MN Senate minimum wage constituent Whip Count

Note: This post is pinned to the top of the blog as the whip count continues, but Bluestem continues to post new material. To read it, scroll past this entry to the next.

As we posted in MN Senate minimum wage constituent-based Whip Count: where does your district's Senator stand?, Bluestem is facilitating a whip count for the Minnesota Senate on a minimum wage hike to $9.50 by 2015, with future hikes indexed to inflation. 

This post will present the data, with updates coming as quickly as our work schedule allow.

For directions on how to submit information for the Whip Count, read MN Senate minimum wage constituent-based Whip Count: where does your district's Senator stand?, 

Don't see your Senator's answer on the list? Look up her or his information via this link.

Here's the Whip Count for the DFL Senators (the majority party in the Minnesota Senate).  Remember: we need constituent-sourced answers, so for the first two columns to be filled, we need to hear from the senator's own constituents.

DFL Senator	$9.50	Indexed	Source  Documentation	Media	Notes
Bakk				yes- $9.50  yes index  UPDATE: In a new Strib article, Bakk's support for indexing wavers. We'll reluctantly keep him in the yes column	at Raise Wage rally  Strib reporter tweet about  Bakk & index  Bakk seems to be wavering against indexing.
Bonoff	yes	no     (see media note)	DFL Lawyers Lunch Meeting	will vote for conference report Minnpost  3/21/2014	MinnPost report provides more flexible stance on indexing
Carlson	yes	yes	email
Champion	yes	yes	visit		Constituent was in a meeting with the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability
Clausen
Cohen	yes	yes	visit
Dahle	yes	yes	Email	maybe	Many constituent  emails
Dibble	yes	yes	Email
Dziedzic	yes	yes	Phone
Eaton	yes	yes	Constituent at  meeting; second  constituent confirms, says via phone call she learned "  She is working with all the senators to garner enough votes there to pass including the indexing component.  "		at Raise Wage rally
Eken				Favors $9.50 minimum wage, less clear on indexing Your Legislators 4/3	Statements made on Pioneer Public TV Your Legislators--question submitted by Bluestem's editor.
Franzen	yes	yes	DFL Lawyers Lunch Meeting District convention via Facebook
Goodwin	yes	yes	SD41 district convention  via Facebook
Hawj	yes	yes	Visit	yes	at Raise Wage rally Co-author of  SF2050 which raises  minimum wage to $9.50
Hayden	yes	yes "I support 950 and indexing on min wage . My position on conference committee reflects the caucus position."	message to  Bluestem from  Senator  Hayden phone call		"His constituent service person told me that Hayden believes personally that the wage should be indexed to inflation but felt that as a member of the conference committee, he needs to represent the Senate's position on the bill it passed last session."
Hoffman	yes	yes	email- on $9.50   SD 36 convention 4/5 From a constituent of Hoffman, reporting from the convention: "He just publically announced he will support min. Wage agreement with indexing if it comes out of committee."	No  Minnpost  3/21/2014	"The conference committee has met the last two weeks and the Senate has agreed to the 9.50 wage increase over three years, and as of yesterday, we are still waiting on the house to respond. Indexing to inflation was not in the Senate response. It is my understanding that the conferees will meet again to discuss the difference. As you know, I was the co author of the Senate bill and our Chief Author Senator Eaton is there to make sure the end result has positive outcomes. With that, there are 3 Senators and 3 House members in this committee trying to come to agreement to make sure we get a minimum wage that will pass both houses. . . ." Co-author of  SF2050 which raises  minimum wage to $9.50     *ISAIAH faith based group office visit, still need  constituent intel
Jensen				favors raising minimum wage, FDN 3/28/2014	FDN: wants minimum wage hiked, N/A on $ and indexing
Johnson	yes	yes--but will vote for $9.50 with or without indexing	Call from LA
Kent	yes	yes	Community      forum
Koenen				wants youth, training wage,   Your Legislators 3/27	Koenen mentions moves to raise bar  for bringing constitution amendments to voters; 5% campaign to help nursing homes.  No clear answer on $9.50 indexed minimum wage
Latz	yes	yes	Answer to constituent at district DFL convention		Oct.3, 2013, on Facebook, Latz expressed support for minimum wage hike that keeps up with inflation, no specific  plan
Lourey
Marty	yes	yes	Phone		Constituent: "He'd actually like to see a bigger increase and a faster increase than indexing would allow for. He's willing to compromise at $9.50 indexed however."
Metzen	yes	yes	Visit
Pappas	yes	yes	Visit		Author of  SF2050 which raises  minimum wage to $9.50
Reinert	yes	yes   see * note	Visit		UMD MPIRG student  visit  *From constituent who spoke to  LA, who was directed by the senator to pass along a message regarding indexing on his behalf.   Simply put, Reinert has some concerns about indexing (unstated), but would vote for a bill containing both indexing and a $9.50/hr wage.  "Simply put, Reinert has some concerns about indexing (unstated), but would vote for a bill containing both indexing and a $9.50/hr wage. "
Rest	yes	no	Email	yes to $9.50 no to index	constituent  newsletter  Email to voter: "
Saxhaug	yes	no	Email	No	Co-author of  SF2050 which raises  minimum wage to $9.50
Scalze	yes	yes	SD42 DFL meeting  Town Hall  Email	Sun Focus  reported her at Feb 25 rally for $9.50	No mention in article of indexing
Schmit	yes	yes--but will vote for $9.50 with or without indexing	Visit
Sheran	yes	See note  on right	visit constituent's email		UPDATE: In response to a constituent's email asking Senator Sheran's thoughts on indexing, she wrote: "I do not believe we have votes in senate for inflation. We have moved to 9.50 in exchange for inflator. I am concerned that the shared goal will be lost if there is not negotiation. I worked to get agreement to 9.50 in our caucus (we were at 7.50) but cannot assure more movement without some other considerations by house. Senator Kathy Sheran " Senator Sheran corrected stand on minimum amount in earlier iteration
Sieben	Yes	Yes	email	yes on $9.50, January Senate press release	Co-author of  SF2050 which raises  minimum wage to $9.50
Skoe				Does not  supporting  indexing	Tweet by Star  Tribune reporter
Sparks					wants compromise
Stumpf
Tomassoni	yes	yes	Visit	Yes	on conf. committee
Torres Ray	yes	yes	Visit	Yes	at Raise Wage rally
Wiger	yes*	yes*	*Visit		*ISAIAH faith based  group office visit ,still need  constituent intel
Wiklund	yes*	yes*	*Visit/LA		Attended Women's  Economic Summit  *ISAIAH faith based group  office visit ,still need  constituent intel

