Governor Dayton Painting Minnesota Republicans Into Political Corner (UPDATED)
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has proposed to end the state’s two-week government shutdown by accepting the final offer made by legislative Republicans on condition that they make minor concessions about a bonding bill and by removing socially conservative legislation from their proposal.
Republican leaders say they are studying the proposal and will respond later, but initial reactions from the Republican rank and find show intransigence on withdrawing social issues from the budget fight.
Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dave Thompson, R-Lakeville, said that withdrawing the social policy language Republicans championed, would lose his vote.
“If there can’t be any policy changes contained in any of the legislation, then no,” Thompson said.
The Governor’s move might be very clever strategy. Republicans generally and in Minnesota in particular have benefited greatly in recent years by deemphasizing divisive and religiously-tinged social issues and focusing on fiscal issues where the conservative arguments have much wider traction. By forcing Republicans to choose between the secular fiscal conservatives and the religious conservatives in the Republican base, Dayton could force the uglier parts of the Republican coalition back to the forefront in a very high-profile way.
UPDATE: Minnesota Republican leaders have accepted Gov. Dayton’s proposal. Apparently the party has decided to prioritize its budgetary goals over social issues, which is a great thing from a centrist/moderate perspective.
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Are the Minnesota Republicans joining others in the Heartland with, e.g, late-term abortion restrictions? What other “social” measures are they attempting to get enacted?
It was surprising to me as well, but I read about 3 different things….stem cell research, gay marriage and gun permits.
I guess Sven and Ollie are giving up on the liberal Nordic inclinations.
I fall into the libertarian/secular fiscal conservative camp so this will be no surprise, but my 2 cents is the Minn GOP needs to decouple the social aspects of the bill from the financial. It’s one thing to stall a budget for budgetary considerations, it’s another to hold it up for social reasons. As Logan implies a hard line social conservative stance probably won’t play well for long in Minnesota.
It was reported that the GOP would accept the increase in taxes on the wealthiest 2% of taxpayers if Gov. Dayton would sign bills that covered a list that sounds like the GOP’s favorite things.
Additional abortion restrictions (what the additional restrictions were is unclear.)
Restrictions on stem cell research.
Voter photo ID.
As well as agreeing to:
Reduce the state work force 15%
Unconditionally accept the Republican redistricting plan
The GOP already got the gay marriage ban on the fall ballot.
The agreement Dayton & the GOP agreed to puts the burden on K-12 schools (Now owed $2.6 billion, reported to be paid in the 2013-2014 biennium, source of the funds has not been determined) and $700 million in tobacco settlement backed bonds. Once again, they kicked the can down the road.
I fall on the Socially Conservative side of things, but I still think that this is smart by Gov. Dayton.
Forcing the hardliners to make concessions is generally a good thing.