Better Know a Challenger: Jon Olson v. Joe Mullery in 58A

Jon Olson to take on Joe Mullery in “no-endorsement” primary.

Park Commissioner Jon Olson filed yesterday to challenge Joe Mullery in the September 9 DFL primary in district 58A. Olson, who owns a local Dairy Queen, did not have his name in nomination at the SD 58 endorsing convention, at which Peggy Flanagan and her supporters (including yours truly) blocked the endorsement of the powerful 6-term incumbent.

Flanagan ran an amazing race and we were excited to have such an overqualified candidate seeking to represent us here in 58A. It remains unclear whether Jon Olson will be able to build on the excitement that Peggy brought to the race.

Mullery is the chair of the public safety committee in the house and a highly ranked member of the tax committee. He has a reputation for heavy-handed tactics, killing good and bad bills alike. To avoid ruffling his feathers, many members of the house let him have his way, which gives him significant sway even over legislation which does not appear in his committees. He is one of the last remaining “machine” DFLers, having held party leadership positions as far back as 1980.

At this writing, Jon Olson is relatively unknown. The 2nd park district is much larger than the house district, so his close supporters will include a number of people who won’t get to vote for him. Mullery was bracing for a very difficult and expensive primary, perhaps record setting, against the well-connected professional community organizer Flanagan. The Park Board in Minneapolis is often reported in a negative light, as coverage of the recent Lowe’s advertising controversy showed. As far as we know, Olson has a severe money disadvantage too, since Mullery has accumulated 30k over the years and was cultivating his donor base. Olson’s biggest disadvantage is time – incumbents are beaten one vote at a time. Flanagan had cultivated a chance to win by door knocking in the fall and spring and developing relationships with large numbers of local DFL activists.

This all is not to say that Olson should be overlooked. There is no endorsement, so all is fair in love and war. Mullery has fierce critics, myself included, on the grounds that his constituent service is awful, that his tax committee has failed miserably to protect the interests of 58A residents, and that his signature accomplishments, such as stronger sex offender laws, are nothing but feel-good window dressing. Many people feel that with a 70-30 general election result, the 58A Representative could stand up for a progressive agenda, rather than always “leading” on non-controversial issues and blocking controversial ones.

Mullery has frequently said that he doesn’t have time to return email or phone calls because he is “too busy meeting with groups”. I ended up sending correspondence to Ellison, who represented the district just south of me, and strangely, Ellison always had time to write, even though I was not a constituent. Flanagan wrote me that this complaint was echoed across the district, especially in the poorer neighborhoods, and that since legislators have a staff member to help, there was simply no excuse for this fault.

His tax committee has been an abject failure during his tenure. The top income tax bracket, eliminated under Jesse Ventura, is the primary reason why our state has been plagued with budget shortfalls during entire Pawlenty administration. The house has increased highly regressive sales taxes every single year of his tenure. We live in north Minneapolis and regressive taxes hurt constituents here a lot. Worse yet has been the committee’s complacency in shifting the cost of government onto local property tax revenues, a solution to decreased state revenues that gives cities and counties the worst of both worlds.

The cities have had to pass property tax levies, which hurt lower middle class folks, the most - people who are either on their way out of the middle class due to retirement/fixed income living or coming into by way of first-time homeownership. Local Governments also fail to pass these levies frequently, leading to decreasing educational results, more expensive utilities and higher crime. At the same time, pass or fail, local leaders are being held to account for the tax increases which are only necessary because of irresponsible passing of the buck at the higher levels.

Making this case at the convention, I often heard that “you can’t hold your state legislator accountable for the actions of the whole state government”, but I respectfully disagree. In most cases, your state legislator is the only person you can hold accountable, because state legislature is the only race on which a normal, motivated individual can have a decisive impact. The mistaken notion that you ought not to hold your representative accountable is the reason congress has a 9% rating yet each congressman is rated many times higher, and why incumbents enjoy such great electoral success.

The other point I heard over and over was that Joe's committee chairmanship and experience are an asset to the district.

I agree that Mullery was and is in a position to have a huge positive impact on several issues important to his constituents, and if he's re-elected, he'll be in that same position. Unfortunately, on issues with any controversy at all, he hasn't leveraged his power to get helpful results. One good example was the medical marijuana legislation that died during the current session. The principal objections to this legislation came from public safety unions. Mr. Mullery, as chair of the house public safety committee, could have twisted some arms among those objectors, making clear that there were consequences for misconstruing a public health issue as a public safety issue. According to press accounts, if the law enforcement lobby had withdrawn its objections, Pawlenty would have signed it into law. Mullery did nothing, and the bill died. Patients continue to suffer without options that they would have if treatment decisions were left between individuals, physicians and public health authorities. Joe could have done a lot more to support this bill which had majority public support statewide and even greater support in the district, with Sen. Higgins doing a great deal of work to get it through the Senate.

It is too soon for me to say whom I will support in the September primary. I had resigned myself to supporting Joe against his GOP opponent in the general, as I had heard nothing of Commissioner Olson's candidacy before yesterday. I know little about him so far, but I'm keeping an open mind. As more information becomes available, I'll keep you updated.