MINNEAPOLIS – The Minnesota Professional Fire Fighters (“MPFF”) today announced their endorsement of Mark Dayton for Governor.

The organization, which endorsed Tim Pawlenty in the past two gubernatorial contests, selected Dayton after meeting with both Dayton and Independence candidate Tom Horner. Republican candidate Tom Emmer was offered several opportunities to screen for the endorsement, but he declined to be interviewed.

“Today, we are proud to endorse Mark Dayton to be the next Governor of the State of Minnesota,” said MPFF President Tom Thornberg. “It is time once again to invest in the core infrastructure of Minnesota.  We strongly believe that Mark Dayton is the one candidate who can ensure that our public safety networks are given the resources they need to protect the people of Minnesota.”

In response to the endorsement, Mark Dayton said, “I proudly accept the endorsement of the Minnesota Professional Fire Fighters.  Like them, I am committed to protecting the public’s safety.  Fire fighters put their lives on the line every day they go to work.  As Governor, I will make sure that these men and women have the resources, technology, and equipment to do their jobs safely and effectively.  I am honored to have their support.”

Minnesota ranks 47th nationally on spending on fire service and fire protection costs only about $70 per person.  The state’s fire service network includes the 1,800 professional fire fighters represented by the MPFF and approximately 18,000 volunteer fire fighters in over 700 fire departments.  Thornberg added: “Fire safety is the best buy Minnesotans get.  We are effective, efficient and ready to respond. However, the public needs to know that the emergency responder network is stretched to the breaking point.  Mark Dayton gets this fact, Tom Emmer and Tom Horner don’t.”

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Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis Endorses Mark Dayton for Governor

St. Paul, MN – John Delmonico, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (POFM) — the largest police federation in Minnesota — announced today that the board has voted unanimously to endorse Mark Dayton for governor, marking the first time in over eight years that the POFM has endorsed the DFL candidate for governor.

“Mark Dayton’s career has been marked from the beginning by strong support for law enforcement and the men and women who enforce the law,” explained Delmonico. “Cities across Minnesota are laying off police officers and exposing residents to the threat of increased crime and reduced response from their respective police departments. In my city of Minneapolis ten officers are on layoff right now and murders have increased when compared to this time last year.”

During his endorsement interview Dayton highlighted the use of LGA funds for essential core services such as police, fire and infrastructure uses. According to Delmonico, this means LGA funds would be focused on the core functions of local government, putting the emphasis on police and public safety.

In response to the endorsement Dayton said, “I am honored to receive the endorsement of the Minneapolis Police Federation. Public safety is one of the core functions of our government, and in my career, I have always stood up for the men and women who serve our communities by protecting public safety.  As governor I will make sure they have the support they need to do their job safely and effectively.”

Since 1972, the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis has represented police officers up to the rank of captain who are employed by the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. Currently the Federation has more than 800 members and is the largest non-affiliated law enforcement union in the state of Minnesota.

The Federation Board of Directors consists of 10 elected members (nine from the Minneapolis Police Department and one from the Park Police Department), each serving a two-year term. The Federation president serves full-time, along with one other designated board member. The rest of the board serves part-time, while remaining full-time members of the police force.

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The senator was justifiably concerned about staff and constituents, and acted.

By ALISON ROSHOLT

Star Tribune, August 19, 2010

As a former Minnesotan and U.S. Senate staffer who worked for Mark Dayton in Washington from 2001 to 2005, I am disheartened to learn that Tom Emmer and other Republicans are attacking Dayton for his decision to close his Washington office in October 2004. I was there; Emmer wasn’t.

Despite the political ramifications he knew would ensue, Dayton closed the office in the best interest of his staff and visiting constituents. His decision was a logical response to the situation at that time and was consistent with his caring, compassionate, unselfish character. He should be praised, not criticized, for doing what he did.

The safety of his staff and constituents was always of top concern to Dayton. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he regularly held meetings with his Washington staff to review office safety procedures. But the all-staff meeting he summoned in early October 2004 was markedly different. In a calm, somber voice, Dayton told us that he had recently reviewed top-secret intelligence reports alerting senators to the risk of an imminent terrorist attack in the nation’s capital — and against Capitol Hill in particular. He told us that he asked himself every morning whether he felt comfortable bringing his sons with him to the office that day. If the answer was no, then he said he could not expect us to come to work, either. After reading the intelligence reports that month, he told us he would not encourage his sons to even visit Washington, let alone join him in his Senate office.

