Category: State Issues
Phillips for Congress Invites Everyone to a Picnic
Everyone’s Invited! Picnic to include music, games, food, pontoon rides and conversation between hundreds of neighbors
Excelsior, MN – Dean Phillips for Congress will host a picnic on September 15, 2018, and invited all people who live in Minnesota’s Third Congressional District to attend.
The Everyone’s Invited! Picnic will take place at The Commons in Excelsior from noon to 4 p.m. Picnic games, food by Coalition Restaurant and The Dawg House, beer garden by Excelsior Brewing Company, live music, a silent auction, rides on the Government Repair Pontoon, yoga, and conversation will anchor the event. Dean Phillips will address the crowd, answer questions, and meet as many neighbors as possible.
“As neighbors, it is time we come together,” said Dean Phillips. “While some candidates sit back and rely on attack-style politics that divide our communities, I am focused on providing opportunities for us to listen to one another and build community through conversation,” he said. “The Everyone’s Invited! Picnic is a chance for everyone, no matter their ideology, to come together and focus on what’s possible. And when our campaign says Everyone’s Invited, we mean it!”
Event Details:
Everyone’s Invited! Picnic
Saturday, September 15, 2018
12 noon – 4:00 PM
Excelsior Commons Park
Food: Coalition Restaurant, The Dawg House
Beer Garden: Excelsior Brewing Company
Live Music: The Roe Family Singers, Martin Zeller & The Gear Daddies, Modern Sovrans
Activities: Yoga, drone races, silent auction, face painting, boat rides, games, live screen printing
Congressional candidate Dean Phillips wages his own kind of challenge
The following commentary by Lori Sturdevant was posted on the Star Tribune website September 9, 2018:
He stresses campaign finance reform in his bid to unseat Rep. Erik Paulsen, even as national party pols resist that tack.
Tell me whether you met a congressional candidate from your district at his or her own booth at the State Fair. If you say you did, I’ll tell you in which district you live.
This trick requires no clairvoyance. The only fairgoers who could say yes live in the Third District, because the only congressional candidate who sprang for a booth of his own at this year’s fair was DFLer Dean Phillips.
That’s a small way — albeit a telling one — in which Phillips is standing apart from the congressional challengers’ pack as he seeks to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen.
Will The Average Taxpayer In Paulsen’s District Really Get A $5,000 Tax Cut?
The following by Pat Kessler was posted on the WCCO TV website September 5, 2018:
As Students Start School, Walz-Flanagan Highlight Education Plan for Minnesota
Teacher-candidate emphasizes significant investments, reform, and progress for Minnesota students
As students head back to school this week, DFL Gubernatorial Candidate Tim Walz, an award-winning teacher, and Peggy Flanagan, a former school board member and children’s advocate, are highlighting their 21st Century Education Plan. The plan includes major reforms in state education funding, innovations for schools and students, and a strong focus on educational equity.
“As my two kids and kids across Minnesota start school this week, it is a time for us to reflect on what we want from our education system,” said Walz. “I believe in a bold vision for education in this state-one where we invest in our classrooms, think beyond test scores, and where every student receives a quality education no matter where they live. As governor, I will be an educator-in-chief who fights tirelessly every day to make this vision a reality.”
Walz, who has over 20 years of teaching experience, based the plan on conversations with educators across Minnesota as well as his own experiences in the classroom. Continue reading “As Students Start School, Walz-Flanagan Highlight Education Plan for Minnesota”
Jeff Johnson would leave behind Minnesota’s youngest learners
With many students heading off to early childhood programs this week, Minnesotans should know that while Johnson says he would support early education, his record says otherwise.
“A bright future for our youngest learners means a bright future for our state’s economy,” said DFL Chairman Ken Martin. “Minnesota needs a governor that will take the future of our youngest Minnesotans seriously, not someone who will throw spare change at early childhood education.”
