49A: Ted Butler wants common sense politics for Andover and Ham Lake
Conventional wisdom is that the northern suburbs are far to conservative for a DFLer to ever win. That is changing. Melissa Hortman (DFL-47B, Brooklyn Park/Coon Rapids) defeated an incumbent in 2004 and then held the seat in 2006 (she won reelection rather comfortably, actually). Jeremy Kalin (DFL-17B, North Branch) won in 2006. Sen. Leo Foley (DFL-47) was supposed to lose, but won by a hair. We've debunked the notion that the western suburbs and Rochester are Republican strongholds and the northern suburbs are next. Here's the second profile of local Minnesota races for the evening.
Ted Butler is challenging three-term Rep. Chris DeLaForest (R-49A) in the 2008 election. 49A encompasses Andover and Ham Lake. Ted works at the University of Minnesota managing their health plans. He has a degree from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in Accounting and German, a Masters from the U of M in Human Resources and Industrial Relations and a Certificate in Policy Issues on Work and Pay through programs housed in the Carlson School of Management and Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He lives in Andover with his wife Andrea and their 2 year old son Kellen.
He's running because Andover and Ham Lake need a Representative to represent their needs. They need better schools with a stable funding source. They need someone who will do something about the gridlock on the highways. They need affordable healthcare. They need a strong economy.
His opponent, DeLaForest, is a by-the-book, movement conservative. He frequently guest hosts the right wing Taxpayers League radio show to give you an indication of his bent. DeLaForest's only legislative accomplishment in 2007 is legalizing ticket-scalping. He really didn't do much else. DeLaForest is a defender of embattled MNDOT Commissioner Carol Molnau. Molnau is incompetent, the Republicans have underfunded our transportation infrastructure and we pay the price every day while stuck in gridlock.
"We are paying a tax of the very worst kind," Ted explained. "It is a tax on working Mom's and Dad's in the form of time wasted sitting in traffic and away from our families."
Local governments are jacking property taxes through the roof to pay for essential services because of Local Government Aid (LGA) cutbacks. This is a direct result of Pawlenty's and DeLaForest's no-new-taxes pledges. Ted cited two specific examples.
The first is that residents who live on Radisson Road which runs parrallel to Hwy. 65 in Ham Lake have trouble getting out of their driveways onto the frontage roads because drivers are now using Radisson Road instead of the gridlocked highway.
The second is that Anoka County had to loan MNDOT money interest free so that MNDOT would build the Hansen Blvd. overpass across Hwy. 10.
I asked Ted to repeat this because I couldn't believe it. MNDOT has so little money and is planning so poorly that the counties have to pay for improvements to federal highways. Where was DelaForest? Too busy buffing his no-new-taxes pledge, appearing on conservative radio shows and purifying the Republican party of any moderates.
Ted has been going to many, many meetings throughout the area and he told me he never sees DelaForest. "I promise that I will be the hardest working candidate in Minnesota this election cycle." I raised an eyebrow at that claim, but he insisted that he will do absolutely everything in his power to beat DelaForest. He pointed to how Sen. Klobuchar did well in his district, a district that was the heart of Kennedy's base. "A common sense candidate talking about common values will do well here and a candidate running a grassroots campaign can do really well."
"Many local officials of both parties are unsatisfied with DelaForest," Ted explained. They see the trickle-down effects of his neo-con, no-new-taxes philosophy. "School levies used to be extras, used for new construction and nice-to-have things. Now they're for keeping schools open. We're paying for our schools and roads regardless."
Ted clearly sees that either everyone gets clobbered with skyrocketing property taxes as DelaForest prefers so he can continue to buff his no-new-taxes pledge or we reform the way we pay for our transportation infrastructure and schools.
Here's some reasons why DelaForest has got to go:
(Sierra Club scorecard)
Here's an example of DelaForest's cognitive dissonance and complete break from reality. He wonders why we need property taxes, but he fails to recognize that his no-new-taxes pledge is causing cities and counties to jack property taxes to astronomic levels.
(St. Paul Legal Ledger)
DelaForest has a 91.75% Tax Payers League voting record.
