Commentary; Posted: 7/6/05
A major public relations blunder by Senate DFL
T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter
Even at a distance of days the events of Thursday, June 30 seem inexplicable. As most people know, Thursday night was the eve of the partial state government shutdown.
And as most people know, too, Senate DFLers ó within minutes of an upbeat appraisal of on-going budget negotiations ó suddenly adjourned with more than two hours left to the midnight deadline.
From a PR standpoint, it was likely the most foolish move executed at the Capitol in years, perhaps decades.
Many of the legislative dramas at the Capitol are sufficiently complex that the average person has a tough time sorting them out. This wasnít like that. This was very simple. Democrats and Republicans had to come to a budget agreement or thousands of state employees could be laid off.
That was the story line.
And Senate DFLers, after passing a lights on bill they knew Republicans would not accept, walked away.
Itís one thing to withhold an olive branch from an opponent, something else again to furnish them with a club.
Republicans trashed Senate DFLers ó trashed Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson ó for deliberately setting out to close down state government.
ìThe DFL has wanted to shutdown government from the beginning,î an angry House Speaker Steve Sviggum said shortly after Johnson had entered the virtually empty Senate chamber and motioned to adjourned.
ìI hope itís obvious that this was premeditated,î Gov. Pawlenty said.
What happened?
Johnson has offered a number of explanations.
He cites faulty communications, a bad Republican budget offer, tiredness, and the surfacing of ìintelligenceî that House Republicans were preparing to launch a Scud attack ó a series of politically-charged amendments ó at the Senate last Thursday night.
Pawlenty pooh-poohed the latter explanation, explaining that an iota of strategy between House and Senate Democrats could of had House DFLers delaying the alleged Scud attack while their Senate compadres quickly adjourned.
(From a PR standpoint, why not let House Republicans launch their Scuds and take the heat for playing politics at the eleventh hour.)
Johnson Friday morning rejected Republican allegations that Senate DFLers set out to shut the place down.
ìWe never, never talked about a government shutdown in a pro active way in the Senate Democratic caucus,î Johnson said.
Sen. Leo Foley, DFL-Coon Rapids, agreed, saying he had never heard a conversation within the caucus about deliberatively shutting down state government.
ìNot only have I not heard that, Iíd never have supported that at all,î Foley said, saying politics wasnít a good enough reason to put people at risk.
Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, backed Johnson and Foley.
ìIt (a shutdown strategy) was not a caucus conversation,î he said.
But how to explain the Grand Bounce?
Miscommunications may have played a role.
Indeed, itís hard to see how it hasnít played a large role in the entire state budget impasse, as the focus wavers between legislative leaders, committee chairs, and now even rump groups.
Republicans have charged they donít know who to negotiate with among the Democrats. Senate DFLers have made exactly the same charge about Republicans.
One theory is that an inner cabal of big city, liberal Senate DFL committee chairs are calling the shots within the caucus and are so obsessed with winning back the governorship and House they sport an ends-justifies-the-means mentality.
Well, union officials were not pleased by the events of last Thursday night. And state workers probably tend to vote Democratic.
Punishing the base doesnít seem a winning recipe for victory in 2006.
Johnson said he did not act unilaterally in adjourning ó he first spoke to six or eight DFL senators before entering the empty Senate chamber.
Precisely why he did what he did will be debated for a long time.
Pawlenty theorized that Senate DFLers, who got ìrolledî in 2003, he said ó arguably assuming a degree of responsibility ó have perhaps adopted a guiding principle of ìNever Againî which at times makes them act irrationally.
ìThey got rolled and I think now weíre being visited by the Ghost of 2003,î he said.
If the Capitol is haunted, both sides contributed to letting loose the spirit.
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