April 16, 2010| Posted in In the News, In the News, Paul's Viewpoint
Paul Thissen: Minnesotans need solutions, not patience
The times demand action, persistence and fresh ideas from political leaders.
By PAUL THISSEN
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Last update: April 15, 2010 – 7:55 PM
There is more brewing in Minnesota than tea. The recent Tea Party rallies and counterprotests by labor organizations are a less-than-subtle sign that under the surface, Minnesotans are fed up. They are frustrated because establishment political leaders are not addressing the real problems that they are facing every day. Many worry about how to keep their jobs and how to provide for their families with fewer hours and less pay.
The response to these real concerns from the establishment and cynics is too often that we should wait and be satisfied with what we have. They say that it’s not our time and it is not our turn.
Be patient with a jobless economic recovery, Minnesota. Wait and see if federal health care reform helps control soaring costs in our state. Stand by as your child’s class turns into a warehouse. Let do-nothing politics fester for another four years.
My response to those cynics is simple — Minnesota cannot wait any longer for strong leadership. The DFL certainly cannot wait another four years to win an election. The stakes are too high to simply wait in line.
These times do not call for patience. They demand action, persistence and fresh ideas. They demand leadership that is less about doing things — and more about getting things done.
I’m staking my campaign to be governor on the fact that Minnesotans are ready for that kind of leadership. I’ve been more of a workhorse than a show horse over my legislative career. From extending health care to 40,000 Minnesota kids to securing a decent retirement for tens of thousands of police officers, firefighters and teachers, I’ve built a record as someone who takes action to fix problems rather than wait around talking about what we could do.
That combination of hard work and a clear vision is the way we built our state, grew our economy into one of the most robust in the country and made Minnesota tops in the nation in education, quality of life, job growth and most other measures. We’re slipping, but Minnesotans are ready for the hard work and hard choices it will take to regain our proud standing.
Sometimes in this disjointed political process, we forget what elections are really about. Minnesotans don’t care about bickering within and between political parties. They have grown wary of sound bites and political point-scoring. They don’t care about who has paid their dues or who the media assumes is a so-called front-runner.
For over a year, our campaign has been challenging Minnesotans to do an unconventional thing. I’m not running for governor because I was ever a presumptive front-runner. I’m not here out of name recognition or institutional position or entitlement. I’m not in the race because it is my turn. I’m running because it’s Minnesotans’ turn to have a governor who will engage them in actually solving our problems.
And I know Minnesotans are ready because our campaign is breaking through, due to hard work, good ideas, honest conversations and sheer determination. There is nothing more Minnesotan than that.
Rep. Paul Thissen, Minneapolis, is a DFL candidate for governor.
You can read the original article here.
| Posted in In the News, In the News
The DFL’s dark horse: Six quick questions with Paul Thissen
by Steve Perry
Politics in Minnesota
Published: April 14,2010
For months now, the perceived wisdom concerning the race for the DFL gubernatorial endorsement has been that it’s a two-person race between House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. The main benchmarks of the campaign season so far — most recently, February’s caucuses — suggest as much too.
Minneapolis rep thinks it’s now a three-way race for gov endorsement
For months now, the perceived wisdom concerning the race for the DFL gubernatorial endorsement has been that it’s a two-person race between House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. The main benchmarks of the campaign season so far — most recently, February’s caucuses — suggest as much too.
But lately a growing minority of observers in and around the DFL have come to believe that Minneapolis Rep. Paul Thissen, who chairs the House’s Health and Human Services Policy Committee, will be an important player in next week’s convention balloting and could come away with an upset win if the convention deadlocks or either of the presumed principals falters.
Certainly Thissen has shifted his message in the late pre-convention going. Now, at every turn, he’s hammering DFL mainstays — like the two front-runners in the governor’s race — for the sins of a Democratic Party that’s come increasingly under fire from the grassroots for its timidity in dealing with Republican opposition.
Thissen says that his campaign is peaking at the perfect moment — an obligatory boast under the circumstances, but possibly also correct. “I think right now the momentum and the energy are moving in our direction,” he told Capitol Report during a conversation in his office Tuesday, “and I think people will feel that when we get to the convention.”
What follow is an edited transcript of that interview.
Capitol Report: What issues have been the greatest source of traction for your campaign, and why?
Paul Thissen: The biggest issues are — well, leadership style. Democrats are concerned that [elected] Democrats at the federal and the state level haven’t been standing up to Republicans enough and haven’t been willing to risk political capital to get real solutions that are going to fix stuff. The GAMC fix bill is a prime example of that.
