2014 MN House Election

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twincitizen
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby twincitizen » September 10th, 2014, 8:54 am

I hope paid sick time doesn't become mandatory for people with paid vacation... One value I benefit is having a larger pool of PTO that is usable irrespective of vacation or unplanned illness... the result is more vacation for those who stay healthy.
Combined generic PTO is definitely preferable to separate vacation/sick days, though I currently have the latter. At least at my job, the "sick" days are officially labeled "personal", so it removes that awkwardness/stigma attached to using them when you're not sick.

I'd agree that mandatory sick days (for those currently with PTO) ought not to be an unintended consequence of any new law.

I'd imagine/hope that the proposed bill would be aimed at employers who currently offer NOTHING, particularly service sector and other jobs at the lower-end of the pay scale. Even if you work 20 hours/week for minimum wage, you should not lose your pay when you are genuinely sick. Remember the Jimmy John's case/lawsuit from a few years back? Employees tried to unionize over their efforts to get paid sick days, because they would get fired if they didn't come in. The result: sick people making your food. I would strongly support (a small number of) mandatory paid sick days for those working at least 20 hours/week (over age 18, etc. with other limitations/provisions for new hires and such, just like the recently enacted min. wage laws).

Lawmakers will have to look long and hard at unintended consequences noted above, but definitely something should be done. Perhaps the law can be tailored only to those positions that currently have zero paid time off whatsoever, to protect the most vulnerable, without screwing things up for anyone else.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby clf » September 10th, 2014, 9:14 am

I never understood how restaurants can get away with not giving servers/cooks sick days. Who would ever want anyone sick handling food!

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby EOst » September 10th, 2014, 10:25 am

I would strongly support (a small number of) mandatory paid sick days for those working at least 20 hours/week (over age 18, etc. with other limitations/provisions for new hires and such, just like the recently enacted min. wage laws).
Definitely. Maybe better to make a sliding scale rather than having a hard limit of "anyone who works over 20 hours"; as we saw during the ACA, there are plenty of unscrupulous employers who would rather cut their people down to 19 hours/week than comply with the spirit of the law.

twincitizen
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby twincitizen » September 10th, 2014, 11:12 am

Getting back to the election itself, MinnPost is full of awesome, as usual: http://www.minnpost.com/data/2014/09/mi ... -districts

This confirms what I suspected: Will Morgan (Burnsville), Yvonne Selcer (Minnetonka), and Ron Erhart (Edina) are in trouble...though the latter may be less so. Ron won by a very comfortable margin in 2012, and I suspect enough constituents may still view him as a centrist (former R) to overcome his significant fundraising shortfall and advanced age (84). His opponent is very well funded and also playing the centrist card. Ron's second life in the House, this time as a DFLer, could be up after just one term. Looking longer term, that is probably an increasingly safe DFL seat, as eastern Edina densifies and diversifies. Same goes for the other swingy 2nd-ring suburban seats...I think in a couple terms they will become more reliably blue.

The Republicans really have little to lose this year. Statewide, they hold exactly one house seat that (barely) leans Democratic (36A), and that seat likely won't flip in a midterm election. The DFL is purely playing defense this year, with zero opportunity for gains. They've just got to hold a slim margin until 2016, which should be another very strong year for democrats, riding the presidential coattails.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby David Greene » September 10th, 2014, 12:47 pm

I hope paid sick time doesn't become mandatory for people with paid vacation... One value I benefit is having a larger pool of PTO that is usable irrespective of vacation or unplanned illness... the result is more vacation for those who stay healthy.
I value the fact that my employer doesn't track vacation or sick time at all!

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby mattaudio » September 10th, 2014, 12:49 pm


David Greene
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby David Greene » September 10th, 2014, 12:52 pm

That's out of date. We literally don't track vacation or sick time at all anymore. It keeps a lot of liability off the company's books.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby mattaudio » September 10th, 2014, 1:01 pm

So you can take a 6 month vacation? I am applying today.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby David Greene » September 10th, 2014, 2:34 pm

So you can take a 6 month vacation? I am applying today.
If your manager is ok with it, sure. :)

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby beykite » September 11th, 2014, 11:33 am

This confirms what I suspected: Will Morgan (Burnsville), Yvonne Selcer (Minnetonka), and Ron Erhart (Edina) are in trouble...though the latter may be less so. Ron won by a very comfortable margin in 2012, and I suspect enough constituents may still view him as a centrist (former R) to overcome his significant fundraising shortfall and advanced age (84). His opponent is very well funded and also playing the centrist card. Ron's second life in the House, this time as a DFLer, could be up after just one term. Looking longer term, that is probably an increasingly safe DFL seat, as eastern Edina densifies and diversifies. Same goes for the other swingy 2nd-ring suburban seats...I think in a couple terms they will become more reliably blue.
Yvonne won by like 500 votes last time so I knew that'd be a close one. I recently drove down Hwy 101 between 5 & 62 and there are signs everywhere for her opponent... I'm interested on your take though, Twincitizen (or anyone else for that matter) what districts do you think are going to be tougher to hold onto this year for the DFL? The outstate districts or the suburban districts?

