Residents of Southeastern Minnesota would do well to stock up on popcorn in advance of regional Republican events in their area.
It's not just the internal rivalries in the statewide U.S. Senate and governor's race, nor the warm-up match in the MNCD1 Republican primary contest.
The most entertaining fight might be rhetorical tag-team thumb wrestling between state representative Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) and state senator Jeremy Miller (R-Winona) and Greg Davids (R-Preston) over the 2014 bonding bill Governor Dayton signed today.
Are these three living under the same sky? We know they're serving abutting senate districts (with a DFLer serving in the house district that separates Draz and Davids) but the contrast between the Republicans' messaging might create a bit of head scratching among local citizens who.
In yesterday's Winona Daily News, Senator Miller wrote in Bonding bill will bring local benefits:
A busy final week at the Legislature has culminated in the passage by both the House and Senate of a 2014 bonding bill. The bill was put together after months of negotiations and input and will result in southeastern Minnesota seeing great benefits and prosperity.
When I have the opportunity to visit with the citizens from the district I represent here at the Capitol and in district, I often speak of and stress not only the importance of working hard, but that we must also work together. This has been very clear during the bonding bill negotiations.
I am fortunate to have a great working relationship with both house members from our district. It is not uncommon to see Rep. Pelowski, Rep. Davids and myself together at events and many times we are on the same side of issues, especially local issues. We have worked very closely together to ensure that the bonding projects critical to our area were included in the bonding bill. . . .
Pelowski is a DFLer (more or less) and Davids a Republican (and former ALEC state chair). Miller praises local projects including $5.352 million for the Chatfield Center for the Arts.
In today's Daily News, Draz talks smack about the very idea of a bonding bill with arts in i, as well as the "radical social agenda" of letting cute boys marry. He writes in Legislative session had wrong priorities:
Another area the parties differed was on capital investment. Millions were wasted on sculpture gardens, museums, art centers and snow-making equipment, while not nearly enough money was included for local road and bridge repair.
I authored a bonding bill that would have dedicated $517 million for road and bridge improvement projects statewide, prioritized Capitol reconstruction along with wastewater and drinking water projects, and would have left out the pork — completely. It did not receive consideration.
Take that, Chatfield! The Draz and Greg Davids also part company about Whose Line Is This Anyway when it comes to that bonding bill.
In Minnesota's GOP legislators say they limited DFL 'damage', MinnPost's Briana Bierschbach writes:
There were at least a few instances in which Republicans helped pass legislation beneficial to them. That includes an $846 million bonding bill that only needed eight Republican votes to pass, but still included millions of dollars of projects in GOP districts. Some of those projects were tucked into a $200 million cash bill that funded additional construction projects.
“The bonding bill is the House Republican bonding bill. Not the Senate Republicans — the House Republicans,” Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, said.
We can't wait for the next Tea Party rally in Winona for these chappies to square off on a shared message. Perhaps Draz can just stay home.
Photo: Oh really? Whose bonding bill is this anyway?
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