The headline is the opening paragraph of a Duluth News Tribune item authored by Alex Derosier - November 10, 2022. That report states in part:
Dziedzic will lead what the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party says is the "most diverse Senate caucus in Minnesota history" when the party takes complete control over state government at the beginning of 2023.
The 34-member Senate DFL caucus selected Dziedzic and four other leaders after closed-door deliberations Thursday, Nov. 10, at the hall for the Carpenters Local Union 322 in St. Paul. Addressing reporters late Thursday afternoon, Dziedzic explained how she hoped to approach the job.
“My goal is to be very inclusive and to unify us. We were elected to move forward and let Minnesota move forward,” Dziedzic said. “Voters told us they don't want gridlock and so they gave us a trifecta, and so my goal is to keep us unified together and move stuff forward to improve Minnesotans' lives.”
Republicans controlled the Senate for six years, but in January, DFLers will have a “trifecta” — control over the Senate, House and governor’s office — meaning they can move forward with their agenda without making major compromises with the GOP. Their priorities include creating a paid family leave program and increasing education funding. They could also move forward with legalizing recreational marijuana and codifying abortion rights protections in state law.
[...] Dziedzic and the three other leadership positions announced Thursday all hail from the Twin Cities Metro area, though Dziedzic said she expects the remaining leadership positions will include senators from greater Minnesota. The incoming Senate majority is the first in Minnesota legislative history to be majority-woman, the DFL said. It includes the youngest woman ever elected to the Senate as well as the first Muslim and Black woman elected to the state Senate.
DFL senators named North Minneapolis Sen. Bobby Joe Champion the president of the Senate. He is the first Black man to serve in that role and will replace Sen. David Osmek, R-Mound. The Senate president presides over Senate business and ensures members follow parliamentary procedures.
John Marty, a longtime senator from the suburb of Roseville, will lead the finance committee and the tax chair will be Sen. Ann Rest of New Hope. Their work will be front and center as the Legislature produces a budget in the 2023 session, as is required in odd-numbered years.
Meanwhile, Minnesota Senate Republicans selected East Grand Forks Sen. Mark Johnson to lead their 33-member caucus in that chamber. Previously, Jeremy Miller of Winona led the Senate Republican majority.
Johnson said Senate Republicans will continue to push for getting the record $9.25 billion surplus back to Minnesotan taxpayers, investing in public safety and permanent ongoing tax relief. Asked which issues he could see Republicans compromising on with the new DFL majority, Johnson said they’d have to approach each issue individually.
[...] The Minnesota House Republican Caucus had not announced any changes to its leadership as of Thursday night. Former House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, has been the minority leader since 2019 after the GOP lost the majority in the House.
The Minnesota House DFL met to caucus Thursday, but as of 8 p.m. had not released any updates on the upcoming session. The current House Speaker is Melissa Hortman, a DFLer from Brooklyn Park.
So, House leadership, both parties, is currently undecided and will be tomorrow's news.
It seems doubtful that the Republican "Senate priorities" will happen, but the new GOP Senate head has laid out talking points. There seems no innovation in the Republican talking points, and they failed to sell that stuff to a majority of voters who gave three legs of leadership to the DFL.
If marijuana is legalized, Washington State has installed a sound tax-and-regulate system that would work well in Minnesota. Growing and retail licenses were made separate and awarded by lottery among applicants which each posted a cash pay-in for a place in whichever lottery they entered. (No favoritism of politically connected hangers-on, if licenses are fairly awarded.) Any retailer would face banking concerns, it being a cash and carry business where banks are shy because the federal statutes still list marijuana as a Schedule 1 banned drug. Federal updating would seem the sane thing to see.
It would seem gross negligence if, holding both houses and the executive branch, an abortion statute is not enacted, since the Gomez decision based on the Minnesota Constitution stands at risk of the same death delivery the Alito Court manipulated to kill Roe, should Minnesotans make the mistake of allowing a Catholic Republican packing of our state Supreme Court in parallel with what Knight of Malta Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society, with Republican/Trump facilitation inflicted federally.
In simple terms, nail things down for privacy protection and the ancillary patient-physician privacy that grounds abortion as a right of Minnesotans. I.e., not just abortion nailed down tightly, but privacy itself, the bedrock of rights to contraception, marriage freedom, and medical autonomy of the patient-physician relationship in all of its dimensions.
Climate and renewable energy goals within the State in parallel with federal movement would also be important, as would be housing cost and medical cost reform. With the "trifecta" there is no sound excuse for not doing right by the people who voted the DFL trifeca into existence. DO IT, and do not let anybody's contrary politics derail the reforms.
