New to Minnesota

[mndemsocialist]

Hi, I have only been in Minnesota for a little over a year, and have a couple of questions:

1. Do we have any form of gerrymandering here in Minnesota? Who draws the district lines, both congressional and legislative? Is there an independent commission which does it (as in Iowa)?

2. Why do we vote for judges here in Minnesota? Are they appointed, then face the electorate for re-election (again, as in Iowa)? Or are they elected for their first term?

Thanks.

[malokvale77]

1. I was born in Minnesota...

but was transplanted to a hellhole called Texas in my youth.

I think Minnesota still has one of the better forms of State Government in this country.

I think Mineral Man could tell you what you need to know.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. There's not much real gerrymandering.

There was some major redistricting in 2012. In Minnesota redistricting is handled by the Legislature and is based on population. http://ballotpedia.org/Redistricting_in_Minnesota . It's always a bit controversial but there hasn't been anything you could really call gerrymandering. Judges are initially appointed by the Governor but have to run for re-election on an ostensibly non-partisan basis, although they can get party endorsement. In the last election a real wingnut ran against an incumbent Supreme Court judge and was fortunately defeated. She was a real piece of work; she got the GOP endorsement at the convention despite her very dodgy history:

Lillehaug was challenged by West St. Paul attorney Michelle MacDonald, who founded the Family Innocence Nonprofit Project. MacDonald gained notoriety since winning the state Republican Party’s endorsement last spring. Soon after, reports surfaced that she had been arrested for refusing to submit to a breath test and obstructing the legal process during an April 2013 traffic stop in which police suspected she was drunk.

She has wrangled with the party since then, including being barred from the party’s booth at the Minnesota State Fair. A Dakota County jury convicted her in September.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/281532611.html

In most regards the state government here is pretty clean. There are a few lunatics, of course...

[kickysnana]

4. The evils of gerrymandering was a topic in my 5th grade MN social studies text.

Along with the fight for worker rights.

My son attended the same school district 24 years later and I think they only taught him geography, that was Reagan's idea of social studies at the time. But he and his brother in another district did hear it from me. Actually they were the only kids in their class that knew what Woodstock was and I was no flower child only an cultural (and other)information junkie.

My Norwegian ancestors and cousins lived first in Iowa and then Minnesota wrote about the government was instrumental stealing farms in the early part of the 20th century by letting some rich folks rig markets. They repealed some laws that kept checks on greed in the markets and so many lost everything in the boom and bust time. They wrote it up in the Karl Rolvaag papers and NAHA in Northfield.

My maternal grandfather born in TN was present at the bloody Minneapolis union actions in the 1930s. At 16 he and his older brother brought down a insulated truck full of ice to sell lemonade at the Scopes Trial back in Nashville and made a small nest egg and both bought houses up here.

Minnesotans did used to care about history and trying to do the best for everyone or at least pretended that is what they wanted. Now 50% are stupid, greedy, selfish boors. Hopefully you can still find the rest to work and play with.

[mndemsocialist]

7. I liked your story

I liked reading about your family history.

I can't really offer anything from my family's political history as interesting as yours, but I am one of the few people I know who studied about labor unions in high school social studies as part of the established lesson plan (Maybe that was more common here in MN schools than in Iowa). I also remember my social studies teacher playing for my class a recording of an interview with Norman Thomas, the Socialist Party candidate for president in the '30's and '40's, about the value of third parties.

[glinda]

3. Welcome and where do you hail from? And whereabouts are you located in general.

[mndemsocialist]

6. Thanks for the welcome

I am from Iowa. My family is there, and I miss them a lot. But I really like Minnesota. Don't know if I really want to go back to Iowa while Joni "Cutsyernutzoff" Ernst is in the Senate, and Terry Braindead is governor.

Though Iowa is more progressive than one might think #Iowa has the most fair and non-partisan way to draw district boundaries in the nation, for example#, it certainly did not live up to that blue/purple status this year.

I have been very impressed with what the DFL government has been able to achieve lately, and I was hoping that that would continue, but I guess we'll have to wait until 2016 to resume progressive government.

I am a democratic socialist and have had contact with some Greens and hard lefties here, and am surprised by how much they hate, loathe, and despise the DFL. Too much purity on the Left, in my view, and quite self-defeating.

I needed to be close to work, so I live in the 6th CD, in Ramsey specifically. First Bachmann, now Emmer. I once read that the Sixth District is the attic where Minnesotans keep the crazy aunt...

Thanks for the welcome!

[glinda]

8. Yes, I totally agree with you on all points.

Sorry that Emmer is in your area btw. Eeeek!

[Jenoch]

5. Redistrcting in Minnesota is done by the legislature,

however, if an attempt by either party is done to 'gerrymamder' a district, one or the other party will suexand the courts end up deciding the district boundaries. Since that takes control away from the legislators, they mostly play nice. The only district that seems to be Gerrymandered is the 6th. The Republicans threaten to combine the 4th and the 5th. If they ever get both hoyses and the governorship, they might make the attempt, but the courts would stop such a move.