Minnesota’s story of the year is simple. In fact, the top 2 stories of the year are intertwined. When Gov. Dayton stated that “the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable” to growing numbers of Minnesotans, jaws dropped because they knew he’d just issued a death sentence to DFL legislators in November’s elections. Though he tried rehabilitating their campaigns with this op-ed, pundits knew that it was too little too late.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Dayton’s statement was Minnesota’s Story of the Year. That was so straightforward that even Gov. Dayton figured it out.

The highlight of Gov. Dayton’s op-ed was when he wrote “I ask you to vote for two years with DFL majorities in both the Minnesota House and Senate, to fulfill my pledge to you: A better Minnesota.” Not only did Minnesotans reject that request, they voted for a bigger majority for Speaker Daudt in the House while flipping the Senate from a DFL majority body to a GOP majority. You can’t send a clearer, more unmistakable, message to Gov. Dayton.

Voters didn’t just reject Gov. Dayton’s request. They sent the message that they were rejecting his hard-left agenda. They sent the message that the pressure is on him to abandon his my-way-or-the-highway negotiations.

Frankly, Minnesotans are tired of fixing Gov. Dayton’s messes. They’re tired of his constant giving the environmental activist wing of the DFL everything they want while shafting the blue collar workers of outstate Minnesota.

If Republicans get popular things done the next 2 years, they’ll keep their majorities in the House and Senate and elect a real governor. Not getting everything they want done over the next 2 years isn’t failure. It’s success because that gives voters motivation to elect a Republican governor in 2018.

Gov. Dayton admitting that President Obama’s “signature issue” is a failure was Minnesota’s story of the year. Minnesota voters’ resounding rejection of Gov. Dayton was Minnesota’s next biggest story.

Technorati: Mark Dayton, Affordable Care Act, DFL Majorities, Environmental Activists, Metrocrats, Story of the Year, Election 2016, Election 2018, Kurt Daudt, MNGOP