Last, education. Continue to frustrate the voucher mongers who would have public K-12 and pre-school funding diverted from public education into ill-regulated private schools (sectarian or non-sectarian). Fund adequately so that class sizes are not frustrating the education process. And stymie those wanting to bastardize curricula via politics inimical to adding truly educated young voters into our democracy. (You know who I mean.)
Higher education aims would first be statewide cleaning up of the student loan mess (as much as feasible with that reform, at the federal level, stymied by Republican politics); and revisit the question of excessive tuition charges for Minnesotans who are becoming a state social resource - an educated and innovative population to attract businesses - as well as gaining personal growth and benefit opportunity for the young, who clearly were instrumental in their voting this election.
Reward and respect the young, they being the future of things.
__________UPDATE_________
Strib provided update info,
Later Thursday, House Democrats chose their leadership team, tapping Rep. Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park for another term as speaker and electing Rep. Jamie Long of Minneapolis as the House majority leader.
Strib, same item, indulged in a bit of backhanded provocateur speculation, yes/no
As majority leader, Dziedic will be responsible for setting and shepherding the Senate Democrats' agenda, with the party holding a margin of just one vote over the GOP.
The announcement came after the caucus met behind closed doors at the Carpenters Local Union 322 in St. Paul, a couple of miles from the Capitol. Neither the vote nor the nature of the deliberations were made public so it wasn't immediately known whether others sought the positions.
Dziedzic's selection was a surprise to some observers. Sen. Erin Murphy of St. Paul had been considered a favorite to run the caucus because she led the campaigns that steered the DFL back to the majority. Murphy didn't speak at the news conference.
Since taking over the Senate in one of the biggest surprises of Tuesday's election, the DFL has heralded its 34-member caucus as the most diverse in state history. As caucus leadership roles are filled, Dziedzic said the team will reflect that diversity.
Yes, the most progressive of us get insufficient respect. But the push will always be there, toward betterment. At least there is that one vote margin, 34 to 33 favoring the DFL, and clearly, however open to criticism, middle-roaders of the DFL will still be "more progressive" than Republicans.
Yes. Faint praise. But true.
_________FURTHER UPDATE_______
Crabgrass has not gotten another Erin Murphy email since pre-election
Dear friend,
Today is the day we will decide our future. It is the culmination of hard work our campaign teams across Minnesota have worked toward, in pursuit of a governing majority that will fight to improve people's lives. Today is the day we declare what kind of state we choose to be.
The choices are stark. Truth against conspiracy. Protecting our rights or stripping them away. Meeting the moment for Minnesotans or a platform that serves corporate interests.
When we vote for pro-choice DFLers up and down the ballot, we move closer to becoming a state where every Minnesotan can thrive.
If you haven’t voted yet, I invite you to find your polling place and choose the future you want to see in our state.
If you have voted already – thank you. I hope you’ll join me in doing one final GOTV push to turnout voters to secure our victory.
We can do this, together.
With purpose and fight,
Erin
That was the message of solidarity, which won, GOTV having carried the day, including the young turning out in favor of the DFL, over the alternative. How could it be otherwise, the young being by nature more progressive than their elders.
Progress will ultimately move the needle into a better kind and degree of government. (NATIONALLY - Can it get much worse; with Trump on the verge of an announcement and DeSantis having his way in Florida. Biden being where he is because inner party forces choose him, and he won only over the greater evil, even with his still being who he'd been when Anita Hill had other women witnesses Biden declined to call back then, and who he was when Biden championed bankruptcy "reform" where he led the push to have student debt exempted from bankruptcy grace).
Eyes on the prize. Always. Despite the two-party stranglehold. Despite the two-party defectiveness.
_________FURTHER UPDATE________
Also a part of the MN Senate 34-33 majority - give Ellison the funding for the additional criminal law specialists he says are needed by the AG office for assisting county attorneys on requests for help with cases on their dockets. And tell Mary Kiffmeyer to cram it if she doesn't like the funding happening now that she's in the MN Senate minority and can no longer effectively be mean against crime fighting for whatever her earlier "reasoning" was to deny the needed funding.
Ellison deserves that after having to put up with the scurrilous campaign Schultz ran and prevailing again, it being the second scurrilous campaign he has had to endure.
Both Wardlow then, and Schultz most recently were "police endorsed" because Ellison had the will to push against police misconduct, and to hold law enforcement personnel accountable. It was each time an anti-Ellison thing, rather than any charm Wardlow or Schultz had, independent of Ellison's policy of police accountability.