my state has ever had. He also signed marriage equality and medical MJ bills.

The state is doing a complete 180 towards fascism.

the difference one governor can make, esp. with a pack of RW stink tank lobbyists, shills and apathetic populace. And pervasive RW Hate Media. No one is safe from the GOP HOARDE, inside or at every gate it seems. Neoliberal fascism as you say. Btw, I have relatives near Raleigh and Asheville.

For several years I know VA is right next to NC politically. It now holds with McA., Kaine and Warner although the legislature is Red. Next to DC, we have here (too) many RW lobby groups and some colleges, people like Robertson, Newt, Santorum, Dave Brat and the defense contactor wealthy in gated communities. But also many good people too.

Sometimes I wish MN, VT, CA, OR, WA, MD would adopt or annex us in the blue-purple states! I do think this country is already moving into deep regional divisions and populations that will formalize before too long. Years ago some thought that districting would 'Balkanize' the US, make it easy to take over (ie Hitler). Now I think it would strengthen areas like you and VA, MN and neighbor WI.

We need CHOICES!

... just across the border.

These two states are siblings in so many respects. And we in Minnesota had a Republican governor who was willing to trash the state to make a name nationally and left a lot of damage.

Gov. Dayton is doing what good Democrats are always tasked with doing ... cleaning cleaning up after the children that preceded him.

I will say it again, we are pretty friggin' lucky to have him.

So true applegrove!

Yep, in typical right wing style, right wingers pretend their failed policies are actually an OPTION for helping an economy, even though in the history of economies trickle down style economics has never, ever worked.

KY with healthcare, Virginia's Democratic governor has to deal with total insane GOP legislators.

national Democratic Party.

Funny, and anyone would expect he'd be Republican.

Certainly Target is no model corporate citizen.

A model corporate citizen it was.

From what little I know, I liked this man a long time ago.

His net worth is more in the ballpark of $20 million or so.

But Dayton is not. There are other family members who have much more than him. He is not a billionaire as the story states.

And it was not Dayton who started online voter registration, it was former Secretary if State Mark Ritchie.

for electing this guy!

they need to send some common sense to their neighbors in Wisconsin electing Republicans.

Words can barely describe what an incredible relief it has been to have Dayton as our governor (re-elected to a second term in 2014) after 8 miserable years of Pawlenty!

I will admit not being from the midwest I know next to nothing about him, but he intrigues me from this post.

But Minn would curse us if he stepoed down as governor....

I don't see him doing very well in a national campaign. He's not a very good speaker and often comes across as dull and geeky. Leave him here in Minnesota to hold off the evil GOP horde.

focused on the job rather than on self-promotion and starring on center stage. Rarely do you see the blend of intelligence, competence, and charism that Obama has or that FDR had.

I am not one to criticize other dull, geeky people. Dayton is one of them, and like many dull, geeky people he's a hard worker and a good, smart administrator who gets the job done. He is certainly not the "typical" spoiled rich guy.

I was offered the "opportunity" to transfer to Atlanta, and I left my job rather than leave my state. This is a good place to live.

Except of course fox nation

While building economic strength from the bottom up has always worked.

*sigh*

Glad you're here! Glad you're there, too! Minnesota ROCKS! Especially your excellent governor! YES. This stuff WORKS. Proven, again and again and again. Even the pope is onto the supply-side canard, and said so.

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/canard
Merriam‑Webster
a false report or story : a belief or rumor that is not true.

They have to keep the supply-side myth alive despite hard evidence to the contrary.

even when it's laid out in graph or narrative form that a grade schooler could understand most conservatives simply can't believe that any tax hike can possibly produce any GOOD

Economics is a scary subject. When you can boil it down into catch-phrases like "job creators" or "trickle-down" or "pro-growth" etc., the simple minded starts thinking of himself as intelligent because he/she understands economics.

If you can do that, you can do big things.

Situations forced me and my wife to take our kids out of Minnesota due to our children's allergies to corns. New England water system doesn't use softeners (made from corn substances) like 'Sota due to hard waters of well over 10,000 lakes.

I will always consider Sota to be my home and proud of governor running that state uphill toward true prosperity, unlike that sister state to the east...

gets more positive results.

Wisconsin gets: Governor Mark Dayton and three state senators to be named later.

Minnesota gets: Aaron Rodgers, Eddie Lacy, Randall Cobb, Jordy Nelson, Clay Matthews, the ghosts of Reggie White and Vince Lombardi, Brett Favre's lawn mower, and cash considerations. And, Scott Walker.

Good to have you with us! I'm afraid they won't trade. Even though it certainly would work out so much better for you guys! Frustrating as hell for an outsider like me (I'm from California) to see you good folks were not able to rid yourselves of that blight in your governor's office. I just couldn't understand it. I even tried to help, and sent in campaign donations. Wisconsin had a chance to throw him out - TWICE! And he not only got in the first time, but he survived two more elections. And now that's burnished his "credentials" and he can run for higher office on that. I STILL don't understand how that happened.

Honestly, Wisconsin has to be one of the strangest states in the Union politically. Since the '84 election we have gone Dukakis-Clinton-Clinton-Gore-Kerry-Obama-Obama. We elected Tammy Baldwin. And yet we traded in Russ Feingold for Ron "Senator Dumbass" Johnson and voted for Scott Walker thrice. It makes no sense.

