Minnesota's DFL stood strong against a storm of GOP victories that swept the country Tuesday. There will be no change in the levels of blue and red that our state will send to Washington D.C., with only a personnel shift: Tom Emmer rather than Michelle Bachmann; but as the proverb goes, the devil is in the details: and this election had plenty of details.
McFadden Fails to Pull within Single Digits
One of the least surprising results of the night was the decisive defeat of Mike McFadden (GOP) by incumbent Senator Al Franken (DFL). McFadden's...
Minnesota Connected was recently given the chance to interview the gubernatorial governor candidate Jeff Johnson (GOP) -- the interview took place hours before his first debate with Mark Dayton (DFL) in Rochester (available to viewÂ
here). Our conversation focused on a variety of policy issues, but we found a number of non-political tangents to wander down as well.
Minnesota Connected: Obviously the...
Tuesday had its share of winners and losers in the world of Minnesota politics. The
big story was the sub 10% turnout of eligible voters (which is low for our...
For the fourth straight month Minnesota has taken a significantly lower amount of tax revenue than expected. Back in February, budget officials
announced a projected $1.23 billion surplus for the fiscal year 2014-2015. This forecast, which helps to inform lawmakers on tax and spending issues, is not quite holding true to form; though officials urge caution in drawing conclusions for how it will surface in the budget.
Just four months into the fiscal year and the state is approaching $100...
On Monday the Teamsters Union nabbed an important win in theirÂ
push-back against a popular provision to allow for Sunday growler sales in the Minnesota State Senate's liquor bill. All hope (for beer-lovers) seemed lost as the provision was
officially stripped in the Senate Tax Committee. It appeared destined to become yet another...
Columbus Day hasn't been the only thing due for a Minnesotanly-correct makeover this past week. This time it's happening in the capitol building. On Monday John Hoffman (DFL-Champlin) netted approval from the state Senate on a measure to change the name of 'Asian Carp' to 'Invasive Carp.'
HoffmanÂ
explained the ambiguity of the name back in March:
Caucasians brought them to America... Â Should we call them `Caucasian carp?' They have...
Most of the time I have to settle for covering stories that involve beerÂ
or politics, but once in a blue moon these two cosmic bodies (that I spend way too much time thinking about) align into something distinctly interesting. Yet somehow an under-reported sleeper of a story involving such things almost missed my attention. Unfortunately the scoop isn't good: in short, the influential...
