True North

If Eric's post is accurate, which I believe it is, the Minnesota governor's race won't be the only high profile race in 2010. Here's what Eric is reporting:

Finally, there is the potential entry of Senator Tarryl Clark. At this point it is all hearsay but my anonymous sources tell me that at a recent Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation meeting she was asked and said that she "hadn't announced" but this source also said it was "pretty clear". Clark has proven that she can compete and win having been elected twice. More importantly, she won handily in the more conservative half of her district whose current representative is the ultra conservative Steve Gottwalt. With all of these electoral advantages, could Clark overcome the current money disadvantage she would have coming into the race?

Certainly, Tarryl would excite DFL activists more than Tinklenberg did. (Frankly, I think Larry Haws could excite DFL activists more than Mr. Tinklenberg. Still, Tarryl comes with substantial risks in this potential race.

While Tarryl likes portraying herself as a moderate, her voting record says she's anything but that. In this post from June, 2007, I noted the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce's criteria for the Minnesota Senate. Here's their criteria:

MN 2007: S.F. 1024 (Business Taxes), Final Passage The Senate Omnibus Tax Bill increases the statewide property tax, paid by commercial, industrial and utility property, and increases the tax on Minnesota companies that use the foreign operating corporation structure. The Chamber opposes S.F. 1024 as a whole, even though there are two items within the bill, an up-front exemption for capital equipment and the acceleration of sales-only apportionment, that the Chamber supports.

MN 2007: S.F. 1611 (Income Tax), Final Passage The Minnesota Chamber opposes S.F. 1611, which creates a new 4th tax bracket for the individual income tax at 9.7%, the highest state income tax rate in the nation. This affects many small business owners that flow their business income through their personal income taxes.

MN 2007: S.F. 1986 (Transportation), Final Passage This is the Senate Transportation Finance bill, which the Minnesota Chamber opposes. The bill is heavy on taxes and fees for businesses. The Minnesota Chamber supports a more moderate package but this bill fails the cost-benefit analysis.

This trio of votes, especially the votes for creating a 4th income tax bracket and for increasing the statewide property tax for "commercial, industrial and utility property" certainly doesn't indicate that Tarryl is a friend of small businesses. In fact, that sounds alot like the tax increases that Patty Wetterling proposed during her 2006 campaign. It also sounds alot like Tarryl's votes on taxes this year.

Any attempt that Tarryl makes to talk about creating jobs will likely be met with reminders to voters that she's voted for every tax increase that's been proposed in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Another thing that Tarryl is vulnerable to is her role in the slow motion train wreck known as the 2009 budget showdown. She's particularly vulnerable to why she voted for tax increases that didn't come close to closing the deficit, especially considering the fact that Tom Bakk's tax increase bill passed by a thin 35-31 margin in a veto-proof Senate.

Tarryl's leadership position should've put her in position to positively affect policies that should've protected her constituents. Instead, when the DFL's Listening Tour visited St. Cloud, all we heard, aside from Janelle Kendall's legal system reforms, was how we couldn't cut this or that program. Tarryl told KSTP's Tom Hauser that finding more than $500,000,000 in savings would be difficult:

Hauser: You can talk about reform all you want but reform inevitably ends up meaning that some people that are getting state services now won't be getting them after this reform, whether it be in HHS, whether it be in education, early childhood, any of those things.

Tarryl: Sure, and an estimate, a good estimate would be that maybe we could figure out how to save about $500 million.

Thinking that there's only $500,000,000 worth of spending on political payoffs or low priority items is absurd. That's before talking about money that would've been saved if the DFL hadn't defeated the GOP's sensible reforms. (BTW, that's another thing that Tarryl and the DFL leadership didn't do well with.)

In the final analysis, Tarryl's weaknesses would be that she hasn't exercised fiscal discipline. She hasn't been a friend to small businesses, either. She certainly hasn't been a principled reformer who's been a protector of CD-6's taxpayers. Those are three very large strikes against her before she even announces her candidacy against Rep. Bachmann.

Comments welcome at LFR.

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