2 Iron Range DFL senators including former minority leader leave DFL ! Now indpendents.

[lfromnj]

https://www.startribune.com/two-prominent-minnesota-senators-split-from-dfl-start-independent-caucus/573114731/

Two influential state senators from the Iron Range including a former majority leader announced Wednesday that they are splitting from the DFL Party to form an independent caucus in the narrowly divided state Senate.

The decision by Sen. Tom Bakk of Cook, a longtime Capitol power broker, and Sen. David Tomassoni of Chisholm will likely further shift dynamics at the state Legislature next year. The decision means that instead of 34-33 split in the GOP-led chamber, the Senate will be comprised of 34 Republicans, 31 Democrats and two independents. Democrats will retain a majority in the state House.

Anyway its time for the DFL to atleast remove the Farmer, if it wasn't for teacher unions and the like it would be labor too

Bakk's seat was Clinton +1, Tomassoni was Trump +3.

[Hope For A New Era]

lol, Iron Range is doing it all backwards. The people are totally fine still voting Democrat, but the politicians want to realign already.

[Hnv1]

What exactly are they to gain from this? democrats will contest their seats and their votes aren't really needed. why not just floor cross to the republicans all together? or do they want a shift to the left?

[RussFeingoldWasRobbed]

Thanks a lot John Thompson!

[Not Me, Us]

The Iron range is odd to me. It seems like a perfect area for the new GOP coalition, yet they continue to support Democrats. Both Biden and Clinton won all 3 of these counties, yet these two are already jumping ship. Why?

[lfromnj]

The Iron range is odd to me. It seems like a perfect area for the new GOP coalition, yet they continue to support Democrats. Both Biden and Clinton won all 3 of these counties, yet these two are already jumping ship. Why?

The counties voted for Clinton but they were all very close outside of Duluth itself.

[Frenchrepublican]

MN SD3 (Bakk district) was Biden +3.5

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I can't decide if I find this more sad or more stupid.

Anyway, as long as those seven counties are in blue (red on Atlas) on the map, I'm fine.

[neostassenite31]

The Arrowhead region makes up <5% of MN's population and is on track to lose one state senate seat (down to just 2) after redistricting.

Biden won more state senate districts than Trump in 2020 but rampant ticket-splitting in the metro area and Rochester reelected at least 5 GOP senators in Biden districts.

Had the DFL assumed a trifecta they probably would just create two Democratic districts in the Arrowhead by cracking Duluth in two and extending it to Cook county.

In any case, most of the Democratic votes from that region comes from Duluth, new migrants + resorts, or government workers farther up north. The vast majority of unionized voters in the Mesabi range and other minor areas of the "Duluth Complex" were lost to the GOP in 2016 and are long gone for Dems.  

[StateBoiler]

https://www.startribune.com/two-prominent-minnesota-senators-split-from-dfl-start-independent-caucus/573114731/

Two influential state senators from the Iron Range including a former majority leader announced Wednesday that they are splitting from the DFL Party to form an independent caucus in the narrowly divided state Senate.

The decision by Sen. Tom Bakk of Cook, a longtime Capitol power broker, and Sen. David Tomassoni of Chisholm will likely further shift dynamics at the state Legislature next year. The decision means that instead of 34-33 split in the GOP-led chamber, the Senate will be comprised of 34 Republicans, 31 Democrats and two independents. Democrats will retain a majority in the state House.

Anyway its time for the DFL to atleast remove the Farmer, if it wasn't for teacher unions and the like it would be labor too

Bakk's seat was Clinton +1, Tomassoni was Trump +3.

Independence-Alliance should make a play for them.

[GALeftist]

y tho

[S019]

I think they are just trying to save their re-elections, and with Republicans in the majority anyways, it's not like they're costing Democrats a majority, who knows maybe they can convince the Republicans to draw better maps in redistricting. Also the Iron Range is a ticking time bomb for Democrats and it is going to flip sooner rather than later, so this is not too shocking. After seeing what happened to Dan Sparks earlier this year, the rural Democrats surely are not going to feel safe, especially given that they won by greatly reduced margins compared to the past. We also now know the true reason that Republicans installed Tomassoni as Senate President.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is silly especially since if they caucus with the GOP they're done in 2022 and if they remain caucusing with the DFL they haven't really done anything.

Actually glad the area will have representation shift away from it after redistricting now. Luckily Minneapolis and St. Paul gained.