TOTAL  inckudes  constituent  intel and media  reports

YES: 33   NO: 0  NA   7

YES:29   NO: 3   NA 7  3/23 Bonoff moved from no to NA

Here's the Whip Count for the Republican Senators (the minority party):

GOP Senator	$9.50	Indexed	Source	Media	Notes
Anderson
Benson
Brown
Chamberlain				No	2013 vote quote
Dahms				No	$9.50 too high Raise to fed $7.25  author SF2126
Fischbach
Gazelka				No	$9.50 too high
Hall				No
Hann				No	Raise to fed $7.25
Housley					Raise to fed $7.25  author SF2126
Ingebrigtsen				No	9.50 too high
Kiffmeyer
Limmer
Miller				No	Raise to fed $7.25
Nelson				No	Raise to fed $7.25  author SF2126
Newman	No	No	Visit/LA	No	Would consider raising to fed $7.25
Nienow
Ortman	No	No	Email	No
Osmek	No	No	Email	No	Raise to fed $7.25
Pederson				No	2013 vote quote
Pedersen
Pratt				No	Raise to fed $7.25
Rosen	No	No	Letter to constituents doesn't support any minimum wage	No	2013 statements  Letter reported in Mankato Free Press
Ruud				No	Raise to fed $7.25 author SF2126
Senjem				No
Thompson				No
Weber	No	No	constituent  newsletter		Raise to fed $7.25  author SF2126
Westrom	No	not asked	email		Raise to MN Senate   version bill rate of  $7.75

We'll filled in the blanks as readers' information comes in.

Image: A Whip Count, via Huffington Post.

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Comments

[Phoenix Woman]

If you're looking for ammunition when talking with your state senator, here you go:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/05/1282312/-The-highest-state-minimum-wage-hasn-t-exactly-killed-job-growth-in-Washington

In 1998, Washington state raised its minimum wage and tied future increases to the rate of inflation. Far from spiraling into economic basketcasehood, it has pretty good jobs growth AND a lower-than-average poverty rate.