Thunderstorms now heading through eastern part of the state

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Statewide elections dominated the politics of 2014 in Minnesota. But a DFL controlled legislature passed some  high-profile bills — and may have lost their House majority as a result. MPR News political editor 

 has made up his list of the top Minnesota political stories of 2014. On Monday's Daily Circuit, Mike runs them down with two members of his political reporting team, Tom Scheck and Catharine Richert.


When SNL star-turned political satirist-turned talk radio host Al Franken defeated Republican Sen. Norm Coleman by 312 votes after an eight month long recount and legal challenge, many thought he would be a top GOP target in his next election.

Instead Franken won a relatively easy 10 point victory over his Republican challenger, business executive Mike McFadden. How did he do it in a year when Republicans nationally re-took control of the Senate and made gains in the House?

In part by keeping his head down and giving up the media celebrity status that helped propel his first campaign six years ago. Franken was able to convince Minnesotans that he was serious about his job in the Senate and more interested in serving them than appearing on cable TV talk shows. In fact for at least five years he did few if any interviews with the national media but was almost always available to Minnesota news outlets. By focusing on mundane but serious issues such as workforce development and online privacy he was able to parry attacks by McFadden that he was a rubber-stamp for an increasingly unpopular President Obama, attacks that were more effective for other Republican candidates in other states.

Franken's ads portrayed McFadden as a tax dodging corporate raider, a characterization most objective fact checkers found to be misleading or false.

Franken also proved a master of the new political fundraising environment created by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that allows unlimited money to flow into campaigns. Through a web of complicated fundraising arms, Franken raised more than $24 million for the 2014 campaign. He spent nearly that much to win re-election while McFadden spent about $7 million.

McFadden hoped that national Republican leaning groups would come to his aid, but they were largely busy in other states where their spending proved more likely to defeat Democratic incumbents. 
  



Mark Dayton approached his re-election campaign in 2014 as the first Democrat to hold the Minnesota Governor's office in a generation. With the help of a DFL controlled Legislature for the last two years of his first term, he was able to follow through on almost all of his 2010 campaign promises, including an income tax increase on the state's highest earners, increased spending for schools and local governments, a large public works construction spending program, and a new publicly subsidized Minnesota Vikings stadium.

What was less clear was Dayton's agenda for a second term. While he talked often about the need for a transportation funding plan, Dayton was much less specific in his second campaign than he was in his first, where he had to defeat an endorsed Democrat to win the chance to run in November.
The big advantage Dayton had in his re-election effort was a state economy clearly on the mend. With unemployment dropping and a state budget showing a surplus, his Republican opponent Jeff Johnson tried to make the case that the state would be in even better shape without Dayton's tax increases and MNsure, the state's online health exchange set up by Democrats under President Obama's Affordable Care Act.
While Johnson pushed Dayton for more debates, Dayton successfully ran a rose garden strategy, stiff-arming Johnson and relying on his status as an incumbent to nurse an ailing hip and largely stay above the campaign fray.

When the two did debate, Dayton proved tougher than the Republican caricature of a bumbling, detached chief executive. He gave as good as he got, and showed his experience as a statewide candidate.

Johnson appeared to have trouble raising money for his campaign, and shook up his staff. Dayton had the advantage of a united party and allied groups. Instead of using his own wealth to finance his run as he did in 2010, he raised money and had support (or at least not the opposition) from some members of the business community who might otherwise be expected to back a Republican.
 



While Democrats won every statewide race on the ballot in 2014 they were unable to keep control of state government. That's because Republicans won 11 seats that had been held by Democrats. Most of the Republican gains came in rural Minnesota, where they won 10 contested seats.

As the campaign began some Republican gains were expected. In 2010 Democrats out-performed expectations, picking up seats in areas where Republican Mitt Romney ran ahead of President Obama. But the magnitude of the Republican gains was a surprise, and an endorsement of their strategy to use the troubles with MNsure and the fact that Gov. Dayton and his running mate Tina Smith are both from Minneapolis to portray Democrats as out of touch with and uncaring about rural Minnesota. 

Democrats may have considered themselves lucky state senators weren't on the ballot this year.

In addition to their message Republicans had the help of some affiliated groups that spent money in rural Minnesota, using radio ads to criticize MNsure and Democratic support for President Obama.

The same sex marriage issue may also have been a factor in some districts where DFL representatives votes to legalize it despite opposition from their constituents.

4.   The demise of the Independence Party


Twelve years after Jesse Ventura shocked the world as a third party candidate for governor the organization that backed him failed to garner 5 percent of the vote in any statewide race. That means the Independence Party loses its state designation as a major party, which means it will be harder for its candidates to get on the ballot and that they won't qualify for public campaign financing.

It also means they won't be invited to debates by media organizations, which was a major reason Ventura was able to defeat two well know candidates with much longer public service records.

The party's performance this year highlighted the face that it was largely candidates driven after Ventura, especially when it came to gubernatorial campaigns. Tim Penny, Peter Hutchinson and Tom Horner were able to excite enough voters to present themselves as credible alternatives to DFL and Republican candidates to draw enough support to act at least as spoilers. But when the less well known and experienced Hannah Nicollet won the IP endorsement this year, voters responded with a collective shrug of the shoulders.

And it was even worse for the IP when it came to running for U.S. Senate. The party's endorsed candidate lost in the primary to a candidate with a more familiar sounding name, whose outlandish and exhaustive views on a variety of issues were too much for party leaders, who promptly distanced themselves from his campaign.

Instead of creating a true centrist alternative to the Democrats and Republicans, the Independence Party relied too much on celebrities and the individual personalities of its candidates. The party was unable or unwilling to do the work required to ensure its supporters actually showed up for its candidates. Give the existing two major parties some credit--it's a lot harder to build an effective political movement than merely to talk about one.
 


5. Minnesota Legislature passes higher minimum wage, medical marijuana and approves new state office building


 
Democrats used their control of the state Capitol to carry out an ambitious agenda. In addition to the tax increases and balanced budget they passed in 2013 they made same-sex marriage legal in the state. That was a complete turnaround from two years earlier when Republicans tried to ban it with a constitutional amendment.

In 2014 they added to their list of legislation by passing the first increase in the state's minimum wage since 2005. The law requires large employers to pay a minimum of $9.50 per hour by 2016 and ties future increases to the cost of living, although future administrations can stop those hikes if they determine the economy warrants it.

Democrats ignored Republican warnings that the higher minimum will cost jobs, and said it would improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans. They intended to use the politically popular increase in their campaigns.

Lawmakers also allowed the use of medical cannabis, although supporters of the move were disappointed by conditions imposed by Gov. Mark Dayton that will limit the use of the drug to oils and pills and not allow smoking.

Finally the Legislature approved construction of a new $77 million building to house offices and hearing rooms for the Minnesota Senate.  Although the project was originally included in the 2013 tax bill, House leaders had to sign off on it in 2014.

Democrats said the building was necessary given the major renovation underway of the historic Capitol building and that it made more sense to build than to rent space. Republicans portrayed the building as an expensive boondoggle and wasted no opportunity to criticize Democrats for approving it.

Even Dayton called the original $94 million plan for the building too expensive, and was more supportive after the House pared it down and included offices for all 67 senators.

Politics and Government News

Tom Scheck

Guest

Catharine Richert

MPR News Staff

Author

MPR News political editor Mike Mulcahy shares his list of the top Minnesota political stories of the year.

Top 5: 2014 political stories in Minnesota

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox