I'm State Rep. Jeremy Kalin (MN-17B) (I also post under State Rep Jeremy Kalin), and I have to say, 2007 has been a great year. To celebrate, I'm throwing a New Year's Party. It's starting now, and you're all invited!
Really, it's an "un-party." Here's how it works... I'll supply the "cake" and "ice cream", give a short "speech", and then we can all "mingle" and celebrate the work we've done, and the work ahead.
This is all I ask: That you help me keep working for Minnesota and for America, with a small donation for my first reelection campaign in 2008- $10, $20, whatever you can afford - and I'll stick around to say hello to all commenters.
Below the fold, I'll make a few brief comments, complete with pics. But first, let my new niece Hayley welcome you to the party:
Many of you followed my campaign for the Minnesota House from my close loss in 2004 - when I went through 4 pairs of shoes and knocked on 12,177 doors - to our even closer victory in 2006. I knocked on 10,023 doors this year, and wore out 5 pairs of shoes including these, my first pair:
Well, this year began with a bang. After a 68-66 slim GOP majority in the MN House from 2005-06, the DFL took back the majority in a big way. We won 19 seats, including nearly all of the very close races, and in districts where we were largely written off, including my own, 17B, in Chisago County at the edge of the northern metro, about 35-40 miles north of St Paul and Minneapolis.
On January 3, my 32nd birthday, we were all sworn in:
One of my particular honors was having my then-fiancee (now my wife), Hope, to my right and my 91-year-old (now 92) Grandma Jean on my left:
House members' offices are in the State Office Building, across the street from the State Capitol. I drew a lucky spot in the lottery, and chose an office with a Capitol view. A guilty pleasure is watching demonstrations on the Capitol steps from my desk:
I serve on the Transportation Finance and Energy Finance Divisions, on the Government Operations and Elections Committee, and as Vice-Chair of the Public Safety Policy Committee. Before my election, I worked as a designer and draftsman for Natural Spaces Domes, helping build energy-efficient geodesic dome homes. At the legislature, I kept expressing an interest in working on energy efficiency policy; In fact, after asking around for existing leaders in energy conservation, I was told: "We heard you were one of them." It was encouraging and humbling to know how quickly one can make a difference in a State Legislature.
Within weeks of taking the majority, the MN House passed the strongest Renewable Energy Standard in the country. In previous years, a weaker version of the same bill couldn't even get a legislative hearing under the GOP majority! Minnesota now requires that more than 27% of our electricity come from renewable resources (wind, solar, hydro, biomass, or hydrogen) by 2025, with intermediate goals starting in 2012. Here's the siging of the bill in mid-February (I'm off-camera, just behind the Governor's shoulder):
But, I don't want to make our progress on Energy sound easy. I learned a great deal in the game of legislative poker, as the utilities worked hard to either oppose or water down our RES, but we stuck to our position. Ther veteran legislators who'd been through it all before were truly mentors. At one point, because our House Energy Committee was so committed to the bill, the lobbyists stopped talking to us and tried moving the Senate off their position, which thankfully didn't happen in substance, only in a few minor details.
In fact, our largest utility, Xcel Energy, has since taken a strong position on renewable energy, including recently adding their 1,000th MW of wind to their system:
As to my work on energy efficiency and conservation, at first the imposter syndrome hit hard. I knew some of the real-world issues, but very little about state policy before 2007. So I asked for a little bit of homework - which turned into a stack of policy reports and background literally 2 feet tall. I took them home on Friday, and came back as an "expert" on Monday - or at least enough to get the job done.
By mid-March, I became the chief author of what became the strongest Energy Efficiency and Conservation law in the United States, requiring every power company in Minnesota to reduce their energy consumption by 1.5% every year. Even with the strongest RES, our Energy Efficiency law will save more energy than the RES will generate.