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby David Greene » September 11th, 2014, 1:22 pm

Yvonne won by like 500 votes last time so I knew that'd be a close one. I recently drove down Hwy 101 between 5 & 62 and there are signs everywhere for her opponent... I'm interested on your take though, Twincitizen (or anyone else for that matter) what districts do you think are going to be tougher to hold onto this year for the DFL? The outstate districts or the suburban districts?
My gut tells me the Greater MN districts will be tougher to keep. The R's are hammering on mining, which resonates a lot and western and southern MN is pretty reliably Republican.

The suburbs are definitely turning blue. The more exurbany places will stay Republican for now but the writing is on the wall.

One of two things will happen over the next 20 years. The Republicans will become a permanent minority and will rarely win the Governorship or the Republican party will change (or a moderate wing will defect and start a new party) and we'll see Republicans (or some moderate conservative party) win in Minneapolis again. I actually think the latter is the much healthier outcome for the city.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby xandrex » September 14th, 2014, 11:13 pm

Combined generic PTO is definitely preferable to separate vacation/sick days, though I currently have the latter. At least at my job, the "sick" days are officially labeled "personal", so it removes that awkwardness/stigma attached to using them when you're not sick.
It's preferable for people who are consistently healthy, but it has an unintended consequence: People frequently don't use their shared PTO when they're sick because they're worried about cutting into their vacation time.



One big issue that's will definitely have to be addressed by the legislature sooner or later is the sex offenders issue. The legislature has been punting this issue over and over again, but if they don't fix it soon, the Supreme Court might very well declare the whole program unconstitutional. Frankly, I wouldn't want to be a lawmaker if that happened...the attack ads during the election would absolutely slaughter incumbents ("...so and so collected a paycheck from hardworking Minnesotans while allowing sex offenders to roam the streets freely...")

twincitizen
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby twincitizen » September 24th, 2014, 8:13 am

MinnPost, you are amazing: http://www.minnpost.com/data/2014/09/20 ... sentatives

MPR's take:http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/09/24 ... sota-house

Dayton & Franken are both going to win, likely by comfortable margins. That will boost democrats over all, but I still get uneasy when I hear "15 seats in play". Some of those northern MN seats are goners. Stay with us 2nd ring burbs!

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby twincitizen » October 9th, 2014, 11:57 am

The massive leads in the polls held by Dayton and Franken are surely a good sign for downticket DFL House Reps. We'll lose a few seats, but I'm feeling increasingly good about retaining a majority. We are certain to lose a few outstate seats, but the close race suburban DFLers (Selcer, Morgan, etc.) are probably going to be ok. Heck, there might even be a surprise DFL gain in the burbs somewhere.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby grant1simons2 » October 9th, 2014, 12:04 pm

The Yvonne folks are just quieter than these Kirk S ones. We get mail EVERY SINGLE DAY about why Yvonne is awful and it's just hateful twisted words about lies about how she hates kids and will destroy our school system. Ugh. I'm sorry. I just can't have Kirko back. Especially since he lives down the road from me

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby FISHMANPET » October 9th, 2014, 12:46 pm

My friend lives in 63B (In Minneapolis, represented by Jean Wagenius) and while I was visiting him a doorknocker came by for some dude who didn't seem to have any endorsement or claim any party affiliation, and his only campaign issue seemed to be that he didn't like the new Senate Office Building.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby mattaudio » October 9th, 2014, 1:52 pm

I'm in that district, and the only other candidate is Andres Hortillosa. http://www.hort63b.com/ His literature doesn't use the "R" word (we're in Minneapolis after all) but he was the only candidate in the Republican primary and I assume the Republican party endorses him as he seems to be running a serious campaign.

I've ran into him a few times over the years - he's been on the board of Nokomis East Neighborhood Association and a few other things that I can't remember. He and his wife are solid members of the community and seem to have the right intentions. But I can't imagine he has a chance running against our long-time DFL Rep Wagenius, with whom I also have a high amount of respect. She's really done well as an advocate for many environmental issues around the state.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby MNdible » October 9th, 2014, 2:05 pm

Looking ahead, does anybody think that there will be a DFL challenger to Sen. Jeff Hayden (62) in light of his recent unfortunate entanglements?

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby FISHMANPET » October 9th, 2014, 2:27 pm

I'm in that district, and the only other candidate is Andres Hortillosa. http://www.hort63b.com/ His literature doesn't use the "R" word (we're in Minneapolis after all) but he was the only candidate in the Republican primary and I assume the Republican party endorses him as he seems to be running a serious campaign.

I've ran into him a few times over the years - he's been on the board of Nokomis East Neighborhood Association and a few other things that I can't remember. He and his wife are solid members of the community and seem to have the right intentions. But I can't imagine he has a chance running against our long-time DFL Rep Wagenius, with whom I also have a high amount of respect. She's really done well as an advocate for many environmental issues around the state.
Yeah that was him, I figured he was an R, but that he'd have to keep it secret in that district.

He put his membership in the Neighborhood Association, and my immediate knee-jerk reaction was to dislike any older rich person that's on a neighborhood board.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby mattaudio » October 9th, 2014, 2:40 pm

He put his membership in the Neighborhood Association, and my immediate knee-jerk reaction was to dislike any older rich person that's on a neighborhood board.
This is North Richfield you're talking about. He (and Jean) fit the older, financially stable homeowner demo quite well.


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