Minnesota is a case study for Election '06 political shake-up

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: In Minnesota, Case Study for Political Shake-Up
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: December 29, 2006

....Nationally, the Democrats picked up more than 350 seats in state legislatures in November, 25 of them in Minnesota, and gained control of 10 chambers, including the Minnesota House. Two other states shifted either to Republican control or to a tie. The cumulative impact, deeper and broader than any election’s since the Republican landslide of 1994, is still unfolding....

***

The Democrats won big here — taking the House for the first time since 1998, expanding their majority in the Senate, winning the secretary of state’s and attorney general’s offices and nearly defeating Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican.

But they emerged divided, too, owing much of their surge to newly elected moderates from the suburbs who are unlikely to embrace a pure liberal agenda. The Republicans lost big, but were pushed toward the center as well, led by Mr. Pawlenty, who has said since the election that many of his second-term priorities will overlap with those of the Democrats he fiercely battled in his first four years.

And those pincer forces, both pushing toward the political center, will set the stage for everything to come when the Legislature convenes in January, elected officials and political experts here say. In the first Pawlenty term, a $4.5 billion budget shortfall was resolved through deep cuts in spending for health care, education and other programs, capped by a bitter shutdown of the government in 2005 when Mr. Pawlenty and the Legislature could not agree.

The fight of 2007 will revolve around restoring some of the cut programs, and how far to go beyond that in pushing what both parties say is pent-up demand for property tax relief and for spending increases on education, health care and transportation....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/29/us/politics/29minnesota.html?hp&ex=1167454800&en=a54c512d9eaef9b2&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Infinite Hope]

1. It was fun working on those races and winning 3 of 5 of the races I coordinated in Republican areas.

We also took the State Auditor position.

Also, much of our wins came in Greater Minnesota (Upper 1/2 to 2/3) and that's more of the moderating impact than the suburb wins.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Thanks for an inside view -- and congratulations! nt