Archive for the ‘Margaret Anderson-Kelliher’ Category

In a surprise move, the DFL has opted to hold an endorsing convention to fill the soon-to-be empty seat left by Keith Ellison’s decision to run for Attorney General.

According to the DFL’s official statement, “The party said in a statement that Ellison’s move has ‘resulted in a great deal of confusion and interest’ in how the DFL will handle the primary election. The party said delegates should have a chance to endorse a candidate.”

Later in the article, it said that “the candidates are state Rep. Ilhan Omar, former Minnesota House speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, state Sen. Patricia Torres Ray, state Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, Frank Nelson Drake and Jamal Abdi Abdulahi.”

This should get interesting. First, most of these candidates are socialists. Putting them on display will only remind Minnesotans how far left the DFL has drifted. Despite all of the names on the ballot, this is essentially a 2-person race between Ilhan Omar and Margaret Anderson-Kelliher. Based on what I’ve seen thus far this election season, I’d consider Omar to be the frontrunner for the endorsement. I don’t know that there is a frontrunner in the primary.

One thing that’s pretty apparent, though, is that Margaret Anderson-Kelliher and Ilhan Omar represent significantly different wings of the DFL. Omar stated that “I am a coalition builder and will continue Congressman Ellison’s legacy of using the Minnesota Fifth District seat to fight for all of us not only in Washington but here at home.”

It will be interesting to see which part of the DFL is dominant. I suspect it’s the Ellison-Omar wing.

Prof. David Schultz’s post criticizes the “dissing” of democracy. Saying that it rings hollow is understatement. Here’s an example of Dr. Schultz’s argument:

Consider first the most obvious and blatant assault on democracy–the behind the door negotiations to resolve the budget. It’s bad enough when legislative leaders and the governor did private talks and deals on the budget at the governor’s mansion. Bad enough when votes take place at the end of session at the wee hours of the morning. Bad enough when they take place in impromptu conference committee hearings that effectively exclude the public and most legislators. But now the talks to resolve the disputes over the three budget bills are being done in private between Governor Dayton and Speaker Daudt. No public, no media, no other legislators.

When have any final negotiations been open to the public? When the DFL controlled St. Paul in 2013, there was a dispute on how to raise taxes. Gov. Dayton, then-Speaker Thissen and Sen. Bakk met at the Governor’s Mansion to negotiate the final details. The public wasn’t invited, nor was the press. To this day, we don’t know what was said because it was held in private. We didn’t find out what they’d negotiated until the bills were passed.

I don’t recall any outcries from Prof. Schultz accusing the DFL of short-circuiting democracy then. I don’t recall Prof. Schultz complaining about the lack of transparency when Tim Pawlenty negotiated budgets with then-Speaker Kelliher and Sen. Pogemiller, either.

This is the first time Prof. Schultz has complained about the lack of transparency. If you’re going to make a principled argument, it has to be consistent to be credible.

Second, Democrats and Republicans joined together with the governor to eliminate the political contribution rebate (PCR) program. These program, one of the true hallmarks of political reform in Minnesota, allowed for Minnesotans to contribute up to $50 per year and have it rebated to them by the state. The PCR was nationally hailed as a powerful campaign finance reform tool that encouraged small contributors to give.

I’ve never heard of the PCR thought of as a “powerful campaign finance reform tool.” Further, it’s questionable to say that it “encouraged small contributors to give” because people aren’t really giving anything. They’re sending a check into the state but then they’re sent that money back in the form of a rebate check. The PCR is just a way to encourage public financing of campaigns, which is anything but reform.

So-called reformers talk about leveling the playing field during campaigns. When they talk about that, it almost automatically means everyone gets the same money from the government. How is that fair? I want to know which candidates can build a grassroots organization. I want to know which candidates can raise money because that tells me which candidates are appealing to the most voters.

Technorati: David Schultz, Hamline University, Transparency, Budget Negotiations, Mark Dayton, Paul Thissen, Tom Bakk, Campaign Finance Reform, DFL

This article highlights the contract that the MnSCU Board of Trustees approved with the Minneapolis PR firm PadillaCRT. Here’s what taxpayers got from this contract:

MnSCU commissioned Minneapolis PR firm PadillaCRT to help it “communicate the collective value” of the 31 colleges and universities it oversees throughout the state, according to a report the company delivered Tuesday.

