Rep. Seifert: End the Gridlock

"Letter to Editor"

03/27/2007

Dear Editor,

The voters sent a clear message to Minnesota legislators last year: No more shutdowns. No more wedge issues. No more gridlock. Work on the issues that affect Minnesotans’ daily lives: education, health care, jobs, transportation, energy and the environment, and tax fairness.

Both Republicans and Democrats got the message. A few days after the election, Senator Geoff Michel, an assistant Republican leader in the Senate, announced publicly that “I think the politics of wedge issues has proven to be a loser.” And House Speaker-designate Margaret Anderson Kelliher took the unusual step of naming Representative Ron Erhardt, a Republican, to her leadership team as the Transportation Finance Division vice-chair.

This bipartisan spirit has fueled the 85th Legislature, and is helping it make the tough decisions that it now faces. Just this past weekend, Representative Jeremy Kalin (DFL) was reporting to his constituents from the House floor “in an unusual Saturday session,” and wrote that “as Vice-Chair of Public Safety, I've worked closely with the Republican Lead, Rep. Paul Kohls. I'd now call him a friend.... Many of these amendments were discussed through the three-month committee process this year. We worked diligently in a bi-partisan manner to write the bill, which passed with only 3 nay votes in Committee.”

But one legislator just doesn’t get it. House Minority Leader Marty Seifert is still more interested in throwing bombs than in solving problems. And DFLers aren’t the only ones who think so. Check out this editorial from a Greater Minnesota newspaper about Representative Seifert, “the self-appointed spokesman for ‘perpetuating partisan bickering’”:

http://www.pctribune.com/main.asp?SectionID=23&SubSectionID=104&ArticleID=4092.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Representative Seifert has taken the typical political grandstanding to be expected from a minority party to a new low. He hides behind feeble attempts at folksy “Seifert-isms” to get away with extremely disingenuous criticism. He is more interested in scoring political points, and in obstructing the legislative process, than in taking care of the people’s business.

It’s about time someone called him on it. If you agree, here’s what you can do:

1. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper and call on Representative Seifert to stop the grandstanding and to start working on getting good legislation passed.

2. Contact Representative Seifert directly and tell him to stop grandstanding and get to work. He can be contacted at or (651) 296-4999.

Sincerely,

Minnesota DFL Party