Moreover, Dayton said he could not bring himself to return to Minnesota for the October recess, leaving us and visiting constituents behind in the Washington office, vulnerable to the potential threat known only to him and a few others.

Dayton closed the office that afternoon and made plans to reopen it after the November elections, when the Senate would resume regular business and the terrorist threat hopefully would have abated. He gave the staff two options: We could remain in Washington and report to work every day at our chief of staff’s house, or those of us from Minnesota could return home to work out of the Fort Snelling office and stay with relatives. Work would continue without interruption.

Two key points about the office closing deserve more attention than they have received. First, the atmosphere in Washington was much different six years ago than it is now. The security threat level was at Code Orange. Capitol Police stood guard daily outside congressional office buildings, armed with semiautomatic rifles. Just months earlier, in June 2004, the entire Capitol complex was frantically evacuated when an unidentified, unresponsive airplane entered restricted Distric of Columbia airspace. Senators, staffers and tourists alike were instructed to run — not walk — away from the buildings as fast as possible. I kicked off my high heels and sprinted down the street along with throngs of others.

Dayton stayed behind to escort a very pregnant Minnesota visitor through the mayhem.

In short, those of us working on Capitol Hill in 2004 were prepared for an attack at any moment. It was frightening.

Second, there was no reason why the Washington staff could not work remotely in October 2004. Both the House and Senate were out of session. Recess was, and still is, a time for staffers to catch up on matters that were set aside during the busy legislative weeks or take vacation. The Dayton staff who remained in Washington continued their daily work; the only constituent service that was suspended during the time was Capitol tours. Staff who returned home for the month also continued their daily work, and even took advantage of the situation by meeting with Minnesotans who could not travel to Washington.

Dayton’s decision to close his Washington office is hardly evidence of erratic behavior or poor judgment, as Emmer and other Republican strategists would like voters to believe. Rather, it demonstrates that Dayton is willing to stand up to political pressure, stay true to his convictions and make tough choices that are not always popular. Those of us privileged to serve Minnesota under his leadership were honored that he put our safety above political expediency.

Alison Rosholt, originally of Minneapolis, is a former Senate staffer and Washington lobbyist. She now lives in Baltimore, where she attends the University of Maryland School of Law.

Dayton’s campaign cry is really quite reasonable when you look at how state taxes have changed over the years.

By RICHARD R. MILLER

Raise taxes on the rich. Is it a slogan from the past, a job-killing blunder, a plan destined for failure? The more former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton has persisted with this theme in his campaign for governor, the more I’ve wanted to learn why.

Last week I read Dayton’s tax plan, which led me to the Minnesota Department of Revenue’s website and a document called the “Minnesota Tax Incidence Study.” That study analyzes how much Minnesotans in various income groups pay in state and local taxes as a percentage of their total incomes. The study includes income, property, sales, gas, excise, liquor, cigarette, insurance and other taxes, and shows which groups are paying the bill for the state and local government services we get.

In 1990, Minnesotans as a group paid 11.8 percent of their incomes in total state and local taxes. At that time, lower-income families paid slightly less and higher-income families paid slightly more, as a percentage of income, in taxes to fund everything from our schools, universities, health care, roads, and city, county and state government.

The 10 percent of the population who earned the most paid 11.7 percent of their incomes for state and local taxes. The richest 1 percent of households paid 11.2 percent. The vast majority of Minnesotans paid between 11.3 percent and 12 percent. A pretty fair system.

In the most recent year studied (2006) Minnesotans as a group paid 11.2 percent of income in all state and local taxes. So taxes overall as a percentage of income dropped from 1990 to 2006. But I was shocked to see that median-income families paid 12.4 percent in taxes, while the those in the top tenth in income paid only 10 percent. So in a 16-year period, as taxes as a percent of income went down overall, they rose significantly for middle-income Minnesotans and dropped even more significantly for the richest.

It gets worse. In 1990, the top 1 percent paid 11.2 percent in taxes, and in 2006, the very wealthiest paid only 8.9 percent in taxes.

And, according to the Revenue Department study, the trend only gets worse. Next year, middle-income families will pay 12.8 percent in taxes and the very wealthiest will pay 8.8 percent.

In other words, over the last 20 years Minnesota has gone from basically a flat tax that was slightly progressive to a hugely regressive tax system that clearly favors the wealthy. It is stunning that the very richest among us get by with paying so much less, proportionately, than the entire group does. Those most able to pay get by with the lowest tax rate. It’s shocking and shameful.