The report makes clear that neither “MnSCU” nor its much lengthier full name are getting the job done, describing the names as a “mouthful,” “awkward,” difficult to say and “complicated to look at.”

Most troubling, the report suggests, is that the current branding is merely a “generic description” that “communicates very little” and doesn’t do anything to clarify exactly what the system is and which colleges it includes.

Here’s some of the findings from the report:

Connections are to individual schools. Students and alumni think of their alma mater. Business and community leaders have local or regional perspective. School leaders need autonomy to serve their communities.

Here’s another set of findings published in the report:

Rarely does anyone think of MnSCU in the aggregate. Even among those most familiar with MnSCU, people do not think of it as the sum of its parts.

Spending money on things this obvious is positively shameful. It’s just recklessly spending the taxpayers’ money. Here are the people we can ‘thank’ for their part in this “study session”:

Board of Trustees – Study Session
Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Vice Chair

Scheduled Presenter(s):
Kim Olson, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer
President Earl Potter, St. Cloud State University
Lynn Casey, CEO, Padilla CRT
Kelly O’Keefe, Chief Creative Strategy Officer, Padilla CRT

I wish I could say that I’m surprised but I can’t. Margaret Anderson-Kelliher attempted to shove a major spending increase down Minnesotans’ throats when she was Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2007-2010. Earl Potter in running St. Cloud State into the ground financially as we speak. Of course, they’d team to spend the taxpayers’ money foolishly on a report like this. It’s part of who they are. They can’t help themselves.

A ton of research highlighted Charting the Future’s deceptions. CtF isn’t Chancellor Rosenstone’s vision for MnSCU. It’s a collaboration of major corporations through the Minnesota Business Partnership, a powerful trade organization (MHTA), a Minnesota-based consulting firm (McKinsey & Co.) and a well-connected former Minnesota politician (Margaret Anderson-Kelliher). Mostly, it’s the work of McKinsey & Company under the title of the Itasca Project.

First, McKinsey & Company isn’t “New York-based” like Chancellor Rosenstone described them as. Here’s the truth:

Based on this map, McKinsey & Co. is a Minneapolis-based consulting firm. Further, MHTA is tied into CtF. Here’s a little information on MHTA:

The group identified a four-part strategy:

1. Align academic offerings with workforce needs
2. Foster an ecosystem of research and innovation
3. Form new collaborations across higher education to optimize system-wide intellectual assets and efficiency
4. Graduate more students with the foundational and technical skills needed to drive Minnesota’s prosperity

First, government bureaucracies don’t “form new collaborations” to “optimize system-wide intellectual assets and efficiency.” It’d be great if they did but bureaucracies don’t do those things unless they’re forced by the changing of state statutes.

That raises red flags. If CtF’s goal isn’t to make MnSCU more efficient, what is CtF’s goal? Is there an ulterior motive behind CtF? If there is an ulterior motive driving CtF, what is it? According to IFO’s letter to Dr. Rosenstone, the savings from CtF are imaginary:

In the past decade, MnSCU has spent money by the tens of millions on IT consultants that claimed they would create efficiencies that would result in efficiencies for students — student tuitions still continued to skyrocket. The only savings we have seen for students in recent years came from the legislative buy down of tuition rates.

When lobbyists, corporations and consultants put a plan together, nothing good will come of it.

According to this webpage, Margaret Anderson Kelliher is the president & CEO of the Minnesota High Tech Association, aka the MHTA. She’s also the vice-chair of the MnSCU Board of Trustees Executive Committee.

In other words, McKinsey wasn’t hired by MnSCU to implement CtF. They were hired by MnSCU to create, then implement, CtF. That’s definitely a significant deception.

I didn’t have high hopes for CtF prior to this research. I have less faith in it after doing the research.

Technorati: Steve Rosenstone, MnSCU, McKinsey and Company, Charting the Future, Minnesota High Tech Association, Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, Lobbyists, Minnesota Business Partnership, Inter Faculty Organization

Tim Walz knows how to play the DC spin game. This article is proof of that:

At the U.S. Capitol, Walz said, “there’s not democracy.” Instead, “there’s just a speaker who holds a gavel.” The only legislation that can get voted on is that which the House speaker allows.

