(00:00:24) Good morning, and welcome to midday on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Gary eichten glad you could join us City sales taxes won't be going up Billboards won't be coming down. Some school taxes will be going up others are going to be left where they are. Most incumbents are returning others will have to find another way to keep busy. Today is the day after election day here in Minnesota and day during this first hour of. Midday. We're going to take a closer. Look at what Minnesota voters decided yesterday will be focusing on education will take a closer look at initiative and referendum but to begin let's take a closer. Look at the issue that grab the most attention yesterday namely the proposal to raise the city sales tax in st. Paul to pay the city's share of a proposed new ballpark for the Minnesota Twins in downtown st. Paul far more people than normal turned out to vote in say Paul yesterday and when the votes were counted the proposal was soundly defeated about 58 percent to 42 percent. Begin our coverage Minnesota public radio's Michael coup for the past four months polls had shown consistent and strong opposition to Mayor Norm Coleman's plan to bring the Minnesota Twins across the river and from the moment election results began trickling in it seemed the pollsters had gotten it right by about 9:30 last night Coleman conceded the fight was over the voice of the people is to say no not. Yes. Am I disappointed in that? Absolutely must yeah, you know, very very disappointed not disappointed for me but disappointed for st. Paul. This is a tremendous Vision tremendous opportunity. But in the end in this business, you got to live with the voice of the people and they have spoken and they spoke in record numbers Ramsey County election officials estimate voter turnout was above 60% more than twice the number in the last off-year election without a mayor's race and close to Last year's turnout when Governor Jesse Ventura was swept into office Coleman's concession speech sparked a round of applause among opponents of the stadium sales (00:02:34) tax. Conceded this election (00:02:42) Holly rodent chairs the steering committee for a progressive Minnesota a group opposed to the stadium initiative rodent called the election results of vindication for Grassroots organizing. It's (00:02:53) a lesson. That when people put their time and energy in an issue, they can't pay that they care about it out. It beats money. And that's the lesson that we need to learn and graduations to everybody for a job very well done on this campaign (00:03:09) the exact amount spent by the two camps during the summer long debate won't be clear until final campaign disclosure forms are filed next month, but previous filings showed Pro Stadium forces outspending opponents more than 521 despite. The lopsided funding Stadium tax supporters said they weren't surprised by the final results including twins president Jerry Bell, you know, we were not shocked because the polls that showed all along that this was an uphill struggle. So can't be terribly surprised disappointed but not surprised Bell declined to comment on what the future holds for the twins now that the Saint Paul effort at Years dead the twins lease at the Metrodome runs through the 2000 baseball season afterwards. They have the option to renew or seek other accommodations last night's voting also appears to negate a tentative deal reached between Twins owner Carl polad and sports investors lend Taylor and Robert. Negly Taylor owns the Minnesota Timberwolves and negly is the lead investor in the Minnesota Wild last month the two agreed to by the twins for 120 million dollars contingent on approval of the stadium tax by st. Paul voters. Negley would not discuss the possibility of alternative arrangements for a transfer of ownership will have to repay re-evaluate where we are tomorrow. This was a the anticipation was that we would be here in St. Paul with a victory and so beyond that we have we have no comment after last night whatever new steps might be Taken will have to be outside of st. Paul attention will now likely turn to Minneapolis and Hennepin County which have been quietly assembling a stadium package of their own but Coleman expressed his doubts about whether such a plan could work. I would be supportive. I mean, I would be supportive of keeping Major League Baseball. Absolutely. I from the very beginning though. I didn't think that plan had any possibility. There's no way if the people aren't going to say, yes, I don't think any of the politicians are going to stand up and say we're going to do a poll we're going to do anything without the people having being heard if the stadium debate migrates back to the West Metro organizers with Progressive, Minnesota say, they'll continue their fight against publicly-funded sports facilities. Johanna. Jeanette is a University of Minnesota student in an intern with Progressive Minnesota. She says their Pace has been strengthened by the Saint Paul (00:05:47) results. I think that winning this campaign is going to help us a lot out a lot because Minneapolis is going to save st. Paul didn't want it. Why are we? And I hope that hopefully they'll think about it before they tried running the campaign (00:05:58) again Progressive Minnesota would already have a leg up in any Minneapolis Stadium discussion during the last debate in 1997 the volunteer group successfully championed the ballot initiative limiting any City contribution for professional sports facilities at 10 million dollars from Minneapolis to spend more would require a referendum much like yesterday's I'm Michael coup, Minnesota Public Radio. Will Minneapolis downtown council president Sam grabarsky says Community leaders in Minneapolis have been talking about