Thursday, July 21, 2011

GoJO - The End of the State Shutdown: I couldn't have said it better than this

Governor's Journal, GoJo for short, is a site with the motto "All Governors. All the time.", making it clear what their specialty is.  I particularly like their polling section, which is comprehensive, but their articles are often just as good, and they cover stories by state which often are missed by the national media. 

I was curious to review their take on Governor Dayton and the budget controversy in Minnesota.  While I found their title a bit misleading, given their quite apt criticism, overall the article was on target.

From the excellent site Governor's Journal:
A Win-Win For Dayton

By Dean Pagani on July 17, 2011

Only On GoJo - In the end, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton(DFL) was in a win-win situation. Either the budget standoff would end with an agreement requiring no new taxes, or he would get a deal that included higher taxes on the wealthy. As a Democrat, it’s not hard to campaign on either one of those outcomes; if Dayton is looking ahead that far.

In a season of low approval ratings for governors across the country, Republicans in Minnesota may have stopped Dayton from sinking further even as they won on one of their major policy goals. Minnesota insiders and political observers are scoring this as a win for the GOP. With superior numbers in the legislature, Republicans were willing to weather the bad press caused by the government shutdown, until Dayton felt so much pressure he had to return to the GOP’s last best offer. Republicans gave up only some conservative window dressing.

From a political communications perspective Dayton should have won more. As governor, he had a distinct advantage when it comes to framing the issue and he squandered it.
Read the rest of the article here.

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