The reason Tim Walz is in the minority is because the politicians he voted for for Speaker didn’t just hold the House hostage. Then-Speaker Pelosi wouldn’t even let Republicans participate in writing a bill the vast majority of Americans didn’t want. It wasn’t enough for Ms. Pelosi to play the role of tyrant. She wasn’t satisfied until she ruled with an iron fist.

I don’t recall Rep. Walz complaining about Ms. Pelosi’s dictatorial stranglehold on the House from 2007-2011. Perhaps that’s because getting his way was the only principle that mattered to him.

Walz wasn’t the only spinmeister on stage:

With Republicans in charge of the Legislature and a Republican governor, Smith said, Minnesota ended up with a $6 billion debt.Under Democratic control, the deficit was erased, and money has been put aside for future emergencies.

Tina Smith should be ridiculed and criticized for lying like that. There’s never been a time when a Republican governor got to work with Republican majorities in the House and Senate. N-E-V-E-R. In 2010, Republicans gained control of the Minnesota Senate since it became a partisan election in 1972. From 1972 through 2010, Democrats had a stranglehold on the Senate.

That part of Smith’s BS is bad enough but that isn’t the only BS Smith peddled. In 2011, Republicans inherited a $6,000,000,000 deficit from Sen. Pogemiller and Speaker Kelliher. Sen. Pogemiller had a veto-proof DFL majority in the Senate while Speaker Kelliher lead 87 Democrats in the 134-member in the House.

When the DFL regained control of the House and Senate in 2012, Sen. Bakk and Speaker Thissen inherited a $640,000,000 deficit, not a $6,000,000,000 deficit.

That means Smith was only off by $5,360,000,000. In other words, she was as close to being accurate on the deficit as Gov. Dayton was with the e-tabs projection. That means neither was particularly accurate.

If spin was a $100 bill, the DFL could pay off the national debt. If accuracy and honesty was a gold bar, Walz and Smith couldn’t afford a stick of gum.

Technorati: Tim Walz, Tina Smith, Spin, Budget Deficits, Larry Pogemiller, Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, Mark Dayton, E-tab Revenues, DFL, Election 2014

Based on what’s in this editorial and what’s in this editorial, the DFL’s divisions might soon be front and center. Let’s start with the ‘PolyMet’ editorial:

While Duluth and other media speculated that opponents and supporters were evenly split at the five-hour public hearing that included a two-hour open house session and a three-hour comment period, the numbers just don’t add up that way.

They reported that attendance was 1,300 to 1,500. But of that number, a caravan of seven buses and a passenger van journeyed from the Range with at least 500 supporters and another 100 or more arrived in advance by cars.

Simply put, there are lots of Iron Rangers who badly want PolyMet to happen. They might not have sophisticated presentations but what they lack in sophistication, they more than make up for in passion and verifiable information.

The unified message of business and labor all across the Iron Range to Duluth and the Twin Cities delivered in a fact-based and civil manner was outstanding.

That paragraph indicates that Iron Rangers are tired of being told by elitist metro Democrats, aka Metrocrats, that they don’t have the right to earn a living. This has the potential of turning the relatively conservative, pro-Second Amendment, Range Democrats against the anti-mining Metrocrats. This indicates the hostility isn’t that far below the proverbial surface:

Yes, some opponents and preservation groups will continue their misinformation campaigns which are part of an excessive rhetoric fear campaign of damage to the environment.

The facts, however, will win out in the EIS and then permitting processes. And the preservationist fear mongers do not hold those cards.

The “preservationist fear mongers” that the editorial cites have this in common: they’re almost exclusively elitist Metrocrats. That’s a stark contrast with the blue collar Iron Rangers who supported Gov. Dayton in 2010. The ‘Lt. Gov. editorial’ offers a different perspective of the same potential problem:

The list of four is heavily female-metrocentric-weighted. The governor’s chief of staff, Tina Smith, state Sen. Katie Sieben and Kelliher, all of the Twin Cities area, are strongly suggested.

The other person that’s supposedly on Gov. Dayton’s short list is IRRRB Commissioner Tony Sertich. I haven’t confirmed whether Sertich is actually on Gov. Dayton’s short of if he’s more of a ‘wishful thinking’ candidate. Still, the risks are high for Gov. Dayton. If he picks a Metrocrat, he risks alienating Iron Rangers. If Gov. Dayton picks Sertich, he’s essentially snubbing the check-writing, anti-mining Metrocrats from the Twin Cities.