how they might come up with a financial package that would keep the Twins and the Vikings in Downtown Minneapolis, but grabarsky says, he does not think Minneapolis would ask the state legislature for any general fund money for sports stadiums. Instead grabarsky says that dedicating just a fraction of a percentage of metro area sales tax. Could easily cover Stadium costs as well as addressing other Regional needs such as improving transportation in the metropolitan area. For instance. If we were going to build a brand new stadium and do a major retrofit of the Metrodome in and that was all that we wanted to accomplish. We would need something in the vicinity of only a half cent sales tax if that was all we want to do accomplish in Downtown Minneapolis alone, if that's all we wanted to accomplish. We wanted to spread that out. We would need a fifth of a cent to do that in Hennepin County. And if we did it Metropolitan the 7 countywide it's a tenth of a cent. Now, I'm not saying that those are great proposals. I'm just trying to explain that this these are relatively small amounts of money in a broader scheme of infrastructure for the metropolitan area grabarsky says he thinks Minneapolis will be ready to unveil a plan to the legislature in time for the 2001 legislative session. That would be after. Next year's elections, by the way, Nationwide pro-sports batted 500 yesterday like voters in st. Paul Houston voters defeated a public money for Pro Sports proposal while Scottsdale Arizona and San Antonio Texas the hometown of Vikings owner Red McCombs approved proposals to fund pro sports facilities. So what happens next with the Minnesota Twins joining us now is Jim Pollard. Good morning, sir morning. What does happen next? Well, that is a very good question. We're in today and we will do so in the near future your try to figure out just what does happen next. I don't have an answer for you. We didn't have a plan B that was sitting on our desk ready to go in case the referendum failed his the sales agreement with Glen Taylor and Robert Negley dad. Now, is that off the table by the nature of the contract? Technically? Yes it is. Is that mean that it's possible to revive the deal or extended in some way? That would I would just totally up to the to mr. Negly. Mr. Taylor. What is your sense? Do you think it's likely that many appleís and or Hennepin County will be able to come up with some kind of plan. That would be agreeable to the Minnesota Twins. I think that's definitely we certainly would view it possible that the county could come up with the plan that are the city could come with planets agreeable the twins, of course the problem that all these plans have had because we've been agreeable to a number of them is make him agreeable to the public. Is there any way again we heard it to during the campaign in st. Paul? Is there any way for the twins to build their own stadium to build this with private money Allah the situation in San Francisco in seven that people keep referring to San Francisco. And that's the only one that's been. Like that and it still has not yet opened. So viability of that remains to be seen but I believe that the answer to your question is no and I think that's what people don't understand. Everybody says, oh we're again we're for be it's not that we're not against baseball. We just don't want to contribute to building a stadium. I think that people have to understand that in order for baseball in Minnesota or other markets to succeed. It has to be a public private partnership. It can't be done by one or the other on their own. Why not? Because the economics say that I mean you can talk about baseball's economics being confused and probably not working properly, but that has nothing to do with the cost of concrete and steel and so over that it takes to build a stadium with the investment is significant in the physical structure of a stadium and the economics of baseball or football. Don't say that the sport can pay For the stadium on its own another argument that we've heard is if stadium is a good deal again, you folks who build it yourself and the mere fact that you it doesn't economically viable for for you folks to build your own Park proves that this is a bad investment for the public. Well, I mean people say that your baseball is a business and should not be looked at and given Public's support and if that's the case in any business if you look at strickler's business, you will find a that we can't spend more money on salaries and we take in in revenue and be we certainly couldn't afford the capital investment necessary to fund a two or three hundred million dollar stadium in the number simply don't work out. So if the messages look at it as a business and treat it that way then the answer is clear. You can't afford these things fortunately. Is it possible that the poll had family will sell the Team now to out-of-state interests, I would say at this point anything is possible and I don't want to get into any kind of speculation or things that people would take to be threats because we're not there yet. We don't know what we're going to do next. Do you have any idea when you're we are going to make some kind of a decision as to what path to pursue it has to what has to be sooner rather than later is is the report pointed out. We have another year to play in the Metrodome. And and if you were to make any kind of changes you have to plan for these changes well in advance. Star Tribune columnist Patrick Roy C was writing this morning that given all that's occurred. Your father should simply sell the team and let somebody move it take it away because Minnesota is not conducive atmosphere any longer for Major League Baseball that he's essentially done all he can and there's no reason to keep trying does