WHAT OTHERS SAY: ‘Mondale’s study begat Pawlenty’s strategy’

02/06/2006

Grand Forks Herald.com

Over the past two months, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty seized upon immigration as an issue and proposed “a sweeping array of state responses,” as the Minneapolis Star Tribune described them.These proposals—which include “a Minnesota enforcement team, more screening by local authorities and increased penalties for false identification, human trafficking and hiring of illegal immigrants”—are expected to take center stage when the Minnesota Legislature convenes March 1.

The proposals also are expected to resonate for the rest of this election year.

The question is, why?

Why has the state’s Republican governor elevated this issue to one of overarching statewide importance?

One answer is rich in irony. That’s because Pawlenty is responding to a political concern that first was noticed, measured and commented upon by a report commissioned by Walter Mondale. And Mondale is, of course, one of Minnesota’s most famous Democrats.

The Minnesota Community Project is a tremendously interesting piece of social-science research being undertaken by the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. The project, created in 2003 by Mondale (a member of the institute’s advisory council), was meant to discover whether Minnesota’s famous progressive consensus is breaking down.

The report’s somewhat surprising answer: Yes—in many ways, the consensus is breaking or has broken down. And one of key areas where this shows up is in Minnesotans’ attitudes toward immigrants, which have hardened considerably in recent years, the report found.

“Minnesota is changing,” the executive summary of the report declares.

“In a state where the storied consensus’ once meant a high degree of civic engagement and shared vision for economic, social and educational betterment in the state, we see divisions into increasingly irreconcilable camps. There is deep skepticism about public institutions and strong disagreement on their role and and abiding concern about the rapid growth and change in the make-up of our communities.”

“Minnesotans are convinced that government is wasteful and inefficient, squandering hard-earned tax dollars on programs that are not well run or do not benefit all people equally. Moreover, residents outside of metro areas, in particular, perceive that increased immigration is draining resources from public schools and other services, and that immigrants appear to shun integration.”

And there you have it. The full report goes on to document these and other claims, finding, for example, that for rural and suburban residents, “the influx of immigrants into the state is one of the most discouraging things about living in Minnesota.”

The report is available in full at http://www.hhh.umn.edu/projects/mcp/index.html and is well worth reading.

When the Humphrey Institute released the report in 2004, David Strom, president of the Minnesota Taxpayers League, said that if he were a politician, he’d spend a lot of time poring over the survey’s results. Clearly, Pawlenty has done just that.