The other name I’ve heard floated is former Sen. Tarryl Clark, aka Taxin’ Tarryl Clark. With Gov. Dayton’s tax increases likely to be a major campaign issue, Taxin’ Tarryl would just add fuel to that fire. That’s before talking about her responsibilities with the Blue-Green Alliance. ‘Carpetbagger’ Tarryl didn’t win many friends when she ran for the Eighth District endorsement. DFL activists rejected her, in part because she was a carpetbagger, partially because she’s as anti-mining as the Metrocrats on that short list.

The simple truth is that Gov. Dayton will have to choose. Either Gov. Dayton sides with the elitist Metrocrats and alienates Iron Range Democrats or he sides with the more conservative Iron Democrats and alienates elitist, anti-mining Metrocrats.

There’s an old, ancient really, joke about giving a chameleon a nervous breakdown. The way to give a chameleon a nervous breakdown is to put it against a plaid background. In this situation, I’d argue that Gov. Dayton is the chameleon and the DFL is the plaid background.

Good luck with that.

Technorati: Mark Dayton, Yvonne Prettner-Solon, Katie Sieben, Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, Taxin’ Tarryl Clark, Tony Sertich, IRRRB, Metrocrats, Iron Rangers, Militant Environmentalists, PolyMet, DFL, Election 2014

Conservatives have long known that the people in the progressive messaging machine aren’t the brightest bulbs in the political chandelier. Still, it’s difficult to think that they’d sound this foolish:

How the mighty have fallen. Paul Wellstone and Hubert Humphrey were great debaters. By comparison, Carrie Lucking, Denise Cardinal and Javier Morillo-Alicea are best known for their name-calling, not for fidelity to the truth.

Progressives are still peddling their storyline of Republicans shutting state government down. They won’t admit that Gov. Dayton shut state government down:

June 30

• Shift school aid payments from 70/30 to 60/40 for $700 million.
• Increase per-student aid to cover borrowing costs.
• Issue appropriation bonds to cover the remaining gap, if any gap remains, between the Governor, Speaker and Majority Leader.
• Add $10 million to University of Minnesota funding.
• Restore funding for the Department of Human Rights and the Trade Office
• Special session: lights-on thru July 11. Return to pass budget bills on July 11.

Notice that last line. The GOP and Gov. Dayton agreed to a special session to pass a lights-on funding bill that would’ve kept funding government through July 11. Further, they agreed to finish negotiations, then pass the budget bills funding government for the rest of the biennium.

Gov. Dayton initially accepted that offer, then broke his promise. Note that this was the second time Gov. Dayton reached agreement with the GOP legislature on the budget, then slithered away from their agreement at the insistence of Rep. Thissen and Sen. Bakk.

Another of this ad’s claims is that the GOP insisted on preserving tax cuts for the wealthy. Here’s another dose of reality. The tax rates haven’t changed since Jesse Ventura was governor. That means the Margaret Anderson-Kelliher-Larry Pogemiller led legislature kept the tax rates for the wealthy in place.

Another ‘accusation’ in the video is that King voted to kill Gov. Dayton’s ‘jobs bill’ that would’ve “put Minnesotans back to work.” Yesterday, I read this report from MMB concerning revenues. Here’s the key takeaway:

Net non-dedicated general fund revenues totaled $3.750 billion during the first quarter of fiscal 2013, $145 million (4.0 percent) more than projected in February. Each of the major taxes showed a positive variance for the quarter. Individual income tax receipts exceeded forecast by 2.2 percent, sales tax receipts were up 1.7 percent and corporate tax revenues were 15.3 percent more than anticipated in February.

Government revenues don’t rise when people aren’t working. The fact that non-dedicated revenues rose by 4% during Q1 indicates that jobs are being created. In fact, it suggests that lots of jobs were created under the GOP’s stewarship.

The truth is that progressives’ attacks on GOP legislators are mythical, not reality. They’ve accused GOP legislators of shutting down government. Documents prove that Gov. Dayton shut government down. Progressives accuse GOP legislators like King Banaian of voting against job creation. Official reports prove that jobs are being created at a fairly brisk pace, which is leading to increased revenues.

Progressives insisted that it wasn’t possible to balance the budget without creating one of the highest income tax rates in the nation. The GOP refused to create that highest-in-the-nation tax rate. Revenues are up 4%.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think that doing the opposite of what progressives are demanding is a pretty smart idea.

