GOP MN state legislator claims "no communication" with other states in article mentioning ALEC

[highplainsdem]

http://www.startribune.com/politics/local/119156934.html

In Minnesota and across U.S., GOP looks to make its mark
Approach reflects conservative view of government's role.
By RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER, Star Tribune
Last update: April 3, 2011 - 9:40 PM



Minnesota Republicans are in a full-throttle attempt to ratchet back government, front conservative values and try to transform the state into a lean new world.

After years of DFL dominance at the Legislature, the GOP's first steps as the majority are mirroring attempts in other states to leave a uniquely Republican imprint on policies and budgets.

A bill here to curb union powers has echoes in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. The proposal banning abortion after 20 weeks is based on a Nebraska law. Pushes for school vouchers, nuclear power, private prisons and relief from federal mandates? All have partners in Republican moves elsewhere.

-snip-

"Those with a similar philosophical perspective do similar things, but there is no communication that I'm aware of in terms of: 'Oh gee, South Carolina did this, maybe it would be a good idea for us.' I'm not experiencing any of that ... I'm a Minnesota state senator," Thompson said.

-snip-

The bills curbing union power are from ALEC, as we know. ALEC is also behind pushes for school vouchers, private prisons, and relief from federal mandates (those are the bills to let states fight federal health care reform). I don't know if there's any ALEC involvement in the abortion bill, or the push for nuclear power.

The state quotes ALEC task force director Jonathan Williams on states doing a "reset." I googled the quote there and can't find it in anything except this article about Minnesota, so this was apparently his statement to the Star Tribune about Minnesota legislation mirroring other states, and not a quote from some ALEC publication.

And then you get Dave Thompson, an expert on communication as a former talk show host, claiming there's "no communication" between state legislatures about these bills.

This of course is BS. I haven't been able to verify if Thompson's an ALEC member, but ALEC's members in the Minnesota legislature include ALEC state chair Mary Kiffmeyer, who's introduced one of ALEC's Voter ID bills.

This is from Wikipedia's article on Kiffmeyer, who was previously Minnesota's Secretary of State:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kiffmeyer

Kiffmeyer told the attendees at a 2004 National Day of Prayer event in Minnesota that the "five words" that are "probably most destructive" in America today are "separation of church and state". Kiffmeyer later said, "It's not the words that are destructive, it's the way they are interpreted. There are a lot of good church people who don't think they can be involved in government."

On election day 2006, Kiffmeyer supported a decision by local election judges to not allow some University of Minnesota students that lived near the campus to register to vote because they had inadequate proof of residence. A Hennepin County judge overruled this decision the same day, but it was unclear how many of the students returned to the polls.<5>

-snip-

After Kiffmeyer left office, a routine Legislative audit was conducted on the Secretary of State's office for 2005 and 2006.<6> This audit concluded that the office hired 16 employees at a pay rate that exceeded their collective bargaining agreement without obtaining approval from the Department of Employee Relations, resulting in total overpayment to employees of over $190,000. The explanation given in the audit was because the office mistakenly believed it retained this delegated authority. There were also instances where her mileage reimbursement was calculated from her home near Big Lake instead of from her Saint Paul office, with a lack of a clear "public purpose" explanation for some of her travels.<7>

As I've posted elsewhere, ALEC is behind efforts in many state legislatures to limit voting by groups that are likely to favor Democrats, and those groups include students.


Editing to add a link to my long compilation topic with information on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where reply 108 is about a union official saying ALEC is behind the new Minnesota bills taking aim at public worker benefits, and reply 106 links to a page on ALEC's website about Minnesota as one of the many states in which ALEC's "Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act" has been filed.

[hobbit709]

1. They don't have to communicate.

The kochroach brothers give out the orders. all he has to do is take the money and vote the way they want.

[highplainsdem]

2. The Star Tribune changed the link for that story. New link:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/119156934.html

The URL has been changed from

/politics/local/

to

/politics/statelocal/

The old link will still take you to the story after a pause, but I want the new link here just in case the old link eventually stops redirecting to the story.