Best I can figure is that Scott Walker is our Ronald Reagan... a superficially likable guy who is good at making extreme right positions sound like reasonable, common sense solutions to problems we all face. The guy NEVER goes off script and hasn't ever had an original idea. Sound like Reagan yet? You have Orange County and we have the Milwaukee 'Burbs.

Who knows what it will take to get rid of him, but I can't believe he'd ever become President. Then again I thought the same about Reagan and Bush. Still, he seems like this year's Sarah Palin to me...

I realize this has been said a gillion times-

but I'm not sure they'd want us any more.

I swear the only thing we beat Minnesota at now is football. That is literally the only thing.

them and Wisconsin would be back on top. Amazing what one governor can do to a state- plus any army of RW stink tanks, sellouts, brainwashed populace, corp Media. I followed the 2011 recall and Barrett, supported a bit, what great fighters. Another day..
The encroachment of the GOP HOARDE is inside, or at everyone's gate anymore except maybe MN, CA, VT, OR, WA? No one is safe! So very serious as you know. I have a sweet cousin in St. Paul I need to call, and a dear old friend who graduated law school at Madison; we traveled to Colorado way back. Hang in there-

Or all the bacon at Nueske's or all the lutefisk in Door County or all the beer and motorcycles in Milwaukee.

We made a trade with Dallas that still stings...

Wendell Anderson, another nice competent geeky guy, got himself elected Goob and did this very thing: Changed the property tax structure to equalize and increase state investment in education, raised the state minimum wage, and championed higher marginal rates for state income taxes and corporate taxes.

The result was called the "Minnesota Miracle:" Soaring graduation and educational achievement rates in rural areas, an expanding economy that weathered the "stagflation" of the 70s better than its neighbors, and an enviable standard of living, maintained through vicissitudes of recession, waves of immigration, and the meat-axe budget tactics of GOP Governor "Mean Little Arnie" Carlson.

Until about 15 years ago when Pawlenty & Co. bulldozed it, and every performance measure of educational and social well-being in the state tanked steeply.

It's time for another MN Miracle, let's hope this time the woolhats on the Range and the teepers in the 'burbs have learned their lesson. (Not likely, but we can hope...)

wistfully,
Bright

He and the Gustavus choir had just returned from a trip to the Soviet Union and Poland. They did a concert at a church in Golden Valley and, of course, there was coffee and cookies afterwards. So we are waiting in the church basement for my brother and he walks across the room. He loses some situational awareness as he spots us and runs into a man, apologizes, shakes his hand and claps him on the back. When he finally made his way to us, I got to ask him if he knew that former Gov. Wendy Anderson was there. He starts looking around saying "Where?". "The guy you just ran over..."

One of my all time favorite jaw drops from my brother.

how the right wingers lavish praise on the 1950's, but always miss the HIGH TAXES for the rich that allowed that era to be so prosperous. (of course the fact that we were the only economy untouched by war, helped a bunch too )..

"Socialistic" liberalism is what works..

and they'd shit themselves. But suggest most of Eisenhower's policies to today's evolutionary throwback repukes and they wouldn't be able to denounce them fast enough.

country were a lot better off. But after the Reagan-Bush cuts of 40 years this lot of greedsters would scream financial castration at a 2% increase. And it's trickled down to the brainwashed middle & working class, who are also anti-tax, anti-govt.- in support of the rich thanks to RW Hate TV, radio, internet.

In thinking of those times, 1950s-1970s several in my large group of relatives were in a high bracket from family businesses, assisted by opportunities like affordable college and homes through the GI bill. Others were regular folks with some college or none, and a few professionals in medicine & engineering. The business/company men paid 70% taxes for sure, and they had nice homes, a few toys but no extravagant mansions, country clubs or yachts. They also were very grateful & patriotic to the US, never would they have criticized the US government, not in a million years. That would be treason in their view.

governor .

I don't think so. His family as a whole, father, brothers, etc..., may have a billion or more between them, but I don't think his own net worth is that much.

ETA:
Forbes says the entire family has a net worth of $1.4 billion. That includes his uncle, the richest of all, I'm pretty sure, and brothers, who have a number of businesses (restaurants, a men's boutique) in the Twin Cities. http://www.forbes.com/profile/dayton/

"The Unnatural: How Mark Dayton Bested Scott Walker—and Became the Most Successful Governor in the Country"

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/mark-dayton-minnesota-governor-profile-scott-walker

Seems to be the kind of candidate we've been searching for.

Mark Dayton is our quirky dedicated politician. My republican friends call him "governor mumbles". He is without a doubt the worst speaker ever elected. But his heart and mind are in the right place. He would never make it on the national stage. We are so lucky to have him. We almost had a Scott Walker named Tom Emmer. Dayton only won by 8K votes. Whew... Good lord I hate to think what Minnesota would have been like if he hadn't run or Emmer would have won. (Emmer wanted to cut the state government by 1/3rd).
Stonecarver

Especially compared to the presumptive front runner from Goldman Sachs.

Can't we use this information in commercials? California, Minnesota, other states that did this are doing well. States like Kansas are a disaster. But not many know this. I'd contribute to a commercial just comparing the before and after situations of states on both ends of this issue.