he feel that way? Well, I mean any case when you when you're disappointed with the outcome of something your first reaction is to react emotionally and say well fine. They don't want it will take it away from them, but I'm not positive that you know, when you sit back and reflect upon it you can't you can't let your emotions, you know get in the way of that and you still got to keep fighting for if you can what is best for the community and we believe and have we've all along that baseball is best for the community and I hope we can continue that fight. I'm not sure that we can though. You don't know did you? (00:13:28) I (00:13:28) think realistically that there was a chance this ballot initiative was going to pass in st. Paul. Yes, we did. Say you were surprised by the turn of the by the way things turned out. Yes, we were not. You know, I don't know exactly what the messages you can look at it. I can give you the glass as half full or the glass is half empty answer if you look at it from a glass is half-full we'd say well people seem far as saying they want the stadium in Minneapolis. That's the optimistic way of looking at if the glass is half empty you'd say either people don't want baseball or they don't understand like I previously said that it in order for baseball to be here does have to be a public private partnership. All right. Thanks so much for joining us. You're welcome. Jim poor lad who is one of the twins owner Carl polad Sons intimately involved in operating the Minnesota Twins, and of course the agreement or the tentative agreement to sell the twins to Glen Taylor and Robert Negley is now off the table at least for the time being what with the defeat of yesterday's sales tax increase proposal in st. Paul. About 21 minutes now past eleven. This is midday on Minnesota Public Radio in this hour. We're taking a look back at some of the election results from election day here in the state of Minnesota. Lots to talk about reminder over the noon hour. Today. We're going to hear from a syndicated columnist David Broder who says that ballot initiatives like the stadium proposal could become a way of life for everybody in America sooner rather than later and we'll hear from David Broder over the noon hour while st. Paul area residents were voting on The Stadium issue. St. Cloud area residents said no yesterday to a half percent sales tax increase for a proposed Regional Events Center that referendum was also tied to other Regional amenities like parking provements and a remodeled Regional Library officials say they're now looking for ways to fund the library and the parks Minnesota public radio's Marissa Helms reports. (00:15:33) There will be no sales hike in st. Cloud this year that means There will be no Central Minnesota Events Center in the foreseeable future legislative mandate opened a window this year for st. Cloud to pass the tax to be eligible for State funding to build the Event Center Dwayne Schumacher is co-chair of We the People a group which opposed the measure they were particularly unhappy that the ballot linked local improvements including an expanded Regional Library and improvements to ailing public parks and pools with a project as expensive as the proposed 69 million dollar Event Center Schumacher says, he's pleased the measure was (00:16:12) defeated. The people have one of Victory because they've restored their faith in the right to vote and their belief that it's Paramount in our democracy for representative government and I think they've came out in numbers fifty some percent came out and voted and I think that is something that should be (00:16:33) applauded the ballot was defeated by only 360. Votes once the outcome was clear a supporters talked about going back to the legislature again to ask for sales tax authorization for the parks and the library only but st. Cloud representative Joe Lopez who carried the initial bill for the event center says he won't be the one to carry that bill (00:16:56) the notion of allowing local units of government to impose upon themselves as sales tax is for regional or Statewide projects clearly the voters made a statement not only about the event center but about parks and trails and libraries it seems seems to me so I I'm really not interested in spending the next legislative session pushing another bill that would bring back to the voters the sales (00:17:24) tax. St. Cloud. Mayor. Larry Meyer has been a supporter of the ballot measure from the start. He says he hopes to get approval from the city council to try and persuade opiates or another local legislator to The city get those improvements funded (00:17:39) getting sales tax authorization is not really see. However, I would point out that Rochester Mankato Duluth Winona all of the major regional cities including the Twin Cities have received sales tax authorization. We are the largest regional City not to have it. So I see no reason why we can't go to the legislature and ask for this (00:18:06) all succeeds of the Saint Cloud City Council were also up for election Challengers 14 out of those six seats Event Center opponent, Dwayne Schumacher says that shows st. Cloud residents want change, but mayor Larry Meyer was quick to point out that all newly elected City Council Members support a sales tax referendum, the only st. Cloud ballot initiatives to past Tuesday were road construction measures that involved no new funding in Collegeville. I'm erisa Helmsman Soda public radio (00:18:38) in Duluth, the election results yesterday resulted in a significant turnover among city council and school board members with both bodies likely taking on a more labor friendly and liberal tone. But labor endorsed candidates did not totally control either body and some extremely close votes had candidates wondering