Minnesota Democrats - A Quick Look Back Before We Look Ahead

It's mind numbing.  After years of pathetic Republican leadership, where we actually had a GOP Governor claim he'd balanced the budget by throwing the entire Education sector into a future fiscal cycle without any plan to pay it back, where you had a Republican House and Senate shut down the state government because they insisted the Democratic Governor should have no say in what bills got passed, where we had a front row seat to the nightmarish seventh circle of hell next door, Wisconsin, as their personal income levels have plummeted, education has gone from top ten to bottom ten, and deer carcasses litter their roadways for months due to Republican policies, where we had the continued MNGOP incompetence of the Republican Speaker of the MN House Kurt Daudt, and considering we had two years of utopia, when Democrats controlled everything, with an end result of Minnesota showing up at the top of every national quality of life and economic poll, you'd have thought the DFL would've been in the drivers seat for election 2016.  Nope!  Daudt's allowed to begin his quest for the Governor's office with a larger majority in the MN House than before, and the MN Senate looks to be headed towards a one seat Republican majority too.  The national races were more even, with Republican Jason Lewis using a 3rd party candidate to help win MN-02, but Democrat Rick Nolan officially ended Stewie Mill's political career by breaking his back in the MN-08.

If we're going to look forward, we have to take a quick look back and try to figure out what the heck happened.  I don't think this was a DFL leadership issue, as Ken Martin, Marge Hoffa, Paul Thissen, Erin Murphy and the majority of the state's DFL leaders were working their cabooses off to try to win.  I especially stand by Ken Martin.  He's still the best state party chair I've ever seen.

What about voter turnout?  Minnesota's 74% in 2016 is pretty darn good.  Noting my reluctance to criticize any of the DFL get out the vote effort, I'll point out the slight decrease 74% actually represents.  In 2012, it was 76%, and in 2008 it was 78%.  Those decreases matter, as that's likely the difference between the MN Senate being Democrat and Angie Craig winning the 2nd.  Suggestion:  in the future, let's make sure the questions "When are you planning on voting?" and "Do you need a ride to the polls?" are being asked on all phone banks and when door knocking.

If voter turnout is a minor issue, what really happened?  Here are my four thoughts:

Quality of DFL candidate - My radio show's 'Democrat of the Day' segment was a real eye opener, and in hindsight, explains the gnawing concern I've had in the back of my head since August.  The DFL had some sensational candidates, many of whom won, but, as much as this pains me to say, the DFL had some horrible candidates too.  The party seemed to be too focused on a handful of races, as opposed to delivering quality Democrats in every state race.  I won't name names, but some examples:  the candidate who had a real chance to pick off the Republican, but instead of trying to win, he seemed to treat the race like a college class project.  The candidate who was so micro-focused on a polarizing tertiary issue, she might as well have never even been on the ballot.  The DFL endorsed candidate who did nothing but bad mouth the DFL before hanging up on me.  These three represent SOME of the lesser quality DFL'ers.

But BY FAR the biggest problem was the same problem I've had with the Democrats in Minnesota and nationally for years; Democrats who are ashamed of being Democrats.  I would call a Democrat and say "come on the air, talk about yourself, talk about the district, talk about about what you want to accomplish, and make an appeal for donations and volunteers."  I wasn't exactly making people swear a blood oath on the SWLRT alter, but yet 20+ Democrats turned down the free publicity by saying, 'I don't want be labeled as too much of a DFL'er."  For the record, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM LOST!  Meanwhile, in a tight race, Tim Walz retained his House seat in MN-01, a solid lean Republican district.  He might be a moderate Democrat, but he's still a proud Democrat, and at the end of the day, it's what propelled him to victory.  Same can be said for Nolan.  Proud Democrats win! Weak Democrats don't.  It's that simple.

Tom Bakk - This is subtle, but it's relevant.  When Bakk sided with the GOP in 2015, instead of his own party, he angered a lot of Democrats who felt double crossed, he unintentionally told outstate Republicans the Democratic Senate Majority Leader chose to work with the GOP instead of DFL Governor Mark Governor, and handed the power position for the last two years to Daudt.  If Bakk would've only stood by Dayton in 2015, instead of his fishing buddy K-Dogg (who played him like a fiddle) the Democrats would've done better in 2016.

