DFL DISPATCH: July 22, 2005
07/22/2005
July 22, 2005
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THANK YOUR DFL REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS FOR GETTING THE JOB DONE. Our DFL Representatives and Senators did a great job this session of standing up for average Minnesotans. Education, a Minnesota top priority, will now receive twice the funding initially proposed by Governor Pawlenty. This will allow school districts to reduce the cuts that are hurting our children’s education. The Governor also wanted to balance the budget by taking away the health insurance of nearly 40,000 working Minnesotans. Your DFL Representatives and Senators opposed these cuts and those 40,000 Minnesotans will not lose their health care. We will greatly benefit from the dedicated work of our DFL Representatives and Senators, who stepped up to the challenge and fought for funding our schools and protected health care. Please take some time today to send them a note of thanks.
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DFL CHAIR HOLDS PAWLENTY ACCOUNTABLE FOR REGRESSIVE TAX HIKES. Governor Pawlenty is in obvious trouble. This spring he called yet another special session, for the third consecutive budget that he couldn’t get through the Legislature — and this time his failure to get a budget shut down the government. His approval ratings have plummeted. And finally he has admitted what most Minnesotans figured out long ago: he broke his pledge against raising taxes.
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MINNESOTANS NEED AN INDPENDENT-MINDED SENATOR, NOT A LAPDOG. When there is a choice between serving Minnesotans or the man in the oval office, Rep. Mark Kennedy’s record speaks for itself. As representative, Kennedy has voted with along with George W. Bush more than 98 percent of the time. But Minnesotans want a strong, independent voice in the Senate, not someone who’s a lapdog for the Bush Administration.
“President Bush’s policies have been destroying the quality of life in Minnesota,” DFL Associate Chair Donna Cassutt said. “Mark Kennedy has voted with Bush’s radical policies 98 percent of the time. The last thing Minnesota needs is another rubber stamp for George Bush and Dick Cheney’s extreme agenda.” Read more.
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JUDGE ROBERTS: IT’S TIME TO ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS. President Bush selected a judge with strong legal credentials, but with sharp partisan credentials that cannot be ignored. The burden of proof is on Judge Roberts to demonstrate that he can put his partisanship aside and live up to a Supreme Court Justice’s duty to uphold the rights and freedoms of every American and the promise of equal justice for all.
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DAYTON SECURES TRANSIT FUNDING FOR MINNESOTA. U.S. Senator Mark Dayton today announced that the Senate Committee on Appropriations has approved $5.45 million in federal aid for transit and economic development initiatives throughout Minnesota. Dayton, who pressed for the funding, said that it had been approved as part of the fiscal year 2006 Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, and HUD Appropriations bill. This bill will soon go to the full Senate for a vote. Funding for highways and airports will be negotiated, once the bill goes to Conference, with the House.
“In recent years, Minnesota’s population has increased faster than our economy and our public transportation systems,” Dayton said. “These badly needed funds will create new opportunities for economic growth throughout the state and will help to update our mass transit for the 21st century.”
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TEACHERS BACK CHRIS COLEMAN IN ST. PAUL MAYORAL RACE. The St. Paul Federation of Teachers has endorsed Chris Coleman in the St. Paul mayor’s race. Coleman, a former city council member and DFL-endorsed candidate in the race, is challenging incumbent Mayor Randy Kelly. The union represents about 5,000 teachers; about 3,900 live in St. Paul and are eligible to vote in the election.
Roy Magnuson of the teachers’ union said Coleman has “an education agenda that is realistic, achievable and does more just pay lip service to the needs of our schools.”