Tag: Minnesota Senate GOP

Senate Republicans Fail the People of Minnesota

Republican Senators refuse to deliver real criminal justice reform

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Early this morning, Senate Republicans ended Minnesota’s special legislative session without passing the comprehensive police and criminal justice reform bill that recently passed the Minnesota House of Representatives thanks to the hard work of the DFL Party People of Color and Indigenous Caucus.

Ken Martin, Chairman of the Minnesota DFL Party, released the following statement on the failure of Senate Republicans do work with DFLers to pass criminal justice and policing reform:

“The eyes of the nation are on Minnesota after the tragic murder of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers. Since we cannot give George Floyd back the breath and life that he deserves and was denied, the least we can do is give him justice. It is our responsibility to reform our criminal justice and policing systems in order to end the senseless violence against Black Minnesotans.

“As the state with the only divided legislature in the nation, we had the opportunity to prove that Minnesotans can rise above partisanship and do what’s right for George Floyd, the Black community, and communities of color across our state. Unfortunately, Paul Gazelka and Senate Republicans have abandoned their responsibility to fix our broken policing system and refused to work with DFL Party lawmakers to enact real and meaningful change. By leaving town before the job is done, Senate Republicans shut out the cries for reform emanating from across Minnesota and demonstrated a complete unwillingness to make divided government work.

“It’s not enough any more for Republicans to just be the party that says no to every proposal that comes before them. It’s past time for the Republicans to put real ideas on the table on how to deal with the myriad of issues our state and nation face. Enough is enough – if Republicans can’t be part of ushering in change, then replacing them is the only solution. I strongly encourage Minnesotans frustrated at the lack of any real criminal justice and policing reform to vote Senate Republicans out of office this November.”

Statement from Speaker Hortman on presidential primary

House DFL logoSAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman released the following statement on Minnesota’s presidential primary:

“The Minnesota House DFL supports increased voter privacy in the presidential primary. However, any change will require agreement with Senate Republicans and Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer — something they have shown no interest in so far. I would encourage anyone concerned about this issue to contact Sen. Kiffmeyer, Majority Leader Gazelka, and Senate Republicans.”

 

Senate Republicans Jeopardize Minnesotans’ Private Information

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — Today, it came to light that the political stunt website Minnesota Senate Republicans set up to confidentially collect stories from whistleblowers has been vulnerable to hackers for days due to Senate Republicans’ failure to update the website’s security certificate.

A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate encrypts data you enter on a given website, making it harder for hackers to intercept that information. The Republican failure to update their security certificate means that, as Google Chrome notes, “you should not enter any sensitive information on [that] site because it could be stolen by attackers.”

This completely contradicts information on the Senate Republicans website, which tells potential whistleblowers that “your submission, as well as your identity, will NOT be disclosed to the public without your express consent.”

DFL Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement:

“By failing to secure their whistleblower website, and by not taking that site down while it is vulnerable to hackers, Senate Republicans are betraying the trust of Minnesotans. They promised that any identifying information submitted to their website would remain private, but whether through gross negligence or disregard, Senate Republicans broke that promise when they failed to take the most basic steps to protect that information from hackers.

“It was clear from the start that this whistleblower website is nothing more than a stunt designed to score political points. Now we know that Minnesota Republicans are willing to expose whistleblowers’ private information to hackers and risk ruining careers in order to score those political points.”