Conservation Minnesota give him a 27.5% overall rating:
- 10% for 2007
- 55% for 2006
- 25 for 2005
- 20% in 2003
Clean Water Action Alliance gave him a 36% for 2006.
Children's Defense Fund gives him a 8.33% overall rating:
- 17% in 05
- 8% in 04
- 0% in 03
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Please Get Your Facts Straight
Your post is riddled with errors.
First, DeLaForest has never taken a "no new taxes" pledge.
Second, DeLaForest passed a bill last session that would automatically revoke the license of any teacher convicted of making or posessing child porn. Too bad you don't consider that good legislation.
It's also kind of hard to pass bills when the DFL majority won't even give most GOP-authored bills a hearing.
If Butler can't get these basic facts right, why should we send him to Saint Paul?
Moreover, Butler's hyper-partisan attacks won't go anywhere, just like the previous DeLaForest opponents. Does Butler have an agenda of his own beyond the same cookie-cutter attacks? What will he do, besides offer tax increases?
DeLaForest has won over 60% of the vote every election and has won every single precinct, going 45-0. Seems to me that's a big vote of confidence from 49A taxpayers.
Facts are straight - no taxes, no fees
Actually, it only takes a short google search to show that not only DeLaForest is "no taxes", he is also "no fees".
- In committee last week, DeLaForest discussed his proposal that would forbid state agencies from creating new fees or raising fees. DeLaForest sais he's worried lawmakers are using fees as a back door way to get more money into the state treasury.
"The Legislature has a lot more control over taxes the we do over fees," DeLaForest said. "Fees all too often disappear into the bureaucracy and it seems to me, at least in my opinion, on the whole controlled by the bureaucracy than controlled by the Legislature." (MPR)
So why the sudden attempt to rewrite history? Could it be that suddenly, we are seeing the effect of "no taxes, no fees" with
with the starved barely struggling education system now affecting our state economy
with our total lack of shifting to wind and solar energy now catching up to us in high gas prices
Or is it that "Republican" Pawlenty state leadership can't effectively manage any part of government like the Wacouta bridge fixing fiasco.
So I guess this is the first attempt to rewrite Republican history.
Good One, Grace
The NTSB has already indicated that the 35W bridge failure was likely cuased by a faulty gusset plate design some 40 years before DeLaForest took office.
Our economy is starting to lag becuase we are a high tax, high regulation state that drives capital to lower taxing jourisdictions. Even Europe has begun to understand this simple concept (e.g. Ireland, Poland, France).
Utility rates are going up and will continue to skyrocket because of government mandates for solar and wind. Gas prices would be lower if there wasn't a virtual moritorium on additional refining capacity.
Once we get past the platitudes, there is little doubt that Butler's "solutions" will be little more than taxes, taxes, and more taxes.
By the way, Grace, what was the state GF budget 10 years ago? Today?
Structurally Deficient
Just like I bought my car ten years and it broke down, obviously it was a design flaw. This bridge lasted 40 years, with a design prone to catastrophic failure. The gusset plates were mentioned in reports. Certainly when approving higher limits, any competent executive would have redone and rechecked the design capabilities. And the bridge was rated "Structurally Deficient" and suggested for replacement.
And not only did the Republican governor not work on required bridge replacements because of the no tax promises, that same Republican governor is still not planning to increase taxes and replace the remaining "Structurally Deficient" bridges.
The Republican no-new-taxes pledge and continued mismanagement is responsible for the bridge falling and the general deteriorating state of our transportation.
Support
The header for this blog says it all "Ted Butler wants common sense". Isn't that really what we are looking for? This guy he's running against, DeLaForest, doesn't ever come out and indicate that he's in favor of common sense. Ted's stand on common sense is a breath of frest air for everyone. That's something that would benefit St. Paul, Washington and Ulan Bator. It's a world-wide epidemic where there isn't common sense in politics. Folks try to over complicate issues and don't see the root causes of the problems. Ted's going to change that way of thinking in St. Paul. Instead of nit picking at his individual thoughts, let's take a moment to reflect on the overall thinking that he's proposing. I'm excited and relieved that our state has such down-to-earth thinkers who aren't afraid to put things in terms the average man can understand!