| State Senator Tom Bakk of Vermillion was one of several potential candidates for the DFL gubernatorial endorsement in 2010 who made the rounds at this weekend's DFL convention in Rochester. However, as of right now, he's the only one who's made his interest official, recently filing paperwork to set up an exploratory committee.
(Read Paul Demko's interview with the same Tom Bakk, including a headline with the same quote I was going to use, here at the newly-rebranded MNIndependent)
 I sat down with Bakk for a brief interview on Saturday after the U.S. Senate endorsement, and my initial impression was one of surprise -- not at Bakk himself per se, but rather at the endless variety of personalities in the ranks of DFL elected officials. Where most candidates for high office are more aggressive and in your face, the physically imposing Bakk has an unexpectedly quiet, Minnesota-twinged voice, a jarring combination at first.
But Bakk quietly and in short order laid out his reasons (MP3 audio link) for exploring a run: "I'm really concerned with the direction we're going, and I think under Governor Pawlenty, we're just managing the status quo ... I think people are getting pretty anxious that this isn't the Minnesota that we grew up in, and we don't like the direction things are going."
Bakk is currently the chair of the Senate tax committee, and has plenty to say on the issue on which he's spent so much time and legislative energy, saying that while he supports investments in education and critical infrastructure projects, he understands voters' wariness of tax bills coming out of the Legislature: "Tax bills are hard to pass, because they get hard to defend. The assumption is 'well, it's a tax bill, there's got to be a tax increase in there'...We have a tax system that's very volatile -- small adjustments in our economy make for wild swings in our revenue."
Read more after the break |
| Bakk: "One way or another..." (MP3 audio link)
On transportation, Bakk said the state is "off to a good start with the bill that was enacted into law this year", noting that it was enacted despite Gov. Pawlenty's full-throated veto, but has also started meeting with leaders from local newspapers and Chambers of Commerce -- organizations that, while important in the business community, aren't necessarily the first place one might go to introduce oneself to lots of DFL activists at once.
Bakk offers an interesting facet to the 2010 race that was missing from 2006: that of an Iron Range legislator. A carpenter for more than 30 years, Bakk noted National Carpenters' Union President Doug McCarren as a political role model -- a leader who, according to Bakk, does what is necessary for the good of those he represents even if it's not the party line. In the heavily unionized Range area, Bakk might command a healthy contingent of DFL caucus-goers, and be a force at the 2010 convention.
With several urban and rural DFL leaders making noise about entering the race, it will surely be interesting to see which groups are courted most strongly by each candidate -- is geography the primary criterion, setting up a rural vs. urban contest between Bakk and a Twin Cities mayor or a certain House Speaker? Perhaps the letters in the party's name will be pitted against one another, with labor getting in line behind a Ranger and farmers lining up behind MFU leader Doug Peterson?
In any of these scenarios, a major issue will be the one and only Tim Pawlenty: how to beat the two-term Governor, and if he's not running for a third term, how to tie his Republican successor to his legacy. Bakk noted that Pawlenty remains popular while a majority of Minnesotans believe the state is on the wrong track, and a major task for the DFL candidate will be to tie Pawlenty's personal record to the state's economic and educational decline against other states. A lofty challenge, but one which Bakk says he's willing to take on. |