Johnson cut early learning initiatives
- In 2002, Johnson voted for H.F. 2902, a bill that cut $21 million from early learning initiatives over three years.
Continue reading “Jeff Johnson would leave behind Minnesota’s youngest learners”
Accountants warn tax reform could add up to April shock
The following article by Jim Spencer was posted on the Star Tribune website September 1, 2018:
Those who rely heavily on deductions could see a bill.
Every summer, Mike McClure looks at his income tax withholding. The Apple Valley man doesn’t want to give the government what he calls a “free loan” by having too much money withheld from his paycheck. He also doesn’t want to end up owing a bunch to the IRS when he files his taxes in April.
In the past, McClure’s system has led to little more than minor tweaks. This year, under the new federal tax law, he will owe the federal government $6,800 in April if he doesn’t radically alter his withholding for the remainder of the 2018 tax year.
“This whole tax-cut thing was sold to middle-class Americans as ‘we’re all going to get a tax cut,’ ” McClure said. “This wasn’t what I expected.”
REMINDER: Rep. Erik Paulsen voted FOR this bill, which provides a large, permanent tax cut for corporation and a moderate one that expires for his constituents. Most of that cut will be impacted by the other changes in the bill including a decrease in the allowed amount of property tax that can be deducted from personal taxes.
Debate crowd laughs after GOP lawmaker says he’s been ‘accessible’
The following article by Justin Wise was posted on the Hill website August 29, 2018:
The audience at a debate in Minnesota erupted in laughter earlier this week after Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) said he tried to be accessible to his constituents.
“Truth is, I get a lot of ideas from listening to people like you,” Paulsen said. “Being accessible, being a good listener, those are where the ideas come from.”
The statements immediately sparked laughter from the crowd. The moderator abruptly chimed in to ask the audience to “be respectful.”
Watch a Crowd Burst Out Laughing at a GOP Congressman for Saying He Makes Himself ‘Accessible’ to Them
The following article by Matthew Chapman was posted on the AlterNet.org website August 28, 2018:
Rep. Erik Paulsen tried to play the people’s candidate at a debate. His constituents found it so absurd they started laughing.
Minnesota Congressman Erik Paulsen hasn’t held a town hall in 7 years.
In a debate with candidate @deanbphillips, Paulsen says he gets his good ideas by “being accessible” to constituents.
The crowd erupts in laughter.#ChangeIsComing. #EveryonesInvited. #MN03 pic.twitter.com/gecTtzLMKK
— Spencer Bounds (@Spencer4Texas) August 27, 2018
Congressman Erik Paulsen (R-MN) is a reliable vote for President Donald Trump’s agenda in a suburban Minneapolis district that voted for Hillary Clinton by nearly 10 points. He has backed Trump 98 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight, including on the failed GOP plan to strip health insurance from sick people and on the disastrous package of tax cuts for corporations and billionaires. Continue reading “Watch a Crowd Burst Out Laughing at a GOP Congressman for Saying He Makes Himself ‘Accessible’ to Them”
Meet Doug Wardlow, the throwback homophobic candidate on Minnesota’s 2018 ballot
The following article by Hannah Jones was posted on the CityPages website August 27, 2018:
In March 2017, before Doug Wardlow had won the Republican primary for a shot at becoming Minnesota’s Attorney General, he sat in on a meeting of the Anoka-Hennepin School Board.
When his name was announced, Wardlow rose to the podium and bid the board members “good evening.” He told them he was there as a member of Alliance Defending Freedom, “a nonprofit legal organization that litigates in defense of free speech and religious liberty” in Minnesota and beyond.
He went on to say he was representing parents who were concerned that the district would start letting transgender students use the bathrooms that matched their gender identities. “Boys” should go to the boys’ facilities, he said, and “girls” to the girls’ room. Anyone who “professed” to be transgender could go use a single-stall restroom.
“I urge the District to act in accord with the simple reality that there are boys, and there are girls, and boys and girls are fundamentally different in ways that really do matter,” he said.