KTSP/SurveyUSA poll in Minnesota shows Mark Dayton, Al Franken having problems.

What a lovely poll that is.

Well, it’s lovely from my point of view, at least.

Gov. Mark Dayton and Sen. Al Franken survived recounts when they won their first elections to the governor’s office and U.S. Senate. According to our latest KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, they might have to sweat our close races again in 2014. Franken clings to a six-point lead over his closest Republican challenger Mike McFadden, 48 percent to 42 percent. The poll has a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.1 percent.

[snip]

Governor Dayton also faces a potentially close re-election bid. He also leads his nearest competitor by just six points. The GOP-endorsed candidate for governor, Jeff Johnson, trails Dayton 46% to 40%.

Continue reading KTSP/SurveyUSA poll in Minnesota shows Mark Dayton, Al Franken having problems.

Governor Mark Dayton (D, Minnesota): Look, just go illegally buy the pot, OK? #marijuana

I do not want to get into the merits of medical marijuana legalization: there are people of good will and good heart on both sides of the issue, and there is no easy solution (if there was, we’d have implemented it). But, no matter what our opinions are on the legalization of pot, surely we can all agree that an elected official should not be telling the desperate mothers of cancer patients that they should enlist the services of a pusher?

Parents in support of legalizing medical marijuana say Gov. Mark Dayton urged them to buy pot illegally on Minnesota streets to help their severely sick children.

At an extremely emotional press conference Wednesday, the parents called Dayton’s suggestion offensive. Struggling to hold back tears, the parents accused the governor of using them as political cover, so that he might to look good while opposing the medical marijuana bill they sought.

Continue reading Governor Mark Dayton (D, Minnesota): Look, just go illegally buy the pot, OK? #marijuana

Gov. Mark Dayton’s (D, MN) budget surrender ceremony.

The formal capitulation took place yesterday, and signals an end to Gov. Dayton’s ill-conceived, ill-timed, and ill-executed attempt to dominate the Minnesota legislature in the same way that predecessor Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R, MN) did during his term in office.  The very short version, for those not following along: Minnesota Republican legislators wanted a $34 billion dollar, two-year budget with no new taxes; Dayton wanted $3 billion in business-killing tax hikes.  Republicans told him no, and sent him a budget, which Dayton vetoed.  The Minnesota government shut down – which meant, among other things, that Minnesotans were in critical danger of running out of beer and not being allowed to fish.  Faced with such proven evidence of abject incompetence and idiocy on Dayton’s part, eventually the Governor was brought to heel like a whipped dog; his formal capitulation soon followed.  Final score: $35.7 billion over two years with no tax hikes – and legislators in Minnesota have to pretend that Gov. Dayton was not savagely politically beaten.  No, seriously… apparently this is supposed to be framed as being a ‘compromise.’

Interestingly enough, post-capitulation news articles on this don’t seem to mention Pawlenty nearly as much as they did, pre-capitulation.  Although that may just be a sort of terrible pity towards Dayton, who did turn out to be a very slender, and trivial to break, reed…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading Gov. Mark Dayton’s (D, MN) budget surrender ceremony.

#rsrh Gov. Mark Dayton (D, MN) broken on the wheel.

Oh, this is entertaining.  The government shutdown in Minnesota is about to end not with a bang, but a whimper:

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton sent a letter Thursday to House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, saying he “reluctantly” agrees to accept the Republican budget proposal from June 30 if it will end the government shutdown .

Hey, Dayton can be as reluctant as he wants about being brought to heel. Just as long as he’s brought to heel. Continue reading #rsrh Gov. Mark Dayton (D, MN) broken on the wheel.

#rsrh “Beer, beer, beer.” (Also: Mark Dayton is an idiot).

This one goes out to the beleaguered citizens of Minnesota, who are even now on the verge of being oppressed by the greedy Democratic neo-Puritans of the Mark Dayton administration.  Seriously, Governor Dayton?  Letting the beer stop flowing?

In summer?

Just stop pouting, Governor Dayton, and cut back spending already.  Also, grow up.

Anyway…

Beer, Beer, Beer, The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem

Moe Lane

PS: I don’t say much in favor of my own Governor O’Malley, but I’ll say this: the man’s not fool enough to even think about keeping good Marylanders from their beer.