Southern Minnesotans Getting Their Bang for the Buck in Congress

Despite what some politicians like to tell you, teachers are notoriously overworked and underpaid. And unlike disciples of free-market economist Milton Friedman (God rest his soul), they receive their rewards in forms other than money.

That's why it appears that freshman Congressman Tim Walz is feeling a bit guilty for seeing his salary triple when he left the classroom for the U.S. House floor. He believes, apparently, that his workload should increase accordingly, which must be why he has taken on three major committee assignments, a rare feat for a newcomer.

Here's what he's gotten himself into so far:

House Committee on Agriculture

• Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy and Research
• Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management

House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

• Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
• Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials
• Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management

House Committee on Veterans Affairs

• Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

These are all committees that have a direct relationship to his district and his interests. In comparison, Walz's predecessor, Gil Gutknecht, was a member of the following committees in his last term of office:

House Committee on Agriculture

• Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Dairy, Nutrition, and Forestry
• Subcommittee on Specialty Crops and Foreign Agriculture Programs

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

• Subcommittee on Government Management, Finance, and Accountability
• Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources

House Committee on Science and Technology

• Subcommittee on Research
• Subcommittee on Environment, Technology, and Standards

Rep. Gutknecht did a good job on the Agriculture Committee, but over the last six years the latter two committees have been hamstrung by politics, global warming denial and religious belief posing as science. Hence, their performance was lackluster at best, and there's no record of Mr. Gutknecht having distinguished himself on either.

Congressman Walz seems to have jumped into his congressional duties with the same fervor that he showed on the campaign trail. That's good for his constituents. Let's hope that his drive will create positive results in terms of policy changes and legislation. That will be even better for his constituents.

How Pwonkies Make It Sound Like They Know It All: Ignore History

Politicians aren't the only folks who like to change history in order to justify what they say in the present. Pwonkies (political wonks) are also guilty. Here's an example from Stuart Rothenberg posted on RealClearPolitics, February 05, 2007 (italics mine):

Former Republican Congressmen Charles Bass (N.H.), Jeb Bradley (N.H.), Michael Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Gil Gutknecht (Minn.), Nancy Johnson (Conn.), Sue Kelly (N.Y.), Jim Leach (Iowa), Anne Northup (Ky.), Rob Simmons (Conn.) and Clay Shaw (Fla.) didn’t lose [in 2006] because they were terrible candidates. They lost because they were in marginal seats or in districts carried by Al Gore in 2000 and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004.

Here are the facts: George Bush carried Gil Gutknecht's Congressional District by 2% in 2000 and 4% in 2004. Gutknecht himself took the district by 15% in 2000, 27% in 2002 and 24% in 2004.* So obviously Gutknecht, who was first elected in 1994, was not a terrible candidate, nor was he in a marginal seat, nor was he in a district carried by Gore or Kerry.

So what gives?

Those of us who live in Minnesota and who witness the political scene firsthand — especially blogs like A Bluestem Prairie, Minnesota Central, MNPublius, Minnesota Campaign Report, Evil Bobby and others — view this part of the world as people not numbers or neat little pigeonholes. Yes, numbers do count, and yes, assumptions can be made, but they don't tell the whole story; they only give an inkling.

That said, at least we can credit Mr. Rothenberg for being one of the few pwonkies to actually predict — albeit late in the campaign — that Minnesota's CD 1 had a chance of going over to the Democrats. For example, he departed from most of his fellow analysts by moving the Gutknecht-Walz contest from "Republican favored" to "lean Republican" in his October 20th Report, and then to "pure toss-up" right before the election on November 2nd.

But in the end run, CD 1 turned out not to be a toss-up at all as Mr. Walz won by nearly 6%. So there you are, folks: If you want to know the truth, the closer you get to the source, the better off you're going to be. Let's hope that the pwonkies in Washington remember this 18 months from now.

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*NOTE: The author was the DFL candidate in 2004.