Yesterday, I watched Governor Dayton's town hall via The Uptake (video below) as he was greeted with cheers from the packed house. Today, he'll be in Rochester and Albert Lea.
Already, Tony Sutton's Republican Party of Minnesota is in panic mode over the St. Cloud event--and the failed burrito baron has called for Southern Minnesota Republicans to show up with signs and tea party like it's 2009
The St. Cloud Times reports in Dayton talks at Apollo about shutdown impact:
On Day 12 of Minnesota’s government shutdown, Gov. Mark Dayton’s visit turned a St. Cloud high school library into a public forum on his budget standoff with legislators.
The public gave a pointed message to state policymakers at the event: The shutdown’s impact is dire and worsening, and it’s past time to end it.
Dayton sat front-and-center at Tuesday’s event at Apollo High School, which began as a roundtable discussion about education funding.
It evolved into a town-hall meeting on Minnesota’s state shutdown, which has crippled some public services; caused the layoff of 22,000 state employees, not including associated private and nonprofit layoffs; and exposed an ideological chasm between the state’s policymakers.
At the event, members of the public queued up to address Dayton and St. Cloud-area legislators in attendance.
Some urged state leaders to find middle ground by spurning extremism within their respective parties. Others were laid-off state workers, who pleaded with policymakers to put them back to work. . . .
Jim Maurice at WJON posted Frustrations Over Shutdown Run High As Governor Dayton Comes To St. Cloud [AUDIO]:
Hundreds of people showed-up at Apollo High School in St. Cloud today (Tuesday) to hear from Governor Mark Dayton, and to voice their concerns over the state government shutdown.
One of the members of the audience challenged Republican Senator David Brown of Becker on revenue increases. ...
Listen to the audio at the post.
Yesterday's event has already prompted the MNGOP to try to make the audience unfriendly after yesterday's large and sympathetic crowd. The Strib's Morning Hot Dish reports via email that the MNGOP is going to try to change the tone:
As Gov. Mark Dayton travels today to Rochester and Albert Lea to pitch his budget message, Republicans are working to make the crowds unfriendly. “We are encouraging Republicans to turn out to these events with signs to show your opposition to Dayton’s job-killing tax increases and your support for the GOP budget proposals,” the party said in a late Tuesday message. Republicans did not send out a similar mobilizing blast email before Dayton’s Tuesday stop in St. Cloud.
The Uptake's video shows why last night's blast was sent:
Part 2
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