The Day the Minnesota Republicans Actually Gave Up

Wednesday, May 18th.  That was the day the Minnesota Republican Party said, "F- it!"

This has been coming for awhile, since election night 2014.  On that night, Republicans captured the Minnesota House, even though the Minnesota Democrats had done nothing wrong, outside of turning Tim Pawlenty's deteriorating economy around.  Republicans, screaming about government spending on the new MN Senate office building, and making false claims about Democrats not being concerned about outstate Minnesota, rode a wave of Democratic voter malaise to their only win in Minnesota in 2014, the House.

Republican Speaker Kurt Daudt sent an immediate message by not showing up at Governor Mark Dayton's swearing in ceremony; "I'm petty, small and will treat Democrats as my sworn enemy."  Initially he actually had some success with this strategy, by expertly exploiting his friendship with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, a man who personally despised Governor Dayton.  The Republicans were able to control over half of the legislation which came out of the MN Congress in 2015, getting rid of the State Auditor, waging a war on the environment and encouraging dark money spending in elections.  They even openly mocked Governor Dayton during the special session.

One problem the MN GOP had in 2015 was their unwillingness to deliver to outstate Minnesota, specifically their promise to bring broadband internet to the state.  Instead, they made a stand for only one city to get it, Annandale.  This immediately started to sour the voting pool in rural Minnesota (well, outside of Annandale), something which has been compounded in 2016, as Daudt and his cronies have only allotted 20 million dollars for outstate broadband this year, something which will take at least 200 million to start.

In early 2016, Kurt Daudt and the MN Republicans had a cataclysmic screw up with Minnesota's unemployed Iron Range workers, something I detailed in the post '17'.  Daudt held up aid for them by demanding any special session for Iron Range workers must include massive corporate handouts.  After a special session was taken off the table, Daudt lied about helping the outstate workers on day 1 of session, demanding corporate tax breaks first.  Not only did his antics further poison out state voters to the GOP brand, it torpedoed his relationship with Senator Bakk, a man who represents the Iron Range.  Any chance of a repeat of the 2015 backroom buddy deal was doomed.

As the 2016 session rolled on, the Republicans admitted they wanted to starve out the general fund, the main source of funding for many state programs, and further angered outstate Minnesota with their reluctance to produce a bonding bill for 2016.  Add in the insane, far right calls for crotch cops, some sort of genital monitoring force to make sure transgender people are not going into bathrooms which don't correspond with their birth gender, something they've been doing in Minnesota, without incident, for decades, and the Minnesota Republican platform began crumbling, being exposed as an "only in it for ourselves" used car sales pitch.

On top of that, there wasn't a senate race in Minnesota for 2016, so the ticket would be anchored primarily by the Presidential race, and the US House races in Minnesota.  Minnesota Republicans watched in horror as they saw their first Presidential choice, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, withdraw, followed by their second choice, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, leaving reality show host and bloviated argument against capitalism Donald Trump as their date for the big dance.  It might be okay in a state like Idaho or Mississippi, but not in dependably blue Minnesota.  And the US House races in Minnesota were not adding much zing.  Not only could they not get legitimate Republicans to run against Democrats Peterson (MN-07) and Walz (MN-01) in right leaning districts, they couldn't find anyone to take on Nolan in MN-08, outside of 'soundly trounced in 2014' Stewart Mills, Terri Bonoff, a moderate Republican disguised as a Democrat, is scaring the crap out of Republican Paulsen in MN-03, and with the retirement of Republican Kline in MN-02, their endorsed candidate is Jason Lewis, a extreme misogynist, far right radio host who thinks slavery was okay.  A report out, yesterday, May 18th, stated the Republicans might end up with only one House seat in Minnesota (MN-06) something which hasn't happened since 1890.  By the way, considering an extreme far right islamophobe is getting ready to challenge Emmer in the MN-06 GOP primary, don't count that seat just yet!

