July 2021 Newsletter

Dear Mom

by Al Brown

Watching the Infrastructure Bill make its way through Congress makes me think of the battle you and Dad had over our front step.

Because Dad was a truck driver, he wasn’t there the first time it gave way to time and poor construction. There were no cell phones, and he was hauling something somewhere in Texas. I was about eight the first time it gave way. I remember the surprise at hearing you say that particular word.

As I recall, it took more than a few years to get that infrastructure deal passed. There were several temporary packages before it would be completed.

The cinder block and plyboard fix came first. The no new taxes partner – Dad – thought this was perfectly acceptable. 

He was persuaded this was a temporary solution by the “this looks like crap” partner - you. The prefab steps in the back of the pickup followed.

Until they, too, gave way to Oklahoma wind and rain.

Then came the summer I was old enough to unload my share of feed sacks, pipe or whatever else Dad hauled up I-35. He was coming home the next day. You and I went to the lumber yard to pick up cement, a wheelbarrow and two shovels. 

I remember waiting for him to pull up. Wondering if he was going to be mad or not.

He wasn’t. 

The infrastructure deal had obviously been struck.

It looks to me like President Joe is taking it one step at a time on our country’s infrastructure bill. He slipped when he said what everyone knew. There is a bill Republicans and Democrats can agree to. There is reconciliation that Democrats will work out alone.

Pretending you can’t support fixing the bridges, roads and internet we need to live and work is silly. It’s costly in terms of lives and dollars. It should stop. Pass the bill. Pass the reconciliation.

Fix the porch so we can get to work.

Not that it will be that simple.

Republicans have become the party of silly lately. And, worse. A party that wants to forget an attempted coup on Jan. 6 in order to keep conspiracy theorists, neo-Nazis and white supremacists from leaving their voting rolls. Republicans seeking the House and Senate seem increasingly comfortable selling out Democracy. Those who want to take something home to their constituents more than Q-Anon conspiracies need to get on board.

I just hope we can find some middle ground. 

Agreeing to fixing the porch would seem to be a bare minimum where a two-party government continues to work.

I know you were awful happy with us after we finished our porch. We were all happy.

It was a great porch … except for that wiggle-waggle where we didn’t prop up the form well enough.

I know. You liked the wiggle-waggle.

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. In July we have: 

Saturday, July 17 11 AM Eyota Days Grand Parade- Dover-Eyota High School 615 South Ave, SE., Eyota. We won’t get our unit number until the 17th, but line-up is just west of the high school. 

Sunday, July 18 3 PM Byron Good Neighbors Day Parade-Byron Intermediate School )501 10th Ave, NE, Byron). We won’t get our unit number in advance, but line-up should be in the parking lot. 

Tuesday, July 27-Sunday August 1 Olmsted County Free Fair, Olmsted County Fairgrounds Our booth will be open 11 AM-9 PM July 27-31 and 11 AM-6 PM August 1. We need volunteers to staff the booth. Contact SD26mn.dfl@gmail.com if you can help.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE:  FEDERAL AND STATE

Joe Biden remains popular. In an average of recent polls, his approval rating was 51.9% (with 42.3% disapproving). His legislative agenda has not moved much in the last two months, as his Administration negotiates with Senate Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans blocked consideration of the For the People Act in June. The House created a Select Committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol. It will have 13 members, all appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, though she must consult with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on five members.

The Minnesota Legislature’s special session ended June 30  with all budget bills and a tax bill getting passed in the session. The budget was $52 billion for the next two years. There was $1 billion in tax cuts. Per-student funding for K-12 schools will go up 2.45% in 2021-22 and 2% in 2022-23, the largest increase in 15 years. DFL House leaders called the health and human services bill a generational achievement for the variety of programs that were created or improved. A lot of DFL and Republican initiatives did not make it through the extended negotiations that led to the final budget bills. This includes many of the police reform initiatives the House DFL passed.

SENATE DISTRICT 26 DFL CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETS JULY 12

Our next Central Committee meeting will be Monday, July 12 from 7-9 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. Representative Tina Liebling will give a legislative session wrap-up at 7;30. We will also hear officer reports, 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 four Directors, three of which must be filled by people who live in House District 26B. The Vice-Chair and two 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 soon, 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. Do it now. Make your donation via ActBlue (https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/senate-district-26-dfl-party-1?refcode=sd2). If you prefer to write a check, 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.

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/