Friday, January 15, 2010

With elections coming up every voter should ask - who voted for and worse, pushed giving taxpayer money to the Pohlad family for that stadium.


And then vote the rascals out of office. Or don't vote them into office.

The Pohlads are one of the wealthiest families in the nation.

If they want to own a sports franchise, bless them they bought one. They control enough wealth that officials could easily and wisely have let them pay all the costs.

Instead, the ultra-wealthy Polads will be charging more to sit in a new stadium, where taxpayer money was sacrificed from schools, roads, parks, community improvement, and other real needs, in building the silly thing.

The false priorities of luxury wasting of money better spent elsewhere is cause to oppose those responsible. Meaning, in practical terms, knowing who to vote against this November.

Will some enterprising reader name names? Give a link to records naming names? Help somehow that way?

Who are the culprits?

Who did stuff facilitating the mischief while trying to do so without leaving behind fingerprints? (So that the finger of blame would point elsewhere but that good will was assured with, who else, the Pohlad family.)

Who?

What was the role of the Minneapolis mayor in that waste and welfare-for-the-rich boondogle? The Pohlads needed votes, sponsorships? Who sold the public interest out, to the Pohlads?

Who should I be sure to vote against if I get the chance?


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photo from this link


_________UPDATE__________
Hat tip to Andy Aplikowski for linking to an MPR votetracker online post, giving nose count data. See the update section of the related post concerning the Viking stadium and other recent polling - this link, at the "UPDATE" and "FURTHER UPDATE" ending, for detail.

________FURTHER UPDATE_________
In general, I like Steve Kelly. However, this excerpt, from this link, disturbs me:

As the early morning hours wore on however the Twin stadium's prospects in the Senate seemed to hit several political snags. Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, an early Senate author of the Twins stadium proposal, said some senators -- sensing the importance of the stadium to legislative leaders -- were withholding votes as part of an elaborate series of political horse trading.

"Snag might be an accurate description," said Kelley, as the Twins momentum seemed to stall at 1 a.m. "It's a bill everybody knows lots of people want passed." Kelley said some senators, upset that state funding was not being included for an expansion of the Duluth Convention Center, were in effect holding the Twins proposal hostage.


From this link. See MPR, here.

It fits with my recollection. Kelley was a big proponent of subsidizing the Pohlads. That is hard to accept. Either he feels the same way, for similar reasons about the Vikings and getting Zygi wheelbarrows of public cash for no good reason, or he was playing favorites for reasons unclear to me. Either way I find it disturbing.

And when Zygi to again pressure the dome ownership shops the 'burbs again, I hate the thought of hanging an enhanced sales tax on Anoka County for Zygi to get richer off the poor and middle class masses. That's reverse Robin Hood, and offensive.

That makes John Marty, Paul Thissen, and Mark Dayton look better by comparison, although Thissen voted for but was not a driving force for the Twins' pork park.

More and more I am liking Marty most, then Dayton.

Let's see what happens.