A friend from St. Paul sent Bluestem a lit piece put out by endorsed Republican state senate candidate Mike Goggin that wins the 2016 Political Dog Whistle Olympics.
The designers photoshopped the faces of senators Matt Schmit, DFL-Red Wing, Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, and Jeff Hayden, DFL-Minneapolis on to suits, while declaring that Schmit votes with Minneapolis liberals 95 percent of the time.
Voters are to assume that there's nothing in those votes for regional centers like Cannon Falls, Red Wing or Wabasha, or for the surrounding rural areas. Or for the whole of Minnesota.
Given the hollow nature of the claim, we have to wonder what those "Minneapolis" values are. Surely, it's not Senator Scott Dibble's well-publicized cordial professional relationship with outgoing House Transportation Chair Tim Kelly, R-Red Wing. David Montgomery reported in the St. Paul Pioneer Press in March:
State Rep. Tim Kelly believes he and Sen. Scott Dibble could negotiate a long-term transportation plan in about an hour.
Dibble, the chair of the Senate’s Transportation and Public Safety Committee, thinks Kelly is wrong: It would only take them half an hour.
“I think we know roughly speaking which elements from each other’s package we would accept and which ones we would reject,” Dibble said. “We can figure out the differences fairly quickly.”
But there’s no transportation deal on the eve of the 2016 legislative session. And there might never be one, despite the friendly relations and common ground between the House and Senate’s key negotiators and the universal agreement that lawmakers should pass a comprehensive transportation plan before they go home in May.
How can a deal be so close and yet so far? Though Dibble, a DFLer, and Kelly, the Republican chair of the House Transportation Policy and Finance Committee, get along well, the same can’t always be said for the rest of Minnesota’s divided Legislature. . . .
Oh. So what's the "liberal" value that's got Goggin's Calvins in a bunch? We suspect it's a dog whistle to Dibble's sexual orientation--and his successful work to secure marriage equality and anti-bullying legislation.
But these aren't solely "Minneapolis" ideas. In 2014, the Red Wing Kiwanis named one of the leaders of the local chapter of PFLAG as 2013 Red Wing Neighbor of the Year.
And Jeff Hayden? One of two black men who represents Minneapolis. We don't see the face of Patricia Torres Ray (SD63) who serves Minneapolis, Richfield and Fort Snelling, or Kari Dziedzic (SD60). Associating women's faces with those "Minneapolis" values might be confusing for a district in which three of the four candidates in the two House district races are women--including the two women candidates vying in the hotly contested race for the open seat in House District 21A.
There's likely another wink in the text. In 2012, MinnPost's Doug Grow reported in Red Wing’s Howe-Schmit Senate race may be 'nastiest' campaign in state:
Howe insists that to this day, Schmit is not actually a resident of the district but, rather, has moved from St. Paul to a previously vacant home next door to his parents’ Red Wing home to fulfill requirements that state legislators live in the districts they represent. He indicated that if he loses the race to Schmit, he might take legal action to question Schmit’s residency.
Schmit scoffs at that threat. Red Wing, he says, “is home.” . . .
Goggin is place-baiting for sure. But there are signs that he's served it up with sides dishes of gay baiting and race baiting in the guise of an anti-urban bias.
On the other hand, Goggins' motives in the lit piece--his own, not an independiture expenditure by an outisde interst--may simply be as pure as newly fallen snow.
Here's the other side of the lit piece:
Meanwhile, the Winona Daily News has endorsed Schmit:
Schmit has the energy of a 10-year-old boy and the brain of a tenured political-science professor, which makes him a force of nature when taking on everything from broadband development to strategic investments in K-12 education. He hasn’t always had an easy run in a Republican-leaning district, especially his advocacy of broad spending on the issues mentioned above, but we continue to appreciate his work and believe his accomplishments have done more than enough to temper any of the criticism he’s received since taking office in 2012.
Guess those Minneapolis liberal values include rural broadband development, one of Schmit's signature issues. Oops.
The Rochester Post Bulletin has also endorsed Schmit:
While Goggin says he's willing and trained to work on such negotiations, Schmit has already demonstrated he is able to tackle the conversation by being part of initial talks and facing likely opposition from metro-area party leaders.
Additionally, in his first four years, the Red Wing senator has shown he can be a voice to push for priorities in his district. He has become one of the state's loudest proponents for funding rural broadband to keep all Minnesota residents and businesses competitive.
We'd like to see that initiative turned to fixes for MNsure, and we believe Schmit has the voice and burgeoning experience to do it. That is why the Post Bulletin Editorial Board is endorsing Matt Schmit for re-election on Senate District 21.
What are those "Minneapolis" values again?
Photos: Goggin's lit piece. Looks like the baiting trifecta from Bluestem's new world headquarters in rural Ortonville; if we were anymore rural, we'd be in South Dakota and we don't believe dog whistle fantasies about what "metro" means are a foundation for sound public policy. And jeepers, what's up with Trump-sizing Schmit's hand?
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We're getting 1-4 pieces a day concerning this race here in #21. Goggin's supporters have been quite negative in their mailings, but the one you have highlighted was still a jaw-dropper.
Posted by: Robley Henry | Nov 03, 2016 at 09:34 AM