just what message voters were sending voters intentions or bit clearer in the races for mayor and state legislature Mayor Gary Doty easily won a third term and DF allerdale swap in ski one Willard mongers former legislative seat by a wide. Margin Minnesota Public Radio is a mere Adel has that story now from Duluth (00:19:20) times are pretty good in Duluth. Unemployment is low some new businesses are getting started in town tourism is growing and voters responded Tuesday by returning incumbent Mayor Gary Dodie to office for a third term Dodie defeated Greg Gilbert a city. Member who focused largely on some of the city's contentious development projects including a downtown building known as the technology Village Dodie says his re-election is a Vindication for the city subsidized project and he expects to announce some tenants for the building in the next two weeks. He says bringing jobs to town will be his top priority this (00:19:57) term developed the aviation aspect of our community tourism infrastructure improvements development of a labor force because that's the key to Bringing jobs in the community development of a labor (00:20:08) force. Although he's a Democrat Dodie did not receive the dfl endorsement. He was endorsed by all the cities labor groups Allen nesland heads the Duluth Central labor body AFL-CIO. He says relations with Dodi restrained because of Duties opposition to a living wage ordinance in the past few years. But since then Dodie has been conscientious about improving his relationship with the city's (00:20:32) unions. We've had some difficulties in the past. There's no question about that and he Recognize those and he made a determined effort to improve those relationships particularly over the last two years. (00:20:41) Dodie will be working with a new city council that will likely look favorably upon labor concerns and may have very different Slants than he does on issues such as business development one new council member has the support of the Chamber of Commerce while three new members are labor endorsed. One of those members rest Stewart says differences of opinion are likely but he hopes to keep things (00:21:04) amicable. I'm sure that some of us will have our disagreements with them. But I hope we can keep it civil. I certainly will keep it civil. One of my campaign themes has been a call for civility in politics and need to be more polite in your disagreements. And I think that we'll get along just fine so long as he's civil to and I think he will be (00:21:23) the composition of the council still has one more variable since a replacement must be found for departing member dais with Penske. So Pinsky was elected to fill the State Legislative seat in district 7 a held by representative. Third Monger 422 terms until his death earlier this year. So Penske says he'll try to uphold Monger standard on environmental issues. But he also plans to be an advocate for jobs and (00:21:48) education. Maybe I'll be a little broader Focus than representative Unger was we can all be very very pleased that we had his representation. And for as long as we did we're all reaping the benefits of (00:22:07) that labor endorsed candidates also gained the majority on the Duluth School Board, which will likely improve the board's relationship with the teachers union and mean a tough battle for the Edison charter schools that will seek to have their contract with the board renewed later this year the board voted to allow Edison to run to Duluth schools two years ago an unpopular move with the teachers union because Edison does not hire Union teachers Duluth voters also approved a 6.6 million dollar Bond referendum. Them to restore School athletic facilities in Duluth. I'm Amy radel Minnesota Public (00:22:42) Radio altogether, there were over 200 school-related votes taken yesterday in the state of Minnesota and coming up after news headlines will have much much more on those education votes. Also we're going to talk about the issue of initiative and referendum in the state of Minnesota. Lots of people turned out to vote on ballot questions in Minnesota yesterday most significantly in st. Paul and we'll be talking about the idea of a Statewide initiative and referendum procedure over the noon hour. Today. We're going to hear from David Broder who says we are coming close to a time when we'll have to decide whether we want a national initiative and referendum procedure all of that still to come here on midday. You're invited to a special performance (00:23:29) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Loft Mentor series selected shorts brings its radio series from New York to the Twin Cities for an evening at the Fitzgerald theater Sunday, November (00:23:40) 7th. Join host Isaiah Sheffer and nationally known authors from the mentor series for a live performance tickets are available through the Fitzgerald box office at 6'5 1290 1221 MPR and Loft members receive a discount. It's 11:30 time. Now for some news headlines years Greta Cunningham (00:24:01) Greta. Thanks Gary. Good morning officials at the command post for the EgyptAir search operation. Say some relatives had to be taken to the hospital after they were overcome with emotion this morning Muslim families are especially devastated by the news that only partial remains of victims are expected to be recovered in the Egypt air crash without a body families cannot follow traditional Islamic death rites. There's an arraignment hearing set today for Brian Lewis. Uji the suspect in yesterday's Xerox office shooting in Honolulu, he's accused of gunning down seven co-workers. His father says he had anger management classes in the past. Hawaii's governor has ordered the state flag be flown at half-staff as people try to cope with the killings the FBI list