For the last 20 years, the state has had two Republican governors and an independent. We’ve been told that taxes scare off the rich. And Gov. Tim Pawlenty really pandered to the wealthy. He sure took care of them.

Three governors have let what was a very fair tax system become grossly distorted in favor of those among us who are most able to fund the common good. Dayton is the only candidate telling us that the emperor has no clothes.

We ought to listen to him before it gets even more embarrassing.

Richard R. Miller, Edina, is a former member of the Minneapolis City Council and is a retired Wells Fargo executive.

According to the primary poll, Mark had 40% support, ahead of Margaret Anderson Kelliher (30%) and Matt Entenza (17%).

In the poll’s general election match-ups, Mark was ahead of the presumed Republican nominee, Representative Tom Emmer by a margin of 40% to 30%, faring better than any other candidate.

The Star Tribune story is below:

Minnesota Poll: Democrats hold lead over Emmer

In the DFL primary, Dayton appears to be ahead of Kelliher, but with 10 days left, the race is still close.

By RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER, Star Tribune

Last update: August 1, 2010 – 10:24 AM

In the race to become Minnesota’s next governor, DFL candidates Mark Dayton and Margaret Anderson Kelliher each appear to hold significant leads over Republican challenger Tom Emmer, a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll has found.

A third DFLer, Matt Entenza, has a statistically insignificant lead over Emmer in the poll of 902 Minnesota adults, taken July 26-29. The poll, which for the first time includes cell-phone users, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

DFLers are battling toward an Aug. 10 primary that will determine which of the three faces off against Emmer in the November election. The poll indicates that among those who intend to vote in the DFL primary, former U.S. Sen. Dayton leads House Speaker Kelliher, the endorsed candidate, with Entenza last among the three. Undecided voters still could tilt the race to any of the three.

The poll also suggests that come November, Independence Party endorsee Tom Horner — who trails the field — could draw equally from Democrats and Republicans in a general election unless Kelliher is the nominee. In a Kelliher-Emmer match-up, Horner would draw far more from Republicans than from Democrats. That would be a change from the dynamic of previous elections, when Democrats have been more vulnerable to third-party candidates.

The overall poll results among the five major candidates indicate that Democrats may have a head start on their goal of retaking an office that has eluded their grasp for more than two decades and that Emmer apparently has work to do to close the gap.

Democrats may be getting a boost from their high-profile nomination fight. They’ve spent millions getting their names in front of voters, with just 10 days left before the earliest primary in decades. So far, they have aimed much of their firepower at Emmer, aided by hundreds of thousands of dollars of TV ads bought by Democratic and labor groups. In contrast, Emmer has yet to run a television ad, although a group representing business has spent heavily on an ad promoting him.

Dayton, who appeared on top in the poll results, said he’s glad to be ahead but expects the race to narrow.

“I think this will be a close election,” Dayton said.

Jaime Tincher, Kelliher’s campaign manager, said the numbers show that the more Minnesotans get to know Emmer, “the lower his numbers go.”

But Bill Walsh, Emmer’s deputy campaign manager, said the Republican’s low showing is no surprise given the “barrage” of money spent attacking Emmer. By November, Walsh said, Minnesotans will get to know where Emmer stands and support him.

Neither red nor blue

Last week’s random-dial telephone survey found that more voters identify as Democrats and independents in Minnesota than as Republicans, but the GOP also has gained support since last year. In this poll, the sample consisted of 27 percent Republicans, 32 percent Democrats and 30 percent independents, with 7 percent offering no party identification.

Those numbers confirm that Minnesota is neither strongly Democratic nor Republican.

“It’s a purple state,” said Larry Hugick, chairman of Princeton Survey Research Associates International, the Star Tribune’s polling firm. Hugick said party identification tends to fluctuate from election to election, even when the same people are interviewed over time.

GOP chair Tony Sutton and DFL chair Brian Melendez said the party breakdown from the poll sounds about right and that the key to victory may rest with independents. Melendez said the poll seems to show that independents, right now, are breaking toward the DFL.

The poll highlights some strengths for the Democrats — particularly Dayton — and some notable weaknesses for Emmer.

In the general election match-ups, the Democrats seem to have particularly wide leads among women and people older than 45. The gap widens among those over 65, where Dayton holds a significant advantage. Emmer’s only identifiable strengths were among those who earn more than $75,000 a year and among Minnesotans between age 35 and 44.

Undecideds remain as high as 18 percent for the November election. “There are enough people on the fence that it is hardly in the bag for the Democrats despite this lead,” Hugick said.