Tags: King Banaian, Jobs, Taxes, Revenues, Surplus, MNGOP, Mark Dayton, Paul Thissen, Tom Bakk, State Government Shutdown, Tax Increase, School Shift, DFL, Election 2012

According to Gov. Dayton’s blog, Gov. Dayton is touring the Iron Range today:

Continuing his strong commitment to job creation and economic prosperity, Governor Dayton is traveling statewide to identify opportunities and barriers to economic growth in key sectors of Minnesota’s economy. The Governor is meeting directly with business owners, workers, and local leaders to seek input on what measures should be taken in the upcoming legislative session to enhance Minnesota’s economic competitiveness, stimulate private sector job growth, and open new doors of employment opportunity for Minnesota workers.

First, if Gov. Dayton wants to create high paying mining jobs, his time would be better spent lobbying his ex-wife to call off her war against mining. She’s made it perfectly clear that she doesn’t want to see a robust mining industry in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce stated their biggest concerns for creating jobs:

• Taxes remain a key obstacle to job creation, identified by seven out of 10 employers as one of the two most important barriers in Minnesota. The tax burden continues to grow compared with five years ago.
• The stability and predictability of government regulations are important factors in business decisions to invest in Minnesota operations.

Gov. Dayton still wants to create a fourth income tax bracket, which would make Minnesota one of the highest income tax rates in the nation.

When it comes to the Range, nothing’s more important than regulations, both from St. Paul and from Washington, DC. Enter Gov. Dayton’s ex-wife, Alida Messinger. She sits on the board of directors for an organization called Conservation Minnesota. Here’s a glimpse at CM’s agenda

Conservation Minnesota, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy are targeting the proposed PolyMet mine near Hoyt Lakes and the proposed Twin Metals mine near Ely.

The campaign includes the web site MiningTruth.org, a 40-page report examining mining in detail, a Facebook community, and four billboards along Interstate 35 between the Twin Cities and Duluth to reach summer travelers.

While Gov. Dayton poses for photos with DFL candidates pledging their unswerving loyalty to the mining industry, the mining industry isn’t what’s holding up high paying mining jobs. What’s standing in the way of mining jobs are DFL heavyweights like Alida Messinger, former speakers Dee Long and Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, former Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, former MPCA Commissioner Paul Aasen, and RINOs Arne Carlson, Dave Durenberger and Jim Ramstad.

Gov. Dayton’s taxation and regulatory policies create uncertain, which hinders job creation. That’s what the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce members said in their annual survey.

Rather than spending time taking photos, Gov. Dayton should spend his time figuring out how to clean up what’s wrong with St. Paul.

Tags: Mark Dayton, Alida Messinger, Conservation Minnesota, Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, Dave Durenberger, Arne Carlson, Regulations, Taxes, Mining, Jim Ramstad, DFL, Photo Ops

When it comes to political ideology, it’s difficult picturing 2 people more opposite of each other than Chip Cravaack and Tom Rukavina. Still, they’re on the same side of the federal-state land swap that Gov. Dayton signed into law. This op-ed from State Rep. Ruckavina argues for the land swap from an Iron Range DFL perspective. Here’s the part of Rep. Ruckavina’s op-ed that deserves highlighting:

Next, let’s talk about Mr. Carron’s claim that “Ely area residents…will lose scores of thousands of acres of Superior National Forest land that are now available for hunting, snowmobiling, hiking, snowshoeing, and many other recreational pursuits.” While many of the “old immigrants” from the Ely and Tower area must be thinking that he’s talking about the original Boundary Waters Act, Mr. Carron, let me assure them that this claim about the land exchange is an absolute lie. In fact, Ely and Tower area residents will have an easier time recreating on the new state land. But that’s really why environmentalists oppose this bill— because they know it will be easier to put in a snowmobile trail or cut down a tree on state land than on federal land.

There’s a name for Iron Rangers that vote against making outdoor recreation more difficult. That term is retired. (It’s irrelevant whether it’s a voluntary or involuntary retirement. The important part is that that Ranger is history.) Rep. Rukavina didn’t stop there, though:

Mr. Carron’s letter, to put it in Range-speak, is just a bunch of BS. To imply that any member of the Iron Range delegation is supporting this legislation because we are stoolies for “multinational mining companies” is nuts. I am always going to be on the side of the miners and our mining communities, and not the big companies. But while I am no economic genius, I know that without mining and mining companies, we have no Iron Range.