[neostassenite31]

I think Bakk and Tomassoni were anticipating (like most politicos in MN) the DFL to pickup the senate and get complete control over redistricting.

With the new census the Iron Range will have enough pop to retain only about two districts. If Dems draw the map they will likely eliminate the Duluth district (07), crack the Duluth vote in two and give Bakk and Tomassoni each one half and they should be good to go for 2022. The Duluth senator (Jen McEwen) is a freshman elected just this year and has no influence in St. Paul, so there won't be much contention there.

With divided government, a court-drawn map in the Iron Range will likely result in one Democratic Duluth district that takes up much more rural territory and a second district that includes a decent chunk of Itasca and Koochiching, making it likely R (closer to safe than likely).

Because of this McEwen will more favored to retain the "supersized" Duluth district, while Bakk and Tomassoni will now have to battle it out with each other in one pretty red district. They might just well both switch parties ASAP for their own sake.

If the DFL and GOP does collude and decide to just pass a redistricting plan without involving the courts, they could hypothetically go with an incumbency protection plan (a.k.a. a bipartisan gerrymander). That is a scenario where being an self-professed independent could yield more leverage with both sides to protect your own seat I suppose.

[Canis]

Didn't a few hundred elected officals from the area who were democrats endorse Trump here? Weird how the area supported Biden but the democrats went to Trump here probably trying to please the industry and miners in the area who help elect them

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Didn't a few hundred elected officals from the area who were democrats endorse Trump here? Weird how the area supported Biden but the democrats went to Trump here probably trying to please the industry and miners in the area who help elect them

A few hundred? No, more like six who were elected in a non-partisan election.

[Canis]

Didn't a few hundred elected officals from the area who were democrats endorse Trump here? Weird how the area supported Biden but the democrats went to Trump here probably trying to please the industry and miners in the area who help elect them

A few hundred? No, more like six who were elected in a non-partisan election.

Ah your right no clue were I got hundread from lol it was 8 Mayors
https://kbjr6.com/2020/09/11/hundreds-rally-in-support-of-mayors-who-publicly-endorsed-president-trump/

[smoltchanov]

Not too surprising. The present day Democratic party has little in common with "Farmer Labor" party of the past, and these two are substantially closer to the latter, not the former...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I would avoid drawing sweeping conclusions based on voting patterns in the region in national elections. When this sort of thing happens in State Legislatures - and actually it's pretty common in one form or another - it generally has little to do with national politics.

[GALeftist]

Not too surprising. The present day Democratic party has little in common with "Farmer Labor" party of the past, and these two are substantially closer to the latter, not the former...

The Farmer-Labor Party was left-wing populist and much closer to the DSA than the modern day mainstream Democratic party.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I have a somewhat complex opinion of the old Farmer-Labor Party, while their policies and what they generally accomplished for the state were good, a fact that's become mostly forgotten today is that they also served as a political front for Eastern European organized crime organizations that were big in Minneapolis at the time.

The muckracking journalist Walter Liggett was murdered by mobsters after reporting on links between the mobsters and Farmer-Labor politicians.

[ChiefFireWaterMike]

I have a somewhat complex opinion of the old Farmer-Labor Party, while their policies and what they generally accomplished for the state were good, a fact that's become mostly forgotten today is that they also served as a political front for Eastern European organized crime organizations that were big in Minneapolis at the time.

The muckracking journalist Walter Liggett was murdered by mobsters after reporting on links between the mobsters and Farmer-Labor politicians.

What? See I'd rather this corruption than modern nonsense.

[smoltchanov]

Not too surprising. The present day Democratic party has little in common with "Farmer Labor" party of the past, and these two are substantially closer to the latter, not the former...

The Farmer-Labor Party was left-wing populist and much closer to the DSA than the modern day mainstream Democratic party.

Economically, but not socially.. I doubt very much, that they cared at all about LGBT rights or "Black lives matter", and many of them were pro-life...

[Yellowhammer]

The Iron Range outside of Duluth and Cook County is about to get Arkansas’d.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I have a somewhat complex opinion of the old Farmer-Labor Party, while their policies and what they generally accomplished for the state were good, a fact that's become mostly forgotten today is that they also served as a political front for Eastern European organized crime organizations that were big in Minneapolis at the time.

The muckracking journalist Walter Liggett was murdered by mobsters after reporting on links between the mobsters and Farmer-Labor politicians.

What? See I'd rather this corruption than modern nonsense.

https://www.minnesotamonthly.com/archive/cold-blooded/