Here's how it breaks down, with the light blue the energy savings, the darker blue the renewable power, and the grey being our carbon emissions. Without the further steps we will take in 08 and beyond, these two pieces along will result in 8% drop in CO2 emissions by 2025:
Sheldon Strom, from the Minnesota Center for Energy and the Environment did a great deal of the heavy lifting, along with the Governor's staffer, Christy Brusven. Here's Sheldon and I testifying on the bill (he's holding a 1,000 watt gymnasium incandescent bulb still used in some schools in the state, for emphasis):
Ultimately, my bill became the cornerstone of the Next Generation Energy Act, which included aggressive global warming mitigation goals, with an ultimate goal of reducing MN's CO2 emissions 80% by 2050 (from 2005 levels). The bill passed with almost 95% support from both sides of the aisles, and was signed by Governor Pawlenty (please excuse the poorly colored photo):
Senator Scott Dibble (back row, on the left), Christy Brusven of the Governor's staff, Sheldon Strom and myself will receive the "Inspiring Leadership" award from the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance in two weeks. It's been a rare but great experience authoring such a landmark and technical bill as a freshman legislator.
In Minnesota, our regular legislative session lasts until late May, per the Constitution. But the last 8 years, every budget session has resulted in a special session - even to the point of government shutdown in 2005. This year, we finished on-time, and under-budget, for the first time in almost a decade; maybe Democrats can govern and manage money well...? I certainly think so.
We made real progress of Health Care Reform, Education Investment, Environmental Protection, and more. We did get frustrated by vetoes on Property Tax Reforms, and, as highlighted by Aug. 1, on Transportation investments (I liveblogged the floor debate).
I had thought the summer would be spent largely getting ready for our wedding on August 12. One of the best parts of my job is spending a day (or longer) walking in other people's shoes.
You may have read my diaries about taking the Minnesota Food Stamp Challenge, to live on the average personal budget for food stamps, of $3/day. You can read Day One here, Days Two and Three here, and Days Four and Five here.
I also made several "ride-alongs" with local law enforcement, first responders, and more. After a routine day with our local EMS, a call came over the radio of an automobile crash. We hopped in the truck and arrived on the scene about 5 minutes before the helicopter. In the ambulance, I helped in simple ways like holding an IV bag to help rinse out a wound, and helping soothe a victim. Then, the driver pointed at me, and before I knew it, I was helping load a patient onto the helicopter. Pretty amazing:
In early June, I also had the honor of reading names of fallen soldiers at the dedication of the Minnesota World War II Veterans Memorial. It was amazing and humbling. Some families came from hundreds or even thousands of miles to honor their grandparents. I even met someone who probably served in the same unit as my own grandfather, working on radios in the Indo-Chinese Theater:
Of course, my fiancee's and my dream of having a "normal" time to plan our wedding was shattered on August 1, when the 35W bridge fell into the Mississippi River. I don't want to say too much about it, more than I've already blogged in my regular updates. We all know the tragedy, and there's a lot of work left to do, in terms of discovering the cause, inspecting and repairing bridges, increasing investment in all parts of our transportation system, and learning from what worked and what didn't during the emergency response. (photo from eye-witness Noah Kunin)
You can read some of my updates on the 35W Bridge situation from Aug. 3 and Aug. 6, and on Aug. 10.
Of course, the highlight of the year is my wedding to the wonderful woman I met on the school bus in 5th and 6th grade, Hope. We had a fantastic wedding, surrounded by family and friends, married by the Rabbi that performed my Bar Mitzvah, and advised our youth group as youngin's. We also embarked on a great honeymoon to Alaska, with a cruise, fishing, hiking, kayaking, horsebacking riding, and much more...
Isn't she a gorgeous woman?
All in all, it's been a great year. But, there's a lot more ahead...
The legislative session begins on Feb. 12, 2008. I know that achieving real Health Care Reform that results in universal, affordable, guaranteed coverage will be a high priority.
I have several next steps ready to go for energy efficiency and conservation work, including some version of Architecture 2030 Green Building standards and energy efficiency appliance standards.
We have a lot of ground to cover in Transportation investment, for Roads, Bridges, Rail and Transit. I am afraid we will again have to override a gubernatorial veto, but I am optimistic we will be able to do it.
And, one of my personal favorites, we will pass the Military Voting Bill I chief-authored, a bill that was developed with the Pentagon.
And, of course, there's always the re-election campaign. I hope you'll consider keeping me working for Minnesota.
I crashed the gates in 2006, and I plan on continuing to work for change every day I am in office. Thanks for your help!
All my best,
Jeremy