State Representative David Bly, District 25B

Speaker Sviggum threatens another DFL candidate

Well, I’m not the only one threatened by Speaker Steve Sviggum. Another letter, dated three days after the one I received, was sent by the Speaker to Jeanne Poppe, DFL candidate for House District 27B. Like my own race, this is a hot contest, where she lost by only 378 votes.

Jeanne Poppe has been holding events called “Poppe Popsicles in the Park,” and was also told by Sviggum to “immediately cease this criminal activity. Failure to do so will result in a complaint to be filed followed by an investigation of your campaign.”

These perfectly lawful events will continue. Jeanne says, “Our next Poppe in the Park event is Thursday, July 8 from 7 - 8 pm at Shirley Theel Park in Southwest Austin (near Fordtown). I welcome you all to come and see me this Thursday. I will bring the letter from Mr Sviggum so you can all see it firsthand! Thanks for your support!”

I am asked, why the Speaker would make these threats? To be honest I do not know, but I understand that he is facing the prospect of losing the House this year and losing his position as Speaker, and that a lot is riding on this election. Republicans have made a lot of headway in transforming Minnesota to their liking, in changing our social and fiscal priorities, and shortchanging citizens and taxpayers in the process. They have shifted the tax burdens and funding sources in ways that will become apparent over time. The foundation of public education has been altered, a few bricks at a time, a few teacher layoffs at a time, and referendum by referendum across the state. We understand that health care, day care, nursing home care has been cut, leaving many types of care unfunded or coming up short. Debts are coming due. That’s why we’re running - we want to turn around this Republican trend that is gutting Minnesota. We plan to take back the House.

The Politics of Pie

Why pie? Pie in the shape of a circle implies at once that we are all one and that this limited resource must be shared for the common good, it must be carefully dished out if we are to each receive a piece. As countless pie charts show, the pie can be divided in many ways.

What makes for a good pie? What makes for a good society? How do we divide the pie so that we can all benefit? Why does it matter that we think about being in this together? Do we have to share? These are important questions which we must consider as we look to the future. As former Gov. Arne Carlson said, “Minnesota’s response used to be to work together for our common good, to be proud that we were a state with no prejudice, and to always think about the future.” Sadly, this is no longer Minnesota’s response.

Things have changed now that the extreme and radical conservatives are in charge of two thirds of our state government. They promote a strategy that feeds on division and prejudice, and challenges Minnesota to be mediocre. They want us to aspire to be more like Iowa or Wisconsin or even South Dakota. We should give up our high regional position to be a state in the middle thirties, supposedly for prosperity and livability. Why? How can this be? It has to do with how they want to divide the pie. They want the pie to be divided so that a few, themselves included, get a pretty hefty slice while the rest of us get to fight over the spoils or the crumbs that fall from their plate.

I believe that by having a state strategy like the one we had followed for most of the last fifty years, we can assure that the common good is served. We can assure that young people have good schools to go to, regardless of what kind of family they come from, where they live, or how much money they have. We can assure access to health care. We can assure that senior citizens will be provided for and not be forced to make hard choices about whether or not to buy food or cut their prescriptions in half.

I want to get things done. I believe we can rebuild our infrastructure and continue to create communities where businesses prosper, where jobs are created by a partnership of government and enterprise, and that economic development isn’t something that communities pay for through subsidies like JOBZ - instead it provides local economic benefits with a net gain. I believe we can give hope to those who struggle by helping them see that increased opportunity is available through education. I believe we have an obligation to contribute, to share, to be reasonable and fair in an effort to make Minnesota better. We share the pie.

We face some difficult issues in the coming years, and I am very worried about the direction our state and federal governments are taking us. They are using the power of the state, as Bill Moyers says, “to transfer wealth to the rich, and to use the authority of law to give corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment, as well as to control the regulatory agencies meant to hold them accountable.” These transfers are at the expense of working people and the environment, and the practices of some corporations are destroying the air we breathe and the water we drink while they are asking the government for further handouts and protections. This is not my vision of the role of government or the future of Minnesota.