That last sentence is the Rukavina equivalent of Reagan’s line that you can’t be pro jobs and anti-business.

Rukavina’s closing shows how big the difference there is between Iron Range DFLers and DFL politicians of the Twin Cities:

Here’s Mr. Rukavina’s final strong shot at the Twin Cities enviro-elitists:

Ely, Tower, Winton, Cook Grand Rapids, and the North Shore couldn’t exist without our taconite industry. And the truth is, we are currently mining in the Superior National Forest, and we haven’t harmed it, have we? Minntac, Arcelor Mittal, North Shore Mining, and Mesabi Nugget are all currently operating in the Superior National Forest and it’s their taconite taxes that keep all our communities, including Duluth, alive.

That’s gotta sting people like Alida Rockefeller-Messinger, Dee Long, Tom Horner, Jim Ramstad and Margaret Anderson-Kelliher. They, along with Arne Carlson, Dave Durenberger and Paul Aasen, are the people that should get hurt by Rep. Ruckavina’s op-ed.

I wrote here that Chip Cravaack’s legislation mirrored the bill that Gov. Dayton signed into law. In fact, Chip’s legislation includes this language:

“(7) The Legislature of the State of Minnesota, meeting in its 87th Legislative Session, passed (and on April 27, 2012, the Governor of Minnesota approved) S.F No. 1750 (Chapter 236), section 4 of which adds section 92.80 to the Minnesota Statutes to expedite the exchange of a portion of the State trust lands located within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

(b) LAND EXCHANGE REQUIRED.—The Secretary of Agriculture shall consummate a land exchange with the State of Minnesota pursuant to section 4 of S.F No. 1750 (Chapter 236) of the Legislature of the State of Minnesota (section 92.80 of the Minnesota Statutes) to acquire all right, title, and interest of the State in and to certain State trust lands identified as provided in such section in exchange for all right, title, and interest of the United States in and to National Forest System land in the State for inclusion in the State trust lands.

Tom Rukavina voted for S.F.1750. Chip Cravaack authored legislation that made S.F.1750 federal law.

The only thing stranger than those bedfellows would be seeing Sen. Franken and Sen. Klobuchar pushing Senate Majority Leader Reid to get this bill passed and to have President Obama sign it.

Tags: Education, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Tom Rukavina, Mark Dayton, Chip Cravaack, Strange Bedfellows, Minning, Iron Range, Ely, Duluth, Grand Rapids, Environmentalists

This week, Gov. Dayton interviewed candidates interested in being MnSCU trustees. Among those interviewed is one pretty recognizable name: Margaret Anderson-Kelliher. Here’s the entire list:

The governor is picking six new board members, two at-large members, two students and one each from the 2nd and 6th Congressional Districts. Myres, who is from Clear Lake, lives in the 6th District.

Myres is a 1983 graduate of St. Cloud State University. He has worked at ING almost 11 years. He also serves on the Central Minnesota Community Foundation board.

The other candidates are: Sarah Caruso, John Kaul, Margaret Anderson-Keliher, Ann Anaya, Dawn Erlandson, Readus Fletcher, Dr. Wynn Kearney, Mary Hickerson, Alex Cirillo, Joseph Grafft and Janet Mohr.

The big question for the people confirmed as trustees is simple. Will they see themselves as rubberstamps to Chancellor Rosenstone and the university presidents? Will they see themselves as people holding Chancellor Rosenstone and the university presidents accountable to their students and their communities?

There’s no question that students and other taxpayers need the entire MnSCU Board of Trustees to hold administrators, including Chancellor Rosenstone, accountable.

The other key question is whether the people confirmed to represent congressional districts will actually hold townhall meetings within the district. The trustees need to know that they represent the people and the businesses of their districts, not just the university presidents and their administrators.

Minnesota taxpayers and students can’t afford for the next group of trustees to see their position to be an honorary position. If that’s what they do, then the legislature might as well blow up the entire MnSCU system.

These shouldn’t be positions for people waiting for their next political office.

Tags: Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, Board of Trustees, MnSCU, Rubberstamps, Congressional Districts, Townhall Meetings, Chancellor Rosenstone, Universities, MnSCU