Honolulu as the least violent of the nation's 20 largest cities jurors have reached a verdict in the trial of Wyoming man accused of killing gay college student Matthew Shepard Court officials say the verdict will be ready shortly. Flooding has killed hundreds of people in central Vietnam up to two feet of rain has fallen in the flood prone area over the past week. The death toll is expected to rise for government helicopters sent to the flooded region had to turn back because of continuing bad weather in Regional news State Patrol officials believe speeding cause yesterday's accident on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis. The driver of the truck involved in the accident was trapped for three hours until a document doctor amputated his left leg two people in a vehicle struck by the semi-trailer also were seriously. Injured in the accident Interstate 35W was closed for hours to clean up diesel fuel and a thousand pounds of rags and garbage from the overturned truck. The truck driver is in critical condition at Hennepin County Medical Center. His leg was not reattached the forecast for Minnesota calls for Sunshine State wide high temperatures near 48th in the Far East to 58 in the southwest tonight. We'll have clear skies Statewide with lows ranging from 20 to 30 degrees at this hour Sunshine reported throughout the region Rochester report sunny skies and 44. It's sunny in Duluth and 34 and in the Twin Cities Sunshine a temperature of 43 degrees Gary. That's a look at the latest (00:26:05) news. All right. Thank you Greta 28 minutes before noon. This is midday on Minnesota Public Radio. And today we're taking a look at some of the questions that were answered and some of the questions that were raised during voting yesterday here in the state of Minnesota yesterday was election day. No Statewide races were on the ballot, but lots and lots of interesting local questions. Whirr whirr decided yesterday and those are some of the issues that we're focusing on during this first hour of our midday broadcast, the all the attention focused on the stadium question many people may have overlooked all of the school board and election education related questions that were put to voters yesterday 203 203 of the state's 344 public school districts held elections yesterday for school board seats Bond issues or tax levies voters made changes to the school boards in Minneapolis. And st. Paul and the state's third largest school district approved a huge bond issue for more school space Minnesota public radio's Tim pug Meyer reports changes were assured on the Minneapolis school board for seats were up for grabs. And only one incumbent Judy farmer was seeking re-election farmer was the top vote getter among the eight candidates. She'll be joined on the board by fellow DF ehlers Albert go. When Katherine shreaves and Audrey Johnson farmer says she looks forward to working with her new board colleagues other three people who are who are elected are also very supportive of the direction. The school district is going so I don't think there will be any, you know major shift in Direction. I think that there will be support for for what we're doing and and hopefully, you know some additional perspectives and ideas for how to do it better for school board seats were on the ballot in st. Paul and all for incumbents were seeking re-election, but Challenger and Carol was the top vote getter. She says she stressed the need for more people to have a voice in how st. Paul schools operate to me. It sends a message back to the district and to the board and to the schools that Community is important teachers inputs important parents inputs important students inputs important and that if we all put our heads together We really can have a world-class School District dfl or Neil Tower Republican Tom conlon and dfl or Al or twig all won re-election to the st. Paul school board or twig edged out incumbent dfl or Greg Feliz for the fourth and final board seat in the Northwest Suburban anoka-hennepin District. The state's third largest voters approved a 106 million dollar bond issue to build a new high school middle school and two elementary schools. They also approved a six million dollar a year levied operate school buildings for the next 10 years School board chairman. Mike Sullivan says voters clearly understand the space shortage in their schools. I think primarily the recognition out here in the district and it was probably oriented towards the high schools as much as anything that they were just packed to the roof soon thereafter. I don't think there was any question in voters mind about that Chaska voters approved a forty two point six million dollar bond issue for a new middle and elementary school land. And Improvement to existing schools. They also approved a levy of eight hundred eighty seven thousand dollars a year for the next 10 years many metro area districts were seeking approval or renewal of additional tax levies to cover operational costs Hopkins Spring Lake Park and West Tonka were among the winners Levi questions were rejected in White Bear Lake and Inver Grove Heights. I'm Tim pug Meyer, Minnesota Public Radio. Well joining us now is Bob makes who's the director of governmental relations for the Minnesota school boards Association. Good morning, Bob. Good morning, Gary. Thank you any big surprises from your perspective yesterday and all these school-related votes. I think the turnout was great and we were all hoping for that. If if there was one major issue that seemed to many people thought would be much more important than it turned out to be was probably the discussion in certain districts over the profile of learning that did not turn out to be the vote the problem that Many people thought it would be and didn't bring the