The insinuation that DFL Senator Sheila Kiscaden and Reps. Andy Welti and Tina Liebling were given no advance notice of Governor Tim Pawlenty's most recent visit to the Med City on purpose, as a recent Rochester Post-Bulletin editorial (All area legislators must pull for the community) implies, is preposterous. The Rochester area state legislators have since admitted receiving an email notice in advance but hadn't checked their messages in time to attend the event. Or so they say.
It is hard to believe that our area legislators and their secretaries would have missed the governor's press announcement. The secretaries have access to their legislators' email and are to alert them if something important comes up. In addition, the staff of their caucus gets the emails and are to alert members of the meeting. Since it is unlikely that Welti, Liebling and Kiscaden would have missed the announcement, the only reasonable explanation is that, in their partisanship, they decided not to attend the meeting.
The P-B editorial assumes that our area's DFL legislators actually care about the growth of southeast Minnesota to begin with. There is evidence to the contrary.
Rochester's progress and prominence are not a priority of the Minnesota DFL, a party beholden to the interests of the Twin Cities and the Iron Range. As for the Olmsted County DFL, the growth of their party is their main priority. Welti, Liebling and Kiscaden would probably prefer not to attend events that highlight the importance of Rochester in the governor's agenda for fear that their presence would convey support for Pawlenty's initiatives.
Were they truly "bipartisan" and "moderate" as they falsely claim, Welti, Liebling and Kiscaden would be present at this and other events. But alas, they are not. How have House districts 30A and 30B benefitted from Liebling's and Welti's (mis)representation?
Welti can't even deliver a new fence for the Rochester International Airport, which seems to be his legislative priority for 2006.
LIEblings hypocrisy has been dealt with in a previous post.
Kiscaden's focus for the last 14 years has been ... well ... Kiscaden.
Rochester and surrounding communities deserve better.
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