After Ed in Montana and others did a fine job reporting the travesty going on there, I thought it was worth mentioning what is happening in another state that Democrats made big gains.
The Minnesota legislature opened today and fights over everything from organization, rules and even the vote over the house speaker were bitterly contested.
The House is narrowly controlled by the Repubicans 68-66, and the Senate by the Democrats 34-31, with an increasingly unpopular Governor to take most of the budget blame.
Unfortunately some Democrats are protesting in the House after we worked so hard to make huge gains in places that Democrats have been shut out of in decades, and literally came within a few dozen votes of taking the chamber. The Republicans are dealing with the same problem.
Protests over abortion caused two Democrats to abstain from voting on the house leader, and irritatin over an incident of neopitism within the Republican party caused one member to abstain from voting on the house leader. The final tally there was 67-64.
The Senate was calmer today, likely because they were not up for election, but the fights there look to be bitter but the Democrats showed enough fight last cycle to give the state party hope.
The possiblity of defections is not out of the question. The Senate would take two members to change and that doesn't look likely. However, if House Democrats could peel off one Republican they would have the majority.
My representative, a Republican endorsed by the Sierra Club, is only one of about half a dozen that will have to walk a fine line between party loyalty and district loyalty. Both times he has won by less than 2 percent, and if he doesn't stay left of center he's probably toast.
Walter Mondale was the big attraction today, and a man the Democrats were able to rally around.