voters out against the profiles of some thought it would so we had about 20% of our incumbents that ran either did not run again or were defeated. That's normal. The number of Levi referendums and bond issues. That pass is pretty normal. So other than the large turnout it was pretty normal election any idea why the profile of learning didn't generate more controversy more involvement. Well, I think the controversy was there but I think the people are certain understand that the profile of learning is a method of teaching that allows a student not only to participate in learning but to show or exhibit what they've learned and I think people are just more comfortable in the more they've learned about it is state standards that the state provides a lot of money to education in this state and to individual districts and they want some accountability. So I think people are More comfortable with that whole program than they were a year or even two years ago beyond the profile of learning the fact that it wasn't the big issue that some people may have thought it was going to be where there any other common themes that ran through the school-related elections. No, I think if there was one it was parental involvement. That's the one I heard the most about that some of the people who are new coming on the board want to make sure that the board and the administration had more public input and I think that's a great goal to have and it's not an uncommon one for people coming onto school boards, and hopefully they'll be successful. But other than that it was mainly local issues. It was great to see the Eden Prairie Levy referendum pass after some of the controversy that they've had the Anoka people really did show or have the recognition of the needs and that District now if we did have some problems Elk River really needs some facilities some additional Revenue they were Successful Inver Grove Heights, so there's still some issues out there and we've got to try to figure out ways to help those districts also seemed like there were a lot of candidates for these School Board elections this year. Am I right about that? You weren't if you remember Gary you and I did a program back around primary time where we were talking about this a little bit and I again, I that's really great to see because I can remember back when we had the May elections. Sometimes a write-in votes would would actually win the election. But again, it seems to be the community and parents and business Community coming together realizing that the school's really are the center of our communities and they want to be involved which we certainly encourage our these campaigns becoming more expensive to run. That was one of the concerns when we went to a November election. That's the trade-off you get a higher turnout of Voters, but it does cost more to run as a school board member. So the answer is yes, and it is Old for some people to to put that themselves. So you're seeing more elect so-and-so campaign committees starting to be formed where that was, very uncommon three four ten years ago. And can we expect the School Board elections to become more partisan? I hope not and I don't believe you will we've had endorsements by political parties in the cities of the first class for a number of years, but our ballast do not allow us to identify a person by political party. We saw some of that spread out into the suburbs this year and I think that with some of the results in particular the profile of learning the parties will learn that sometimes it's better not to get involved and to allow the people to keep education a bipartisan issue rather than vote for a political party when it comes to educating children. Thanks. Bob preciate. You're joining us. Thank you. Gary Bob makes who is the director of governmental relations for the, Minnesota? School boards Association one of the more striking features of the voting yesterday was the large turnout in the city of st. Paul presumably because of the two initiatives that were on the st. Paul election ballot voters were asked to decide the stadium question. And also whether to effectively remove half the Billboards in the city according to the latest unofficial estimates in these are very unofficial about 53% of st. Paul's eligible voters apparently went to the polls yesterday that compares with about 30 percent in the previous so-called off-year election over the years. There have been several efforts to give minnesotans as a whole a chance to vote in such ballot questions. In fact back in 1980. Minnesota voters came close to approving a proposed constitutional amendment to provide for Statewide initiative and referendum question before us today is whether that effort should be revived and joining us now is Roosevelt State Senator John Marty who's the chair of the Don't selection laws committee morning Senator. Good morning. Gary do people in your mind. Do they generally respond well to these controversial ballot questions tend to get out and vote in big numbers. Well, yes, if the issues are controversial in the stadium one in the billboard 12 lesser extent who are certainly high profile issues that made people aware there was election going on and and certainly the high turnout in st. Paul has to be heavily attributed to those issues matter of fact in the fourth ward in st. Paul where there was an unopposed councilmember. They had a very high turnout there were relatively speaking. I was going to say half the people voting isn't great but it's a lot better than other off-year elections have been and it was not because of a city council candidate there. It was simply because of the the two ballot questions that Drew a lot of attention. Is there any talk about Reviving a Statewide initiative? Referendum proposal. Yes. There is matter