State DFL raps Rep. Greg Davids across the nose for misleading letters about colleagues' votes

Citizens who tuned in to watch the Minnesota House witnessed endless, mind-numbing discussion about a procedural motion to approval a committee report so that the next committee could hear public testimony about the issue.

It was, as we tweeted at the time, a clear illustration that Minority Leader Kurt Daudt (R-Bogmedown) had decided that the Republicans in the lower chamber were the Seinfeld of American legislatures, a caucus about nothing.

But as time-wasting as Daudt's sudden stupidity about process was, such wrangling is one card for the loyal opposition to play when it's got nothing.

Not so in mis-representing a legislator's voted or committee service to the general public, as Bob Barrett recently discovered.

One minority caucus member, Greg Davids, has yanked a procedural vote out of context, claiming that DFL legislators had voted for a bill--when the measure itself never came to debate and a vote. Rather, the body was simply sending one committee report to another committee.

The DFL has had enough of this malarkey, and has lodged a complaint about Davids' letters to the editor with the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings. Here's a statement the DFL sent out:

The Minnesota DFL has filed a complaint against State Rep. Greg Davids with the Office of Administrative Hearings for false claims he made in political attacks against four DFL state representatives. In four nearly identical letters to the editor, Rep. Davids attacked Rep. Jay McNamar (Elbow Lake), Rep. Tim Faust (Hinckley), Rep. Shannon Savick (Wells), and Rep. Joe Radinovich (Crosby), falsely claiming each voted for a $3.7 billion tax increase.

In his political attack, Rep. Davids claimed each voted yes on Gov. Mark Dayton’s now outdated tax proposal. In truth, the vote he referenced was on a procedural motion to move the bill from one committee to another where it could receive more public input.
“Representative Davids is the longest serving Republican in the House and he knows the difference between a procedural motion and a vote on bill,” said DFL Chairman Ken Martin. “This is politics at its worst and a disservice to the public, who has a right to know the facts about what their representative has actually voted for and voted against.”

Here's the complaint to the Office of Administrative Hearings:

DFL files OAH complaint against Republican legislator for false political attacks