the Hibbing Memorial Building and other smaller Range projects.

Duluth can finally rest easy as Pawlenty allowed the bonding funds for the DECC expansion. But proponents of light rail are outraged over the veto of a $70 million project to improve passenger rail in the metro area. St. Paul in particular took a big hit in its requested projects, something that some folks consider political retribution for the legislature's rebuke of Pawlenty's pet projects.

In any event local pols may have fodder for the upcoming election but by and large this seems to be a mixed bag for northern Minnesota. It could have been a lot better but it could have easily been much worse.

Rural electric cooperative, don't fail me now!

Did I say "just over half a foot of wet, heavy snow" in my last post? Now that I've shoveled, I can attest that it's at least a foot. And we just heard that we're getting another foot tonight. What had been a somewhat dry winter in northern Minnesota is going to be moistened rather quickly here in late April. Wet blizzards like this one cause rural residents like myself to just stare at the lights wondering when a ice and snow laden tree is going to fall on a power line and put us in the dark. Come on big green! Hold on through the night!

I work at a college. Snow day tomorrow? I hope so because driving my Ford Focus in this crap is like crossing the Sax-Zim peat bog on a riding lawnmower. I swear, the tires are like what you see on a drink cart.

UPDATE: Minnesota moves up wind power rankings

Take a look at this post from Bluestem Prairie, citing a Rochester Bulletin story. Minnesota has moved into third place nationally for wind power generation. And that doesn't include those lean 25 MW from Taconite Ridge on the Iron Range set to go online this year. Minnesota is windy, let's make that work for us.

Maybe we'll make #2 by 2009 so we can get a first round bye in the Wind-lympics.

Minnesota bonding bill: "Deal or No Deal?"

The Minnesota House and Senate conference committee released its bonding bill list today and there's some good news for northern Minnesota.

Among other smaller projects across the Iron Range, Itasca County would receive $28 million for infrastructure for Essar's proposed Minnesota Steel plant near Nashwauk. That's not nearly the amount required to build the pipeline, roads and railways needed, but it's something and probably keeps the project going after Iron Range Resources makes up the difference.

(By the way, the position of this blog is "Minnesota Steel good, Mesaba Energy Project bad." You know that's an honestly held position because one part of it or the other angers 95 percent of my readers).

It's aggravating that the governor has insisted that IRR use its funds from one-time mineral taxes to build basic infrastructure, but at least it didn't take us half a decade to get anything at all. (I'm talking about you, DECC expansion in Duluth).

The bill rolls in at $925 billion. Gov. Tim Pawlenty says he wants it to stay at $825. He has the option of line item vetoing projects on the list or he can veto the whole bill and make the legislature do the trimming. I think it's more likely he'll veto the whole thing or just sign it. He's can try to blame the DFL for everything by vetoing it. He can also show bipartisan election year appeal by signing it. Based on how things have progressed in the session so far, I'd prepare for the prior. The Minnesota Republican strategy so far has been "no deals, take it to the election." In truth that's not a bad plan for them since they're safely entrenched in most of the seats that are up this year. But boy, a deal made this year would sure go a long way to helping smooth things over in the state.

So, T-Paw. What will it be. Deal? Or no deal?

(Let's hope this one doesn't end with a sad family looking at a briefcase full of $100 and a long plane ride back to Appalachia).

Ventura U.S. Senate speculation

Jesse Ventura is toying with the idea of running for the U.S. Senate in his native Minnesota against incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and his top challenger Al Franken.

On one hand this is more plausible than the presidential campaign rumors we heard last week, but on the other I can't help but think this is still part of his new book's marketing campaign.

Everyone in Minnesota has learned not to dismiss Jesse Ventura like we did in early 1998. Objectively, I don't see a clear path for a Ventura victory. However, 2008 is a change year and Coleman and Franken both have high negatives. That was the witches brew that gave us Gov. Ventura ten years ago. I'm still in with my man Franken, but let's keep an eye on this.

Ventura for President chatter reaches cable news

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura is at the center of presidential political chatter again. This morning CNN has been promoting an upcoming interview with Ventura that leans heavily on his potential candidacy.

What's still unclear to me is how Ventura would actually run for president. As an independent? On the Unity '08 ticket? Libertarian? He's not running as a Green. Unless he has ballot access through an existing party he would have to gather a couple million petition signatures across all 50 states to get on the ballot. That's what leads me to believe that this is just a book tour promotion and that by summer we won't hear much more about Ventura '08.

Jesse Ventura is a curious character in Minnesota political history. Bear in mind that I was one of those "young kids" who, in a moment of frustration, voted for Ventura back in 1998. I was ultimately disappointed in his term of office, but mostly because he wasted a unique opportunity to be a strong non-partisan governor. Instead he focused on his own self-promotion and a very limited agenda. Still, it is worth noting that Jesse Ventura did EXACTLY what he said he would do as governor. It wasn't pretty, but it was remarkable.