of fact, the Minnesota house considered and passed such a proposal last year and the Senate I offered a hearing to the person. I'm not a big fan of its which happy to get into why but I offered a hearing to them and they didn't choose to take a hearing then I assume they might try again this year, but I haven't heard from them on that. It's something the governor is indicated some opposition to but again, it's an issue that's been before the Senate several times in the last few years. We have heard the bill. I know 194 and we were planning to hear it in 96 and then the author got into some trouble with the law and never pursued the hearing any further, but it's an issue that keeps coming back. Well, what can be you said you have some reservations about it personally what can be wrong with the concept of letting the people decide right and and the point of our representative form of democracy. Chrissy which if you believe in represented form of democracy, you are not asking for direct votes of the public on every issue and certainly the trouble with the direct democracy can be that you don't have any choice to amend it. It's all either all or nothing you have to vote up or down on this thing the proposal you can get in California dozens of pages on the ballot of all these initiatives and they're often conflicting ones because you can't amend one some group that's opposed to it will come up with an idea that sound similar and then they run a heavy media campaign to confuse people. And so I don't think it's a very positive way to decide things. You also have very many problems with big money big money is in my mind dominated American politics in recent years, and at least we can try and regulate it at the in the regular. Old process but there's no way that I can see how we can regulate it constitutionally when we have these ballot initiatives and if you look at the two referendum campaigns in st. Paul, both of them were very lopsided in the amount of money spent. I think the stadium proposal was closer simply because the proponents of that initiative outspent the other side and 11:00 to 1:00 maybe and on the billboard initiative which failed the opponent's on that one out spent the other side maybe 20 30 or a hundred times to 1 and so it's it's a thing that I'm not sure how you get the big money out of it. The special interest groups can just dump money in these issues and that heavily determines what happens the unicameral proposal that will be put before the legislature. I guess kind of test this concept in a way let the people decide that issue put it on the ballot and as a supporter of a unicameral I was going to say that's one of the weakest Arguments for that legislature should just ignore its constitutional duty to look at the merits of the issue and just put it on the ballot. I've heard some supporters of a unicameral argue that that's what we ought to do again. As I said, I favor it and voting in favor of and have authored unicameral bills, but I think we're we'd be neglecting our constitutional obligation to review the bill. We're supposed to decide doesn't make sense. And if we pass it, then the voters are supposed to decide do they want to take the major step of amending the Constitution and ratify that so yes many of the proponents of a unicameral seem to be talking as if it's an initiative referendum system, which I think is a pretty weak argument in favor of it. We should support a unicameral if we think it's a good idea. We should oppose it. Otherwise over the noon hour. We're going to hear from David Broder who has been doing a lot of work on this issue and he's come to the That soon we're going to be faced with a choice in this country between moving more and more toward this direct democracy approach versus representative form of government. Would you agree that we're headed toward a collision course are yes, I think I think David Broder is right that that's the direction we've been moving and I don't think it's a healthy direction overall for the reasons. I stated but I do think it's nice to see the turnouts that that come up when the issue is gets very hot like the stadium issue again, you can look at states to have initiative and referendum and they will have initiatives on the ballot and they still have the same miserable turn out that they have other years in Minnesota has outperformed them in terms of getting people out to the polls, but I think I'd agree with Broder that we're headed more that direction and it's not necessarily a healthy thing for our democracy. Thank Senator. Appreciate your joining us. Good to talk to you Gary. Have a good day dfl state. John Marty who is the chair of the Minnesota state senate election laws committee 2012 minutes now before noon mid day coming to you on Minnesota Public Radio and this hour, we are taking a look back at yesterday's election here in the state of Minnesota. Lots of interesting questions were put to voters and lots of questions were both answered and raised by the results from yesterday's election as we noted over the noon hour. Today. We're going to continue our election related coverage. We're going to hear from David Broder about the possibility of a nationwide initiative and referendum approach no question about it on the surface. At least one of the big winners in yesterday's election here in Minnesota was a group called Progressive Minnesota. The group was one of the leading opponents to the stadium issue in st. Paul and despite getting out spent something like 25 to 1 Progressive Minnesota managed to get enough people to the polls to soundly, Feet the proposed sales tax increase Progressive. Minnesota was the same organization that helped pass a referendum last year limiting spending on Pro Sports and Minneapolis and the organization says it