I want to “share the pie,” and I want this message to resound through the district. This is why we say ‘Bly and Pie in the Park’. We do offer as refreshment a slice of Minnesota pie, of nominal value, for any who would like a piece. There is no expectation that those who come to talk with us and share their ideas are obligated in any way to vote for me or to need to feel compelled to share in a slice of pie - they can freely decline to partake in the pie and/or conversation as they wish - as the Republican House staffer who attended last week’s Bly & Pie can attest. But this chance to speak with constituents about common concerns is important, a slice of democracy in action. I want to learn from my neighbors about their thoughts and their beliefs and I hope to share mine.

I intend to talk about the common good and dividing the pie fairly, and yes, I intend to continue to enjoy sharing a slice of pie with my neighbors when we meet to talk about these issues and their concerns about the future of our great state. Neighbors, conversation, and apple pie - it’s what democracy is all about.

Here’s an article that appeared in the St. Paul paper related to this issue. The reporter came to our last pie event in Central Park. It made the front page of Sunday’s (July 4th) St. Paul Pioneer Press!

New law may cut election gripes Establishes penalty for trivial complaints
BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press
Wed, Jun. 30, 2004
One of the oldest dirty tricks in Minnesota politics may soon bite the dust.

A favorite tactic of unscrupulous candidates has been to file complaints with county attorneys falsely accusing their opponents of lying in their campaign literature. The county attorneys are required by current law to investigate, whether the charges have any merit or not. Then the complaining candidate runs around telling voters that his opponent is under criminal investigation for breaking campaign laws.

But a new law that takes effect Thursday may put a stop to that tactic.

The law will speed up investigations of complaints and make people who file frivolous or malicious grievances foot the bill.

It also will relieve county attorneys of the burden of investigating every campaign complaint, freeing them to focus on prosecuting more serious crimes. Metro area county attorneys say they handle dozens of such complaints each year.

“We have a lot of rapists, murderers, robbers and white-collar criminals that we need to focus on. To use our very precious criminal justice resources - resources that are dwindling all the time - on election law complaints didn’t seem like a good use of public safety resources,” said Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner, who led the charge in the Legislature to change the law.

More important, Gaertner and other county attorneys agree, the new law will ensure that voters know before they cast their ballots whether an accusation that a candidate broke the law is true or false.

“The main consequence that someone should suffer for running a dirty campaign or making a false accusation against an opponent would be to lose,” Gaertner said. The new law will make that more likely.

To read the entire article click here.

One of my supporters was inspired to compose the following limerick (humorous verse has been spontaneously appearing, this has struck a chord with funny bones across the district!):

Pie in the Sky (or in your face) Limerick

There once lived a fellow name Bly,
Who treated his people to pie.
Along came Steve Sviggum
to do some deep diggin’
and bring this to light on the sly.

“How many of these did you give?”
“We’re watching and know where you live.”
“Your campaign, we’ll keep track of,”
“You’d best think to back off”
“or money will flow in through a sieve!”

“Maybe you think your campaign is above it”
“and your people keep saying they love it.”
“We’ll get you,” they say.
But Bly replies, “Nay!”
“You can take a Dutch Apple and shove it!”

- Dave Mindeman, MNPA

Here’s what’s appeared in the Northfield News:

Bly’s pie called into question

Pie debate a waste of energy

Keep up the good work

Saturday, July 03, 2004
What else does one do?

To the editor:
I’m not sure I understand the point of your recent editorial regarding the
pie episode. A high public official bullies a local candidate through the
threat of legal action, based on a selective quotation of the law. In
response, you take David Bly to task for making House majority leader Steve
Sviggum’s threat public. But what else does one do when confronted with such
an outlandish abuse of power? Publicity is the obvious remedy. Why didn’t
the Northfield News ask the incumbent about the Republican leadership’s
intervention in his behalf? That would seem the more relevant point.
Michael Fitzgerald Northfield

Saturday, July 03, 2004
Suess used loosely
No pie from Bly. Says I. Says I. For I am the Speaker. Not someone meeker.
Did Cox serve lox? Or candy from a box? Did Tuma serve tuna? Or a sandwich
of baloogna? Neuville would neuver give food for a vote. It just isn’t done.
DFLers must note. But what of coffee? Dear Speaker? Dear Speaker? May we
serve a cup? Or even a beaker? Coffee is fine if it’s the church basement
kind. But not from Blue Monday or Starbuck’s on Sunday. The portion must be
apportioned just so. A cup is too large. But a swig? Um? Who’d know?
Richard Esse Northfield