The only thing Minnesota Democrats have to fear is Democrats themselves.
Apologies to the greatest Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt, for corrupting his immortal line.
But it’s tough to see it any other way after the events of the past several months, particularly last week. That was when Gov. Mark Dayton and Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, both DFLers, blew a schism in the unified front of the party wide enough for Republicans to drive a Lexus or two through.
Two years ago the DFL was large and in charge, celebrating its one-party rule and a list of legislative achievements that had observers wondering if they could hold sway over Minnesota for years. Now the governor says he trusts Republicans more than his Senate Majority Leader.
As the kids say, WTH?
It has to do with the tricky issue of pay raises for public employees, an upcoming election and a couple of titanic egos.
Dayton, using power given to him by the Legislature in 2013, wanted to give commissioners of state agencies what he believed were long overdue raises. Republicans, as expected, cried foul and Dayton offered a couple of seemingly minor compromises to blunt the growing controversy. All seemed hunky-dory.
But late last week, Bakk pulled an apparently unforeseen move to temporarily strip Dayton of his authority to grant the raises and delay them until the summer. The governor called a press conference and opened both barrels on Bakk, accusing the Iron Ranger of conniving and back-stabbing. Dayton said he wouldn’t deal with Bakk unless there was a witness in the room because the governor doesn’t trust Bakk.
Dayton also said he trusts House leader Kurt Daudt, a Republican, more than he trusts Bakk.
It’s not the first time Dayton and Bakk, a couple of savvy and bullheaded politicians have butted heads. But this is the loudest and ugliest explosion. It has rank-and-file DFLers nervous their legislative agenda is in jeopardy. The House is controlled by Republicans and with Bakk in charge of the Senate, the fears are well-founded.
The question is why did this happen?
It’s all about the 2016 election. Bakk is worried Republicans will use the pay raises as campaign fodder (of course they will, it’s politics) in an attempt to take the Senate majority from the DFL. That means Bakk would lose his lofty and powerful perch. What’s confounding is Bakk’s apparent belief that delaying the raises by a few months would make a whit of difference in the ’16 election.
It’s also curious Bakk is worried about providing easy campaign talking points to Republicans when HE helped push through the controversial $90 million Senate Office Building in the 2014 session, which many believe helped Republicans take over the House because IT GAVE THEM AN EASY CAMPAIGN ISSUE.
The 2014 campaign/election, by the way, is when the first fissures started to show in the DFL façade. Rural Democrats believed metropolitan Twin Cities Democrats didn’t understand outstate issues, weren’t providing needed support and that centralized big-city campaign staffers were utterly disconnected from rural races.
Republicans went from a 61-73 minority to a 72-62 majority. The DFL caucus meeting after the election was interesting, I understand, with rural Democrats showing their displeasure with their metro brethren.
When the DFL swept to majorities in both houses of the Legislature in 2012, and held every statewide and federal office, it looked like Minnesota was going to be in Democratic control for the foreseeable future. The Minnesota GOP was a financial and organizational mess and the DFL showed mature governance by eliminating turning a perpetual deficit into a surplus and lowering property taxes.
Life was good.
Key word: was.
With the blowup between Dayton and Bakk, Republicans can sit on the sideline and wait to see if the DFL self-destructs more. The Republicans aren’t the only adversary the DFL has, apparently.
(Mike McFeely is a talk-show host on 790 KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. He can be heard 2-5 p.m. weekdays. Follow him on Twitter @MikeMcFeelyKFGO.)