6 MN House Republicans loose leadership positions over veto override

[CatholicEdHead]

Well, it is now official, you break with the GOP and there goes your support. You follow the line or else.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/15998752.html

Less than 24 hours after six rogue Republican House members voted to override a veto of a $6.6 billion transportation bill, they were stripped of leadership positions, a swift - and unusual - recrimination that was intended to “stitch together” a fractious House Republican caucus.

Several of the dissenting members did not go willingly or quietly, telling House Minority Leader Marty Seifert that he would have to fire them from the positions.

“I am not going along with this foolishness. If you have to get rid of me, fire me,” said Rep. Ron Erhardt, R-Edina, who was removed as the lead Republican as the Property Tax Relief & Local Sales Taxes Committee. “This is the way we get treated if we vote our districts and vote our consciences and vote our feeling that we are doing the right thing for the state.”

The changes are:

•Rep. Rod Hamilton, R-Mountain Lake, replaced by Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, on the Agriculture, Rural Economies & Veterans Affairs Committee

•Rep. Kathy Tingelstad, R-Andover, replaced by Rep. Larry Howes, R-Walker, on the Capital Investment Committee.

•Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, replaced by Rep. Matt Dean, R-Dellwood, on Health Care and Human Services Committee.

•Rep. Bud Heidgerken, R-Freeport, replaced by Rep. Sondra Erickson, R-Princeton, on K-12 Finance.

•Rep. Ron Erhardt, R-Edina, replaced by Rep. Morrie Lanning, R- Moorhead, on Property Tax Relief & Local Sales Taxes.

•In addition, Rep. Neil Peterson, R-Bloomington, was removed as an Assistant Minority Whip and replaced by Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington.

[trotsky]

1. I wonder if any of them are liberal Republicans.

Maybe the DFL could use this incident to increase their majority, if you know what I'm saying.

[Eric J in MN]

4. Cool idea. If any of them are in districts with a Dem. majority,

...they can switch now over this.

[Thor_MN]

2. Watching Blinky and the GOP have their hissy fits

I was thinking what a bunch of pathetic losers.

The next thing I heard was that Wisconsin and the Dakotas currently have higher gas taxes than we do. Then I was downright angry at the dishonest sacks of dung which make up the GOP. All that spouting off how an increased gas tax is going ruin families and drive them into the streets - and our neighbors to the east and west already pay more than we do.

[CatholicEdHead]

3. I talked to a few Republicans about it yesterday

and they were all for it. This is a infrastructure matter to them, a cost of living increase to keep basic transportation maintained. They will want to see results from MNDOT with this increase in the next couple of years.

[trotsky]

5. I did some crude math last night.

Let's take the whole eventual increase: 8.5 cents, right? Hell, round it up to an even 10 cents a gallon for this exercise.

What's the average gas consumption? I commute about 12 miles each way. I fill up about every other week. But let's say someone fills up with 10 gallons every week. That's a buck extra with the new tax. Or $52 for a whole year. (And keep in mind, that's rounding UP 15%.)

$50 a year is a "burden" for families? What a joke. For decent roads and bridges, it's a pittance.

Stuff costs money. I really don't know where these Repubs think it's going to come from.

[CatholicEdHead]

6. The state senators who voted for it are also taking heat locally

Steve Dille, District 18 which is McLeod and Meeker, from Glencoe to Hutchinson to Litchfield to Annadale, and Dennis Frederickson, District 21, which is Marshall, Redwood Falls to New Ulm are both in hot water.

Going by an early internet poll from a local newspaper in the area (McLeod County Chronicle), 80% want them defeated, 5% want them kicked out of the GOP party and 15% are supporting them.
http://www.glencoenews.com/index.asp?PollID=323#PollSection

Remember the Senate votes are not getting much press due to the large DFL majority. Yet there will probably be consequences on any Republican who breaks ranks in the Senate due to ideological reasons. This is not the GOP we grew up seeing, it is as partisan as it has ever been.

This editorial I found is blaming the high taxes for jobs going overseas and infers that if we kept them low, they would come back right away. It is of course not as simple as that, unless we lower to 3rd world levels many are not coming back because it cuts profits for corporations.
http://www.glencoenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=8&ArticleID=19601&TM=46291.77

In the "my-way-or-no-way" world we live in, neither side would budge. Whatever happened to compromise in politics? Why is it that both sides have their heels dug in so far that a mule team could not budge them? It is called partisan politics.

As the DFLers now gloat about shoving another tax increase down taxpayers' throats, we must dig deeper into our wallets. With gas prices high and likely to remain there, with jobs being shipped overseas, with talks of recession becoming more frequent, raising taxes does not seem to be the prudent thing right now. But it happened anyway.

[dflprincess]

7. I haven't driven out past Glencoe since last summer

but, as I recall, Hwy 212 was not in the best of shape out that way. Especially as you go further west and goes from 4 lanes to 2 lanes. I'm somewhat mystified why people out that way wouldn't want decent roads - though I do think there is a perception in greater Minnesota that the metro area will get more than it's share of the money.

[CatholicEdHead]

8. A look of the other areas in the 2 Senate districts

makes this one newspaper example a minority in the editorials, the letters to the editor will come in the rest of the week. Otherwise there are not worried in the Hutchinson Leader, Marshall Independent, Annandale Advocate, Litchfield Independent Review. The Redwood Falls Gazette also has not published on it yet so it remains to be seen what happens.

http://www.marshallindependent.com/News/articles.asp?articleID=19617

http://www.marshallindependent.com/opinion/articles.asp?articleID=19607

http://hutchinsonleader.com/taxonomy/term/140/9


Of course as we see here it is pure ideology or nothing with the MN GOP. So I do not see much DFL fallout from this. It will only make the GOP sound more shrill as they are against even basic improvements.

Edit:

Having been through that part of the state a few times, there is a sometimes irrational fiscal conservativism out there. Many want to just tough it out and can deal with dirt roads if that is what the degrade into. Much of southwest Minnesota has a almost South Dakota-ish feel about it on some things. Yet as things have shown since pioneer days, the areas with good transportation are the ones that attract businesses. The Twin Cities grew from trade via the Mississippi.