will gear up again. If the pro sports subsidy question surfaces again in Minneapolis or st. Paul or anywhere else. So just who is Progressive Minnesota and how do they keep winning on these big issues? Well joining us now is Holly Roden who's the chair of the steering committee for Progressive Minnesota and good morning to you. Good morning to you. Who are you your organization? I mean the organization is a neighborhood based political organization. We've been in the Twin Cities area for about six years now, and we're But we're concerned what the reason we started work here was the idea of having a really locally focused political organization that would work on local issues. And that's how we reform. That's how we are organized. And again what our concerns are is making sure that people in the communities and in the neighborhoods have a chance to voice their opinion on issues and that we're able to organize them in such a way that were effective in the political process. How many members do you have? We have three thousand supporters. Okay supporters as opposed to members is their deaf difference. It's just an issue of how of the amount of contributions people make but we have our official members is I think people who are paying thirty six dollars a year. There are a lot of people who contribute to the organization at a lower level than that, but all of and any size contribution, I mean as you can see we were able to do an awful lot of work. I'm very little money. So we consider people that contribute whatever amount they contribute to our organizations as being supporters of our the of the organization. Is it fair to characterize Progressive Minnesota as a liberal Organization? No, I don't think that would be the word I would use when people get involved in the organization. It's done a lot on one-on-one conversations with people either with the organizers or with steering committee members or with activists and people really see it our supporters see it as a way for them to have a clear voice on issues that matter to them and I don't know if people you know, if you were to do a you know, a spectrum analysis of our members whether people would say they were liberal they're concerned about their neighborhoods. They're concerned about the community. They're concerned about the education that their children are getting. They're concerned about affordable housing. I mean, those are the issues that people care about I don't know I wouldn't categorize categorize those as liberal issues. So Was there a defining moment at the beginning of progressive Minnesota that that got you folks started or did how did you come to be? I think six years ago. It started around more the concept of figuring out how people that live in the neighborhoods that you know work hard and don't have a lot of time to get involved in sort of the more formal political processes that exist how those people can have an effective voice. So it really came around to around as a concept as opposed to coming out of one particular issue local people that got you sir. Yep. So how is it that you've been able to do so well against in some cases seemingly insurmountable odds. Well, what do you do? We talked to a lot of people we talked to a lot of people and we talk to those people about getting involved. And you know using what spare energy and spare time that they have to volunteer and we've been successful at finding the issues that people care the most about just on the stadium, you know, referendum and st. Paul we were able to make 25,000 phone calls all volunteered all volunteers. We had 30 phone lines go in the last week of the campaign in the evenings. They were totally staffed with volunteers. You know, we one member who had been involved in politics for 20 years who went out and himself put up a hundred lawn signs in the neighborhoods. So if you can if you can find those issues that people care enough about that. They're going to volunteer their time you can you can win these campaigns even though you are facing insurmountable odds, in terms of competition for money. One thing we heard a lot about was the need to focus on different priorities than pro sports. Are you folks now going to turn your attention to that? And try to perhaps get some kind of a tax increase passed fund affordable housing programs or education or whatever. Well, I don't know if our strategy would be necessarily putting some you know, some other tax on the on a ballot initiative somewhere, but we have been along with our Stadium work we have over the last several years been very active in the affordable housing campaign in Minneapolis. The living wage campaigns in both Minneapolis. And st. Paul. So that is that's part of what we do. Those aren't necessarily they don't get quite the attention that the stadium issue gets but we had been involved in those we're going to continue to be involved in those and we really hope that there was a strong enough message from the voters in St. Paul yesterday that our elected officials will also start responding more and kind to the priorities that people that people are talking about. Thanks so much for joining us. You're welcome. Holly Roden who is the chair of the steering committee for Progressive Minnesota one of the Nations that led the opposition to the stadium vote Stadium proposal I should say in the city of st. Paul five minutes now before noon, this is midday on Minnesota Public Radio. Listen, we're celebrating Prairie Home Companion 25th anniversary were pulling out all the stops. What do you got on the dog and reminding you that we could have done it without your help. So please join us during a special Prairie Home Companion on November 6th at five P. M-- David Broder coming up over the noon hour right now. It's time for the Riders Almanac.