The MNGOP controlled the issues - The repetitiveness of the talking points the DFL'ers gave me was stunning.  More pre-K education, higher education, and stopping Daudt's last second theatrics were the three issues DFL'ers most wanted to talk about.  Although I feel those issues are good issues, Pre-K education was an issue many felt had already been addressed, higher education costs did not resonate with voters (unless you're talking about free college), and the voters (outside of the Dems) didn't seem to care about Daudt's last second shenanigans.  The MNGOP went around the state screaming about light rail being the only issue DFL'ers cared about, MNSure killing everyone, and the metro area stealing every tax dollar from outstate, all of which were lies.  Not only did the candidates not aggressively go after those lies, they (in many cases) ran away from them, especially in regards to transportation, an issue Democrats could've dominated.

Racism - Not all outstate rural voters are racists, but we just saw that a shocking amount are.  We never had a game plan to attack the racists, and in many cases were afraid to even go after Trump in the state because the DFL candidates didn't want to turn off rural voters.  The DFL should've hit back harder on the racism.  I'm not saying you would've changed any racist's vote, but we would've at least had the truth out their for voters who were on the fence.  And Nolan West would've lost.

Alright, enough wallowing in the past.  Where does the Minnesota DFL go from here?  I'm glad you asked:

1) Beg Mark Dayton to run for a third term.  Seriously, the DFL would easily win the Governor's mansion in 2018 if he does, and his coat tails are good ones to ride.  He's been, hands down, the best Governor in the country.  He's a proud Democrat and he has shown an epic ability to beat down Republican games.  Please Governor Dayton, the state needs you for one more term.  In the case that he doesn't run, coalesce the DFL race as quickly as you can.  Having a candidate who can walk hand in hand with Governor Dayton, learning from him for a year before the election, will help a lot.

2) Immediately start the attack on Kurt Daudt.  He is going to run for Governor, and he'll likely have very little MNGOP competition.  He got into a gun fight in Montana, had his credit cards mysteriously paid off, and he's incompetent at writing legislation.  He hates minorities, and he HATES the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  His path to the governor's mansion, without the Twin Cities metro core, consists of winning two of the following three areas - wealthy predominantly white suburbs, Duluth and the Iron Range, and outstate Minnesota.  Start hammering him in those districts like the election is already going, because it is!

3) Start beating up the Twin Cities Republicans on the issue they're most susceptible.  In the metro area, transportation is the MNGOP's greatest weakness.  Even if the voters in a metro area agree with limiting light rail, the metro area roads are woeful, needing immediate expansion and upgrades.  Republicans aren't about to start funding major construction projects in the Twin Cities on a large scale.  Since many of the GOP held seats have voters who depend on roads outside of their district, you can beat the crap out of them by asking, "Okay MNGOP, you're not funding metro area mass transportation projects, so where's the money to add extra lanes to (insert heavily used metro road here)?"  The earlier you start on this one, the better.

4) Start beating up the Outstate Minnesota Republicans on the issues they're most susceptible.  Broadband! Broadband! Broadband!  The MNGOP has promised full state broadband coverage and they've refused to follow through.  This session, they likely will only fund it for a handful of towns.  In every district they don't deliver broadband, hammer them on their failure to deliver.

With our aging population, outstate Minnesota is impossible to navigate for an elderly person without a drivers license and/or car.  A major initiative, which would solve a very legit problem and garner a lot of votes, would be a state subsidized, statewide expansion of a metro mobility type of transit system for the elderly and the handicapped.  Elderly people being able to get to the doctor, the store, or to community events would be a win/win for the DFL.

Public school K-12 costs is another major issue in outstate Minnesota, with some communities having budget problems just because a family with one or two special needs kids moves into their district.  The state should focus on a better way of funding schools statewide, making sure outstate Minnesota schools, AND the inner city public schools, have the same opportunities as the wealthy suburban school districts.



I'd love to focus on the environment, welcoming in immigrants, and health care of all, but those issues will not translate into outstate votes.  It doesn't mean you sacrifice those issues, just focus your attacks more pointedly.

The last piece of advice is the hardest.  We need to work harder.  The election cycles for 2018 and 2020 are officially underway.  Don't just fight the fight on social media, get active in your community.  Organize, inform and ATTACK!!!  These MNGOP'er are weak, and they pander towards racist elements which promote hate.  They've unfortunately won the battle of 2016, but we'll always win the war as long if we continue to fight!