The Weekly Wrap 4-26

♣ From MPR’s story:

The first Republican hoping to challenge Gov. Mark Dayton says the governor’s tax plans are sending the state in the wrong direction.

Scott Honour, an Orono businessman, said he’s running for governor to bring his business experience to the State Capitol.

While he may now live in Orono, he only moved back a few months ago after retiring from being the senior managing director of The Gores Group,

a global investment firm focused on acquiring controlling interests in mature and growing businesses.

This move has been rumored since right around the time that Honour moved back to the state, so it’s really not that surprising.

The thing that someone like Scott Honour has going for him, unlike any of the Republican legislator’s who have been rumored to run is that he didn’t vote to put the gay marriage ban on the ballot.

Also, the GOP has got to love the idea of a candidate for Governor who can self-fund, considering the financial straights they currently find themselves in that is.

♣ On the topic of Mark Dayton, SurveyUSA is out with a new poll of Minnesota:

SurveyUSA (4/25, 2/5 in parenthesis):

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Mark Dayton is doing as Governor?
Approve 49 (50)
Disapprove 39 (35)
Not Sure 13 (15)

Should the Minnesota state law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry? Or should it be left as it is?
Should be changed 51 (42)
Should be left as it is 47 (54)
Not Sure 2 (4)

Another proposal would increase the pay of state legislators from $31,000 per year to $42,000, which is a 35% increase. Do you support? Or do you oppose? This proposal?

Support 13
Oppose 77
Not Sure 10
(MoE: ±4.5%)

There’s a lot more in the poll, but I’m only going to look at these three items.

In comparison to SurveyUSA’s previous poll, all the way back in February, Mark Dayton’s approval ratings haven’t budged at all. This is a totally different story from what Mason-Dixon reported back in March, when they saw Mark Dayton suffering an 11 point decline in his approvals.

So what’s the deal, who’s right?

The Mason-Dixon poll came right at the height of the rabid pushback on Mark Dayton’s sales tax and business to business tax proposals, so it certainly seem’s likely that they caught Dayton at his nadir.

Also, as I’ve previously discussed, Mason-Dixon had a rather forgettable 2012 election cycle. So who know’s what’s going on with them.

As it concerns Gay Marriage, well, there has certainly been some movement on that front, going from being 12 points underwater to leading by four, and that’s despite SurveyUSA’s screwy question wording.

Also, counter to what Minnesota for Marriage want’s you to believe, only one of the four geographical regions of the state is opposed to Gay Marriage.

And lastly, the issue that has stuck in my craw a bit, the idea of legislator’s raising their own pay. Not surprisingly everyone hates this idea. Like, a lot. I know, totally shocking.

Now you might be thinking, “They’re against it, but really, how much do they care?” And wouldn’t you know, SurveyUSA was nice enough to ask that very question. Not only did they ask that question, they asked a similar one about taxes, so we can compare how peoples reactions to the two things differ:

SurveyUSA (4/25, 2/5 in parenthesis):

Are you more likely to vote for lawmakers who increase taxes? Less likely to vote for them? Or does it make no difference either way?
More Likely 12
Less Likely 51
No Difference 30
Not Sure 6

Are you more likely to vote for lawmakers who increase their own pay? Less likely to vote for them? Or does it make no difference either way?
More Likely 6
Less Likely 73
No Difference 18
Not Sure 3
(MoE: ±4.5%)

So there you have it. Minnesotan’s are much more willing to let legislator’s have a pass for raising taxes, but not for voting to raise their own pay.

Again, shocking.

Well, if you were to go to Terri Bonoff’s website and take the things you saw on it seriously you might be shocked.

We can only hope the house see’s the error in this strategy and kills this stupid bill.

♣ Eric Black say’s, according to the title of the piece, that “it’s increasingly likely Michele Bachmann will retire.”

The second graph contains all of the relevant info:

Lots of Republicans say off the record that they are hearing a growing chorus of rumors that Bachmann may retire. And they are downright expansive about the fact that the party will be thrilled if she does. But absolutely no one to whom I have spoken claims to have heard it from her or from members of her innermost circle.

This sounds to me like Republican’s are hoping, praying natch, that Bachmann retires more than having any solid evidence that she will.

♣ Sona Mehring, the founder of CaringBridge, who only a month ago resigned from that gig to challenger US Representative John Kline in Minnesota’s second congressional district, has now reversed course and will not do that, and instead go back to the website she founded.

Still challenging John Kline is 2012 candidate Mike Obermueller.

♣ I gave Kent Eken a hard time in last week’s Wrap for his ridiculous vote switching on the hideous pay raise bill discussed earlier in this Wrap. He deserved that, and this is in no way a walk back of those sentiments.

He does however deserve credit for making the right call on Gay Marriage, or at least, saying he will make the right call.

I wrote this back in December:

When you actually look at the names on this list you see that while there are in fact Republican Senators who occupy districts that voted against the Marriage amendment, none of them are likely to be Republican Senators who actually vote for Marriage equality. For Marriage equality to pass the Senate, it will likely be up to the DFL to wrangle the votes.

If that’s the case than Tomassoni, Sparks and Lourey are probably the three easiest to get of the 18 listed above. After that you’re pretty much left with needing to get at least two of the quartet of Eken, Jensen, Saxhaug and Schmit.