That was the beginning of the bad news for Republicans yesterday.  They finally put out their bonding bill, the bill which is designed for special state projects, usually filled with government pork for all, but instead it was a wish list for Republican districts only, with Rep. Joyce Peppin really raking in the taxpayer gravy.  What's strange is they need Democrats to vote with them, 8 in total if all Republican's vote in unison, as bonding bills need a 60% majority for passage.  Talking with House Minority Leader Paul Thissen yesterday, he confirmed Speaker Daudt hadn't attempted to contact him to see how they could secure eight Democratic votes, and they didn't appear to have struck any personal deals with individual Democrats.  And there's no way the Democratic Senate would pass a House Republican wish list anyway, let alone Governor Dayton signing it without his very clearly stated demands in the bill.  It's seems they've given up on bonding (FYI - Shocker! The GOP House Bonding Bill failed to pass today, the 19th).

Yesterday also seems to have signaled the end of the Transportation Bill too.  House Republicans put forward a disingenuous proposal which has extremely questionable funding, and in a state where over 3/5 of the residents live in the Twin Cities metro area, it has very little for metro area roads and ZERO for metro area transit initiatives.  Senator Bakk, after meeting yesterday with the Governor, reiterated there will be no Transportation Bill without metro area transit included.  With Daudt's personal hatred of mass transit, little will get passed this session.  This means Republicans have a ballot full of dead fish, and they'll likely have a very limited legislative record to run on.

Is the GOP tanking 2016? "We know this is going to be a bad year, so we'll let the worst happen and see where the chips fall in November."  Then came the insanity cherry on top of the May 18th sundae.

Michelle MacDonald is the former GOP candidate for MN Supreme Court.  Her run in 2014 was very interesting, considering she admitted to having personal legal problems after winning the nomination, had an epic stand off with the Republicans at their State Fair booth that August, and was firmly trounced in the election, in what was a big year for conservatives.  But that was before Grazinni-Rucki.  Sandra Grazini-Rucki was a client of hers who was losing a custody battle with her husband.  She had claimed abuse by her ex, a claim the courts shot down.  One day, two of his girls mysteriously disappeared, leaving no trace of where they were, and a panicked father looking for clues.  Sandra never seemed too worried.  After the reporter Michael Brodkorb had a discussion with people close to the divorce case, he realized something was up.  He started to investigate the case, which lead to a sharper look being given by law enforcement.

Eventually the two girls were found.  On the day they disappeared, Sandra alleged rode with the girls to Michelle MacDonald's campaign manager, Dede Evavold's house, in St. Cloud.  Reminder, Michelle MacDonald was Sandra's lawyer, so it 's quite possible MacDonald could have been involved too.  From Evavold's House, the girls were hidden on a horse farm in western Minnesota where they seem to have been kept as child labor, part of some sketchy 'wronged parents who want revenge on their ex's so they hide the kids' underground railroad.  There's VERY real potential MacDonald could be charged, something which should've warned off any Minnesota Republican Party consideration.

Last night, the Republican Judicial Committee recommended Michelle MacDonald as their candidate for the 2016 MN Supreme Court race.

WHAT?!?

This is crazy, one of the most reckless political decisions I've ever seen!  MacDonald was a bad choice before the Grazinni-Rucki debacle, actually damaging the GOP chances in 2014.  For God's sake, she still had Dede Evavold listed as her campaign manager this morning!  This decision to resurrect her for 2016 has emboldened her, with her now saying she'll run even if the GOP withdraws their endorsement.  It's like the GOP Judiciary Committee nominated her out of spite, but I'm not quite sure for who:  the people who didn't vote for MacDonald in 2014, or for the Republicans who say "we're smarter than that."  The Judiciary Committee disagrees, saying "no we're not!" There are too many people in the Republican Party living by the original Tea Party mantra of 'I'd rather lose with the Republican I like, than win with the Republican I hate.' Realizing they're outnumbered, the traditional Republicans are putting their hands the air, or rather their middle fingers, and saying "F- you world!"

When I see the MN GOP, I see a political party screaming, "we give up." If you come across a Republican politician in Minnesota, be careful.  I get the feeling they're angry, ready to go off, and looking for a bottle of booze to crawl into until 2018.