June 2021 Newsletter
Dear Mom
by Al Brown
Mark it on your calendar. Bipartisanship died May 29, 2021.
Only six Republicans voted for a 9/11 type commission to study the Jan.6 attack on our Capital.
Six. Legislation with the Senate filibuster takes 10.
The attack on our Capitol five months ago included a search by the mob for a Republican Vice President in hopes of lynching him. If Republicans can’t get 10 votes to investigate attempted murder of one of their own, they are even less likely to support help for others.
The attack on our Capital by a mob led by a setting president’s false claims of a rigged election remains the greatest threat to our democracy since World War II. It’s real. It’s ongoing. And, without overwhelming policy success, it will dictate the 2022 and 2024 election cycles.
At no time – even the McCarthy Era – has such a dangerous false narrative had the support of an estimated 50 million Republicans. Even now, the lie is tearing down voting rights one GOP controlled state capitol at a time.
Attacking the heart of Democracy isn’t on the Democratic agenda. Ending COVID and Building Back Better are.
We have only a limited amount of time before we again must defend democracy from a man who rightfully claims his supporters will allow him to shoot someone on a public street and get away with it.
So why won’t Republicans support President Joe’s budget?
I know you don’t like her, but the easiest way to explain President Joe’s budget released at the end of May comes from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Show me your budget, show me your values.
Joe Biden values American workers and families, not American fat cats.
President Joe proposed a budget that lifts tens of millions of Americans and their children out of poverty, creates millions of clean energy jobs, and allows the kids of working families access to day care and college.
You say we should all work together, Republicans and Democrats. I agree.
If it took 55 votes in the Senate, not 60, that might happen.
The sad truth is there aren’t 10 Republicans who care more about democracy more than they do about their office chair. If there were, we’d have a bipartisan commission on the Jan. 6 attack on our Capitol.
That leaves Democrats to govern in a vacuum. At the end of the day, we must listen to one another.
It’s a lot like when you left us alone at the cabin on vacation and said “Play nice.”, only to come back to find the kitchen table overturned and all the pots and pans scattered across the living room.
We all have our own expectations of what “playing nice” means.
For Americans, they want government to work for them. For too long, it hasn’t.
Joe and Kamala along with a unified Democratic party are changing that. COVID is rapidly ending, and the economy is surging.
Only a day after Republicans refused to move forward from a despot, a Democratic president revealed a budget with hope for working Americans who want to raise their families in a clean, competitive country where you don’t have to be rich to buy a home or send your kids to college.
I’m not holding my breath that Republicans will join us. I only hope I don’t have to hold my breath because they stop us and our grandkids cough on coal fumes while watching the coasts slip beneath the sea.
Love you,
Your Democratic son
PARADES AND SUMMER EVENTS ARE BACK!
After a 2020 when all these were canceled, this year there are parades and summer events in which Senate District 26 DFL will be participating. We need marchers for the parade and volunteers to staff our booth for the events. The ones this month are:
Thursday, June 17 10 AM Viola Gopher Count Grand Parade- Viola is just south of Viola Road (County Road 2) and east of 105th Ave NE. Parade parking is along Viola Rd.
Saturday, June 19 10 AM-6 PM Juneteenth Jubilee- Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, Rochester (bounded by 15th Ave. SE on the west, 19th Ave. SE on the east, Center St. E on the north, and 2nd St. SE on the south)
Saturday, June 26 2 PM Rochesterfest Grand Parade- SW Rochester (Parade route TBD)
July events include parades in Stewartville on July 4, Eyota on July 17, and Byron on July 18. Our Olmsted County Fair booth will be open July 27-August 1.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: FEDERAL AND STATE
Joe Biden remains popular. In an average of recent polls, his approval rating was 53.6% (with 40.8% disapproving). His Cabinet is fully confirmed and many sub-Cabinet nominees have also been confirmed. He has nominated six judges to the Courts of Appeal and twelve District Court judges, though none have been confirmed yet. His legislative agenda has not progressed much in May, as his Administration negotiates with Senate Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans filibustered for the first time last week, voting against bringing the January 6 Commission up for debate in the Senate even after it passed the House with 35 Republicans there voting for it.
The Minnesota Legislature’s regular session ended May 17, but none of its budget bills made it through both Houses, largely because House Speaker Melissa Hortman, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, and Governor Tim Walz did not agree on final budget targets until just before the 17th. What had been conference committees with members from both Houses are now unofficial work groups, but they continue to negotiate toward compromise with an eye to those compromises being introduced as bills when the Legislature is called back for special session in mid-June (as it must be if Governor Walz wants to extend his emergency powers). If budget bills aren’t passed and signed by the end of this month, the unfunded parts of the state government will shut down July 1. Representative Tina Liebling is leading the House of Representatives’ working group on health, human services, and early childhood education. Senator Carla Nelson is leading the Senate’s working group on taxes.
