In the two weeks since the Transportation over-ride vote, much has been said for and against "The Six". If the "Dear Colleague" letter that Rep. Abeler has sent to his caucus is any indication, there are a few hurt feelings as well.
Dear Colleagues,
You may be wondering why I am behaving as I have been since my convention voted
58-42 to ratify my votes and actions over my 10 years.
Shockingly to me, Rep Emmer showed up at the convention on Saturday around 9:45,
declaring himself as representing the caucus. “Marty went south, and I went
north.”
Following a nice commendation of Rep Hackbarth for providing good representation
of his district (no mention of me), Tom went onto bash the “Democrat
transportation tax bill.” The entire speech lasted 7 or 8 minutes, during which
time the crowd got actively engaged, since as a group they were about 3:1
opposed to the bill and many were angry at me anyway. When comments came about
“those 6 republicans” Tom gestured in an encouraging way, and crowd whipped into
a frenz y against those 6 (including me) resembling an Obama rally. There was no
doubt as to the local object of this aggression, me. As he closed, he received
tumultuous applause and left.
When David Olson of the Mn Chamber arrived, he was treated harshly by the crowd
and booed due to the firey mood of the crowd after Emmer’s speech.
When I approached Marty prior to the convention for a letter stating that I had
been a good caucus member except for this singular vote with which he vehemently
disagreed, he declined stating that didn’t I remember that the caucus was not
going to do any help in my election. Which I accepted.
What shocked me is that the caucus would send Tom Emmer who has obvious and
unresolved anger issues toward me and expect his appearance in already tense
situation to go well. I think in human resource circles they call this the
Worst Possible Decision.
I have been a member of the caucus for 10 years, but cannot recall even any
stories about the caucus attacking a sitting member during an endorsing process,
especially when the opponent is “no endorsement” and particularly when that
member is supported by business and the MCCL.
The caucus punishment story about us 6 had died down with the advent of the
budget forecast and the governor’s response. The Emmer rant at my convention
has given all of this retribution talk new life, and we are now becoming known
as the party of the robot.
I think we had better look inside each of ourselves and see where we are going
to wind up politically and as a coalition.
I am sending this to members and staff both, because we are all in this
together. There has been too much silence already, and this matter has
escalated way too far. All our loyal crew deserves to know what is going on and
what transpired.
Now you know what happened.
If you don’t happen to see me at caucus, you shouldn’t be surprised. It is hard
to leave your backside open to a “family” who has tried to blatantly defeat you.
State Rep. Jim Abeler
Former Minority Lead
Health and Human Services Finance
Room 203 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155
Now I won't go in depth into the fact that Rep. Abeler ignores the fact that he needed 60 votes to "rafity" and justify his vote. I'll simply say that 42% of his delegation chose not to "ratify" his vote and that is the more significant number as that is what with-held his endorsement last week....Instead what I want to focus on is his focus on how hurt he is that his caucus would react so negatively on this "one vote".
The caucus is, essentially, a team. Or (as Rep. Abeler states "a family"). Teams and families work together toward common benefits and common goals. Teams and families tend to share core principles - the team/family well being being one of the most important of those core principles. If a team is not whole, if a family is working at odds, they can not reach the common goals. What Rep. Abeler (and Reps. Erhardt and Peterson) seem to forget is that THEY are the ones that broke from the team...they are the ones that turned their backs on the family and voted against the common goal - against the best interests of the family. Rep. Abeler professes his disappointment and hurt that the "family" would turn their backs on him. Did he give any thought (before going against the family) to how hurt the "family" would be by HIS actions? The Governor and Caucus leadership made it clear (before the over-ride vote) that there would be consequences to going against the family. Did Rep. Abeler think that the family would ignore HIS betrayal? Actions have consequences. I would think that someone as intelligent as Rep. Abeler would understand that and (most importantly) accept it. If he honestly feels that his vote was the correct one, why the continued attempt to "ratify" his actions in front of the caucus leadership?
Rep. Abeler points out how hurt he is over the actions of the caucus....did he give any consideration to how hurt the CAUCUS was when he went against the best interests of the "family"? If not, he really should.....for it is only when you attempt to understand the hurts on both sides that brings real healing. If you want understand, Rep. Abeler, put your pride aside and try to understand how the other side feels....maybe then you can understand what is going on within the caucus.
