A Tale of Two Governors

Last November, 54% of the good people of Minnesota voted for the Democratic candidate in the presidential election, thereby continuing their string of voting for D's in every presidential election since 1969, except for 1972. The point being that Minnesota is no mid western red state. And like many other states, it is faced with a huge budget shortfall. The Democratically-dominated legislature has followed a predictable and familiar-sounding solution. Propose increases in virtually every state tax. Cut spending? Not a chance, in fact many new programs are still being introduced, like $1.2 million in grants for film production (why didn't we think of that?)and $200,00 for a youth environmental educational program. To this point, there seems to be a lot of parallels to the Bay State's politicians who are now trying to convince us that we are lucky to only have a 25% increase in our sales tax instead of all those other proposed taxes. But, I digress.

Minnesota is fortunate to have a governor with not only a sense of fiscal responsibility, but also the backbone to stand up to his out-of-control legislature. Republican Tim Pawlenty, who we have met HERE before used every available measure to roll back the tide and achieve a rare fete:

Mr. Pawlenty is now free to strip $2.7 billion from state spending to balance the budget. Tax hikes are dead. He tells me this will be one of the first times in modern Minnesota history that the state will reduce the size of government in real terms, not just slow its rate of growth. "The correlation in recent history has been between job growth and states that have reasonable government cost structures," he says. These cuts, he says, will position Minnesota to take advantage of the recovery when it comes.

To fully appreciate this achievement, you may want to read Kim Strassel's story in today's WSJ

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our governor, the one who promised tax relief, was, believe it or not, out of town while the legislature scrambled to increase taxes. As was reported in RED MASS GROUP:

Members of the Senate Republican Caucus could have used the Governor's help in leading the charge against the sales tax hike on Tuesday, but he was in Washington, D.C. As Senate Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei pointed out, Patrick has a tendency to skip town at crucial times, such as when he travelled to New York last year to negotiate a book deal even as his casino gaming proposal was going down in flames. With all the time he has been spending away from the State House, it's no wonder Patrick is becoming increasingly irrelevant, prompting Tisei to refer to him as the "incredible shrinking governor".

No one has ever accused our Guv of being an anti-tax conservative, but he could at least show up and do some of that leadership stuff that comes with being the head of the executive branch.

Grass Root Politics

Ordinarily, the election for town meeting representative here in America's Home Town is a fairly mundane event. In most of the fourteen precincts, we are lucky to have enough candidates to fill all of the open seats; not what you would call robust public interest. with this in mind, I decided to toss my hat in the Precinct 5 ring. If elected, I felt equal to the task and wanted, in a small way, to contribute something to the Town's efforts at self-government.

It was easily accomplished. Just gather a few signatures and submit the forms to the Town Clerk. I filed in late February, just before setting off to a two-month sabbatical in the sun. Returning home in early April, however, I found that the earth had undergone a subtle shift. Three incumbents, plus myself and three other newbies, all vying for three open seats. This thing had turned into a campaign.

I won't drag my readers through the tedium of analyzing voter lists, printing and distributing materials and the saga of the lawn signs. Suffice it to say, the effort grew to almost blot out the sun. Last Saturday, we stood at the polls in the rain, waving to the voters, driving through the gauntlet of waving signs. I have to admit it was exciting, but yet, exhausting at the same time.

We had worked hard at getting out the vote. Due to the small number of contested seats, a low turnout was predicted and that was exactly what resulted. Our precinct turned out better than most, but town-wide it was not our finest hour, with barely 14% of the voters showing up to vote. I was blessed with a solid core of supporters who went out of their way to be heard. This great wave of support made it all worthwhile.

Amid the many congratulatory messages I received was a notification for the first caucus meeting in two weeks. As I start to climb the learning curve on municipal budgets and finance, I will remember all those who "showed up" for me. Read the whole story in today's Old Colony Memorial