Close primary on Aug. 10

While the primary remains too close to call, Dayton appears to have the support of 40 percent of those who say they’ll vote in the August DFL contest. That compares to 30 percent for Kelliher and 17 percent for Entenza. But Dayton’s lead is not outside the margin of error for the smaller subset of primary voters, which is plus or minus 7.8 percentage points. Another 12 percent remain undecided.

Dayton said the numbers almost exactly track what his campaign’s polling has found.

Tincher, of the Kelliher campaign, said poll numbers may not be able to gauge the impact of the ground game.

“It is about who is going to show up and vote, and Margaret has the strongest organization to turn out her support,” Tincher said.

Dave Colling, Entenza’s campaign manager, noted that polls are notoriously unreliable in primaries because so few people end up voting: “The smaller the turnout the more difficult it is to poll,” he said.

Dayton appears to have a strong edge among seniors, while Kelliher and Dayton do equally well with female voters.

Hugick said Dayton’s strength among reliably voting seniors gives him an advantage, while Kelliher can tap into the DFL party’s organizational strength to turn out supporters.

Those who support Dayton hesitated about a key element of his campaign — higher taxes for those with higher incomes — but understood the need.

“How else are we going to get the money? If you want to be the best, somebody has to pay for it,” said Laura Myers, a 54-year-old teacher from Minneapolis. Myers, who plans to vote for Dayton next week, is a member of Education Minnesota, the teachers’ union that endorsed Kelliher.

Kelliher backer Pam Riddle, a 40-year-old stay-at-home mom and former teacher, likes Kelliher’s support of an increased minimum wage.

“I really oppose her opponent, Tom Emmer — his views don’t match mine,” Riddle said.

Poll respondent Peg Capistrant, a 66-year-old retired nurse, found some match between Emmer’s views and her own.

He doesn’t like big government and “I don’t like big government,” she said.

Mesabi Daily News

July 31, 2010

In a three-candidate race for the DFL gubernatorial nomination we strongly endorse former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton in the Aug. 10 primary. Our endorsement at this time is solely for the DFL primary.

We do so with high hopes that of the three people seeking to carry the DFL banner into the Nov. 2 general election, Dayton would be a jobs-first governor should he eventually win that office.

We firmly believe Issue No. 1 in the governor’s race is Jobs. Issue No. 2 is Jobs. Issue No. 3 is Jobs, etc.  Funding to fulfill promises and hopes for other issues ranging from education to health care to aid to cities relies heavily on revenues from jobs. When people aren’t working, money flows from government for unemployment checks and other benefits. When jobs are created, more tax revenue flows from the workplace to government. Without jobs, all the other political hopes and dreams are nothing more than wishful thinking.

Of the three DFL candidates — Dayton, former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza and party-endorsed House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher — in the primary it is Dayton who spent time in an administration of a governor who had job creation as the top priority. Iron Ranger and former Gov. Rudy Perpich understood that a governor can make a big difference in helping to locate and create jobs in the state.

That didn’t mean that all attempts would succeed. But Perpich did a lot of knocking on doors of CEOs and also dared to take non-traditional job-creation steps.

Remember when he was called “Governor Goofy” for his Mall of America proposal? We don’t think any of the thousands and thousands and thousands of permanent workers at the Bloomington retail mega-mall or those who have worked construction on the facility see anything “goofy” about the former governor’s vision that is now a remarkable reality.

We believe Dayton when he says he will be a tireless worker as governor for jobs in Minnesota in the mold of his former governor/boss.

We know his opponents in the primary also talk about being a jobs governor. And we certainly hope that if either one of them wins the primary and then the general election those words will be backed up by actions in the governor’s office.

But why then did they vote against the Mesabi Nugget project in 2005 in the state House of Representatives at a time when we were in a touch-and-go battle with Indiana for the plant. Their votes on what was a simple technical change on a piece of legislation they had both voted yes on the year before were anti-jobs votes, anti-Iron Range votes. There is just absolutely not good or sensible reason for those votes when so many jobs were at stake.

That plant is now up and running, producing iron nuggets and paychecks and state revenues — and it’s doing so no thanks to either Kelliher or Entenza. However, Dayton’s running mate — Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon— voted yes in the Senate in both 2004 and 2005 for the Mesabi Nugget bills.

Mark Dayton has been a longtime loyal and compassionate friend of the Iron Range. That loyalty and his advocacy for jobs for the Iron Range and the entire state have earned our hearty endorsement in the DFL primary.