Outcome prediction at the statehouse

I haven't been writing much about the legislative session because the talks have been rather stagnant lately. Here are the questions to be answered next week and beyond:

Will we get a bonding bill? If yes, does the governor get the exact dollar figure he demanded or does the legislature put more projects in there daring him to veto?

How will the projected budget gap for next year be filled? Do DFLers protect the heath care dollars Gov. Pawlenty proposes to use, or does the governor's non-negotiation negotiation lead to another victory for him? The governor has learned that cutting local government aid is a good way to lose House seats, so he's not talking about that this time. Problem is, a vast majority of the state budget is dedicated to health care and education. To cut means to cut something popular. He's going after health care this time. Remember, he won't approve tax increases unless they're property taxes or fees.

If a good sized bonding bill (for us Rangers, one that takes care of the steel mill infrastructure and the Canisteo pit) and a budget fix that preserves MinnesotaCare eligibility pass this session that's probably as good as it will get. Negotiations on these items have approached resolution but always seem to break down near the end -- according to my source in St. Paul. (Keep in mind, I blog from a place far, far away from the golden horses of the state capitol). Next week will be a good indicator week on how this might turn out.

Any guesses on what might happen?

Brown on the Air: Statehood now!

Tune in Saturday, March 29 to KAXE's "Between You and Me" with guest host Scott Hall to hear a show about rebellion. What kind? All kinds! My weekly essay will discuss the history of the "State of Superior," the forgotten 51st state in the union. I'll suggest, ever so gently and perhaps with a small amount of irony, that we Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan northerners should stick together to throw off the shackles of our metro/suburban oppressors.

Statehood now! Brothers and sisters, we can create a wild paradise, funded by casinos and natural resource revenue sharing! Our highways will be fixed and there will be no Met Council because we will have no Met.

The show runs from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota and streaming online at http://www.kaxe.org/.

'Round the dinner table on the Iron Range

I can't stress enough the importance for Democrats to resolve the presidential race soon, before the convention, before June and preferably before Memorial Day.

I write from the Iron Range, a place that gets little attention in political coverage ironically because of its reliably important role in Minnesota's electoral makeup. The Range delivers 40 point margins for statewide and presidential Democrats every election. Except when it doesn't, which is when statewide or presidential Democrats lose.

Around the dinner table at a recent family function, I was surprised by the discussion on national politics. First off, my family is not overtly political, and tends to eschew extremism of either liberal or conservative variety. This group of white males I was talking to (you know, the hot new 2008 demographic) wasn't really charged up by the racial tones of the election, but more so by the Democrats inability to settle the nomination. The tit for tat arguing and endless news cycle was the most troubling factor for my family members and for most blue collar, working folks I talk to around here (the ones who pundits worry will defect to John McCain). If this continues, I get the impression that Obama's margins on the Range in November will suffer. This puts Minnesota in jeopardy for the Democrats, and victory requires Minnesota in the blue coalition.

That's the problem with this year's campaign. If Barack Obama had put Hillary Clinton away a month ago, as McCain did his opponents, we'd be settling in for the long haul of the November campaign. And yes, all the same issues that are now being discussed (Obama's experience, the preacher controversy, etc.) would still come up, but would be part of the larger campaign. Obama's ability to answer these charges (wisdom is more important than years in Washington, we should open the conversation about race to include all parties and their legitimate grievances) would be winning him points against McCain, instead of a primary opponent.

So while Clinton continues to hold on to an outside chance to win the nomination, her ability to win requires at least three more months of this same campaign dynamic. Obama will win states, delegates and probably popular votes at this point. For this reason alone, the Democrats' best hope requires Clinton to cut a deal with Obama now. Supreme Court? Vice President? Senate Majority Leader? She should take a deal and we should move on.

I recognize this is unlikely. Clinton is starting to use the preacher controversy in her speeches and interviews now, which means they've focus group tested it and determined that it works with all the right demos. (You can tell the politicians that do this testing when they wait three or four days before talking about important news stories). But I hope that fellow Democrats recognize the damage we cause by allowing this to continue much longer.

Fate of Iron Range school district hangs in the balance

Education remains one of the top political issues (and largest portion of the state budget) in Minnesota. But on the Iron Range, education takes on special importance. Here's why:

1) As a blue-collar region with an immigrant history, quality public education has been the #1 priority for the Iron Range for about a century. It has been the reason five generations of poor kids have achieved upward social mobility when that seldom occurs in other similar socioeconomic regions. This place is living proof that public education, when applied aggressively, is the great social equalizer and can sustain a population even during hard economic times. As a region, the Iron Range should have been dead fifty years ago. Don't get me wrong, we've come close. But we're still here. Education, baby.

2) All but a handful of schools in northern Minnesota suffer from declining enrollment. We have known nothing but budget cuts, reduced extra curricular offerings, reduced electives and advanced courses, and increased class sizes for a generation.

