Last week when updating Emo senator, part 3: Mike Parry collecting paycheck and per diem during shutdown, a post about legislative pay, Bluestem noticed a peculiar answer in the Mankato Free Press from Senator Al DeKruif to a question about legislative pay.
DeKruif was tying his decision to take a paycheck during the shutdown to do whatever Larry Pogemiller would do.
Here's the exchange in State shutdown: Q&A with local legislators,, published on July 2 by the Free Press:
Will you collect any pay or per diem, now or later, for the period that state government is shut down? . . .
DeKruif: “I will not take per diem that’s related to the shutdown. I’ve said I will tie my pay to whether (DFL Sen.) Larry Pogemiller takes his pay.
And I’m still working; the people who aren’t getting paid aren’t working.”
This was mysterious stuff for Bluestem, since while Senator Pogemiller served as the Majority Leader, with the changing hands of control in the chamber, Tom Bakk became head of the DFL caucus. Pogemiller does not serve as Minority Leader (well, maybe on Planet DeKruif).
DeKruif explained more in a comment on Locally Grown Northfield, a community news site in his district. LGN editor and proprietor Griff Wigley posted Many legislators collecting paychecks during shutdown. Among them: Sen. Al DeKruif and Rep. Kelby Woodard on Sunday morning, cordially inviting both freshman legislators to explain their decision to take a check:
An article in today’s Strib lists our Northfield-area legislators, Sen. Al DeKruif and Rep. Kelby Woodard, as among the 139 who are collecting paychecks during MN gov’t shutdown.
Maybe I’m missing it but I don’t see anything about their rationale for doing so.
Wigley noted where he had looked for statements about the situation--official site, campaign site, twitter, Facebook--then wrote:
I’ll invite them to comment here.
Both Woodword and DeKruif replied. The freshman senator weighed in, after deploring Governor Dayton's ability to roll over on Republican demands, with an explanation of why the DFL sought a shutdown.
Bluestem has never stumbled across anyone else advancing this narrative of the shutdown. Here's Senator DeKruif's secret history of his own private shutdown:
My belief is that the state shutdown should never have happened and would not have been unnecessary had the Governor came to the table to negotiate with the Majority Party before the shutdown. After the shutdown it became very clear to me that this shutdown was planned by Governor Dayton and the DFL leadership in the House and Senate for months.
Look at who lost the most power; I would say the former Majority Leader in the State Senate, Larry Pogemiller who lost the majority in the senate during his watch. The DFL held the majority in the State Senate for 38 years and losing it was a major blow to the DFL and Senator Pogemiller. There are direct ties between Governor Dayton and the Senator through Michele Kelm-Helgen who is the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff and is very involved in day to day negotiations on the budget. Michele was the former Majority Leader Pogemiller’s Chief of Staff. I come to the conclusion that Senator Pogemiller has more to gain and more to do with the state government being shut down than I do so; I have stated publicly that during the state shutdown, and even though I am still working, I will refuse to take per diem and will base whether or not I receive my salary during this time on whether Senator Larry Pogemiller takes his. I have sent this reply to the Secretary of the Senate so my position will go into effect automatically if Pogemiller chooses to not take his pay.
So there you have it: the conspiracy is exposed and we now know the real power behind the shutdown: Larry Pogemiller, down in Room 15, in the bowels of the State Office Building, plotting to overthrow the government, via his cat's paw in the Governor's office, Michele Kelm-Helgen.
Perhaps it is a testament to the acumen of the capitol press corps that no one noticed this.
Or perhaps there's something in the water down in Madison Lake. Too bad the Senate is shut down, because those papers on file with the Secretary might indeed make an interesting data practice request.
Call it the Pogemiller Prophecy.
Update: Loyal Bluestem readers may recall that in late June Senate Majority Leader Michael Brodkorb allowed DeKruif out on a play date in Fergus Falls with Mike Parry and Gretchen Hoffman. Read about it in Tales of Hoffman: Scenes from the ideological struggle in Fergus Fall, Minnesota.
Photo: Senator Al Dekruif. Bluestem is not making this up. Dekruif is.
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