SENATE DISTRICT 26 DFL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETS JUNE 14
Our next Executive Committee meeting will be Monday, June 14 from 7-8:30 PM. It will be a virtual meeting on Zoom. DFL meetings are public, so if you want to “attend”, contact the Chair at mark.liebow@gmail.com. We will hear officer reports, continue strategic planning, discuss our budget for 2021, and begin planning for the precinct caucuses to be held on February 1, 2022.
We are looking for a Vice Chair and for three Directors, two of which must be filled by people who live in House District 26B. The Vice-Chair and Director positions must be filled by people not identifying as male. Please contact the Chair at mark.liebow@gmail.com if you’re interested in running for one of these positions.
DONATE TO SENATE DISTRICT 26 DFL AND YOU COULD GET IT BACK
Not everyone will be able to donate right now, but if you can, we need your help to make the DFL a bigger presence in Rochester. We have a year-round office, which is expensive, but is crucial in a battleground area like Rochester. While one-time donations are welcome, we especially need monthly donations. We don’t get money from the national Democratic Party. The state DFL only contributes $500 a month, less than 1/3 of our rent. We rely on our local supporters to keep us going and to get the DFL message out. We need the money and you want an active DFL. If you give, there will still be an office for DFL events and meetings when those are possible again, DFL participation in events and parades that require entry fees, technology that makes the DFL work better, and outreach into underrepresented communities. Donate to Senate District 26 DFL and you can get up to $50/person or $100 per married couple back from the state of Minnesota if you are eligible to vote in Minnesota. You can make a refundable donation in 2021 even if you are eligible for (or already received) a refund for a 2020 donation. Do it now. Make your donation via ActBlue (https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/senate-district-26-dfl-party-1?refcode=sd2). If you would rather write a check, please make it payable to Senate District 26 DFL and send it to:
P.O. Box 9044
Rochester, MN 55903-9044
After you send us a donation, we’ll send you a receipt. Send the receipt and the form needed to claim the reimbursement (https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/media/59866) to
Minnesota Revenue Political Contribution Refund
St. Paul, MN 55146-1800.
File a claim and you’ll get a check back in a few weeks.
If you send a check, please include whether you are retired, self-employed or employed. If employed, include the name of your employer and your job title. The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board requires us to collect that information. If you use Act Blue, the appropriate information is collected.
HEAR MORE FROM THE STATE DFL
The Minnesota DFL has several email publications available for free:
Weekdays-In The Know-A news digest divided by topic.
Mondays-DFL Party Monday Memo- Talking points about current issues and key “stories to share”
Wednesdays-DFL Toolkit- Key stories with suggested social media posts and graphics
Fridays-DFL Dispatch- Newsletter with a deeper dive into some topics, some within the DFL
To subscribe, email Brian Evans (bevans@dfl.org) and let him know which publications to which you want to subscribe.
ROCHESTER DFL OFFICE
The office, at 1500 1st Ave, Suite A, in Rochester, does not have scheduled office hours for now. However, as the frequency of COVID-19 cases in Olmsted County continues to decline, we are considering restarting those in July. We will be monitoring telephone messages regularly. If you have a question or concern, call us at 507-536-9785 and we will get back to you.
SD26mn.dfl@gmail.com AND OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA
This is a monthly newsletter. However, events often happen on short notice, so we may not be able to include them in the newsletter. Check our website and Facebook pages for the latest news.
Official communications come from SD DFL (though the full address is above). Watch for them.
We tweet from @sd26dfl and have a website at www.senatedistrict26dfl.com
We have a closed Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/144866495637545/
We share an open Facebook page with Olmsted-25 DFL and Senate District 25 at
https://www.facebook.com/sd26sd25olm25/?fref=ts
Our Instagram account is at dflsenatedistrict26.
Our office is unstaffed for now because of the pandemic but you can leave a message at 507-536-9785. We are monitoring the messages.
The Minnesota DFL’s website is at www.dfl.org. If you go there, click on the I am a … and choose Voter, you can enter your address and find out how your DFL elected officials are. If you click on Click here to join in the Senate District 26 box, it will take you to a secondary website that is currently out-of-date, but should be synchronized with our primary website soon.
The 1st Congressional District DFL also has a website at https://www.dflcd1.org/