3) As a result of these factors, and some overspending and generous contracts in years past (though I'll not criticize fair teacher pay or adequate staffing), many Iron Range school districts are now in rough financial shape. In fact, among a list of state local government units in the worst financial shape, Range school districts dominate the top ten ... mostly because there is not much property tax base to levy, there are fewer students every year, and the mining revenue that had once boosted us has become sketchy and unpredictable over the years.

Today, an important meeting will shape the future of one Range district. Greenway schools serve Bovey, Coleraine and other small towns on the western edge of the Mesabi Iron Range. The district is in Statutory Operating Debt and faces the expiration of several major bonding levies all within the next few years. Maybe you've heard of districts seeking operational levies in your part of the state? Well, Greenway is going to be staging a bond issue that will determine whether or not the district will survive. If this one fails, they will be done for.

From Britta Arendt's story in the Sunday Grand Rapids Herald-Review (reprinted across the Range in the Hibbing and Mesabi newspapers):

At a meeting with Greenway staff on Thursday, Superintendent Rochelle VanDenHeuvel said that, without referendum dollars, severe budget cuts would be necessary. She said it’s probable that elective courses at the middle and high school would be eliminated; all day/every day kindergarten would be eliminated; all extra-curricular activities would be eliminated; up to 20 staff positions would be eliminated; administration would be reduced; class sizes would rise as high as 45 at the middle and high school and 35 in the elementary school, and; the school board would need to consider cooperation or consolidation with other school districts, or dissolution of the Greenway School District.

There are several special factors that put Greenway in its current condition, among them a labor lawsuit that they lost to their bargaining units and poor management in the past. But their financial state is only a little worse than other districts, and if the state does not address the erosion of Wendell Anderson's "Minnesota Miracle" that ensured equal, quality education for every Minnesotan regardless of geographic location, there will be more districts facing this fate.

And yes, consolidation is an option, one that I have advocated for other districts in the past. But at some point, transportation costs and community health will be compromised if we don't draw a line and fight for our local schools.

A community meeting to discuss the referendum further will be held in the Greenway High School Auditorium at 5 p.m. Monday.

"Tobacco Monologues" panned by Health Dept., "show" to close immediately

Minnesota Public Radio is reporting that the state health department is shutting down the popular "theater exemption" loophole used by bars around the state to get around the new statewide workplace smoking ban recently. I wrote a column on the subject last week. My piece only received two responses, one negative from a bar owner and one positive from the local American Lung Association representative. A friend also wrote an articulate rebuttal to my column on libertarian grounds in the comments section of that column. But that was all, so far.

Today, Health Commissioner Sanne Magnan declared that theatre nights in bars are not exempt from the smoking ban.

"This exemption was never intended to fill up a whole room full of people smoking in a public place. So we concluded that he bars are really attempting to circumvent the freedom to breathe act," Commissioner Magnan said.

Magnan said today's announcement is a warning to bars holding theatre nights that the party's over. If they continue circumventing the law, they'll be leaving themselves open to fines of up to $10,000. Magnan's decision immediately drew catcalls from the industry.

Jim Farrell, Executive Director of the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association, said the health department's announcement is compounding the confusion about a law that's riddled with loopholes.

"Instead of admitting that there is a possibility that what they are doing is creating confusion, it's like they can never back down on anything," Farrell said. He said Magnan's decision about the theater loophole leaves it unclear what is legal under the law and what is not. He said it would better for the state to close the theatrical loophole altogether and have actual theatres use fake cigarettes for productions.

"That's when you come forward and say look, we made these exceptions, we found out there are problems with them, we are going to change them, when it comes to the smoking in the theatre we think it's asinine because we know that second hand smoke is dangerous," Farrell said.

That's right. Because the fact that actors aren't using fake cigarettes is what this is really about.

Bars have taken a hit. I'm not disputing that. It's time to plan for the future. These smoking bans are becoming standard, along with the clean water and cooking regulations we have come to expect. Smoke all you want -- on your private property, in your car or at a private location without employees. That line of consent for employees exposed to secondhand smoke is the new guide for smoking in public. And I don't believe that drinking or fast food will come next. Prohibition failed and those are vices that can only impact those who choose to drink or eat.

House bonding bill includes partial funds for key Range projects

The Minnesota House of Representatives' proposed bonding bill includes money for the Essar Minnesota Steel plant near Nashwauk and to abate the flood risk at the Canisteo Pit near Bovey. I hear that the governor is sticking to his guns about the creation of the Vermilion State Park I mentioned yesterday, however, which means that the funding that would be going to northern Minnesota will be spread thin.

One encouraging sign is that the House, Senate and Governor all recognize the need to fund the steel mill and Canisteo. Discouraging is the fact that none of them seem to fully fund the needs for these projects and that Iron Range leaders will have to track down other funding sources to get them done this year, probably from the rainy day fund at Iron Range Resources. Yes, that money is there for a reason, but it's one time regional money for a longrange project that will give a lot to the state as a whole. The steel mill alone will need another $30 million plus to make sure that the necessary infrastructure is in place for the company to being construction this spring.