And the other issue is our electoral success in the last several cycles, and going with an establishment candidate, someone very much associated with the institution of the DFL, [versus] our offering of a fresh face and a different, future-oriented direction. That’s really what’s gaining us traction.
CR: Can you win the endorsement at this convention? Most people think at this point that it’s a two-horse race for the endorsement between Rybak and Kelliher.
Thissen: And the mainstream media seems to have locked in on that story quite a while ago. In fact, that’s not the case, based on the numbers we’re seeing. You’ve got to get to 60 percent, right? At most, the leading candidates are going to come in with maybe one-quarter of the votes [each]. We’re gaining ground all the time. Every day we’re picking up delegates, and even delegates who came out of other name [candidate] subcaucuses.
We’re far and away the second choice of most other campaigns’ delegates. And that, in the dynamics of this kind of convention, is really important. And I do think that as we get closer to the convention in Duluth, people are paying more and more attention to all the candidates, which helps us, and to who can win in November and govern us out of the mess we’re in in a highly partisan environment. I think those factors move things in our direction.
The other really strong thing that I think will surprise people is that we are running really strong in greater Minnesota. And as that information becomes more apparent, I think that will help us.
CR: Where are your strongholds around the state? I know you said the other day that you’re pleased with how things are going in the 7th [congressional district].
Thissen: The places—well, my own area, right? We’ve done decently well in Minneapolis and in the southern suburbs. And we’re running particularly strong in western Minnesota and southern Minnesota. We’re running decently everywhere, but that’s where we’re particularly strong compared to other campaigns.
CR: Where are you concentrating your campaign efforts in the week-plus leading up to the convention?
Thissen: It’s very much focused on three things. Calling delegates, whether it’s me or my campaign or my wife, who’s played a big role in that process as well. We still continue to go out across the state to meet face-to-face with delegates. I’ll be in Duluth and Hibbing tonight, as an example. And the other piece of it is to get our message out in different and creative ways, whether that’s through supporters, mail, or the Internet. And the campaign is getting ready for all the technical work of how we’re going to run the convention floor and what that’s going to look like.
And we’re preparing a speech [smiles].
CR: What has to happen at this convention for you to break through the ranks of the top two candidates and win the endorsement?
Thissen: I think right now the momentum and the energy are moving in our direction, and I think people will feel that when we get to the convention. As they see where our support is coming from, and hear our ideas for where we need to go in Minnesota, I think the good news for our campaign is that we’re continuing to grow in people’s minds. I think that dynamic, over the next two weeks and when we get to the convention floor, is going to propel us into the lead.
The way the math lines up, we don’t have to pick up every single delegate from everyone who is going to drop out [over successive ballots]. But if we pick up a good share of them, we will be running even with Margaret and R.T. by the time we get down to those critical ballots.
CR: A lot of people have said that you’ve run an interesting campaign, but that they don’t think it’s “your time.” What do you make of that?
Thissen: I think the thing that hasn’t been covered in this campaign is how surprisingly well we’re doing. I got into this race because the challenges we’re facing in Minnesota are so big, and I think I’ve got something to offer.
So my response to that is, it’s Minnesota’s time, and we’ve got to decide who’s going to be best at dealing with the problems that Minnesota’s going to be facing, as opposed to asking who’s next in line.
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April 9, 2010| Posted in In the News, In the News, News Media
Proposals to change Minnesota-run mental health care draw fire
House leaders want say in less costly plan
Updated: 04/08/2010 09:30:34 PM CDT
A reorganization of state-run mental health facilities proposed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s administration is drawing increasing fire around the Capitol, as health care leaders in the House said Thursday that they would seek final say on any such move.
The changes, which include shuttering facilities, affect sites in Anoka, Cambridge, Eveleth and elsewhere and aim to saving $17 million while providing better services for those suffering severe mental illnesses. Announced in March, the plan was to be rolled out over the next 14 months.
But it drew fire from lobbyists concerned about what the plan means for patients, including those who may be forced to seek services away from their families, and from unions, which object to a plan to lay off 200 workers.
“The entire mental health community is not supportive, and that’s a problem,” said Sue Abderholden, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Minnesota.
Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, held a news conference Thursday, flanked by a handful of other lawmakers, and accused the Minnesota Department of Human Services of expanding a mandate to examine services at facilities only in Anoka and Cambridge.
“They took that charge and spread it across all state-operated services,” said Thissen, chairman of the House Health Care and Human Services Policy and Oversight committee, referring to a group of state-run programs and facilities focused mainly on the mentally ill.
Thissen said he would
try to amend a budget bill to prohibit the department from making changes without legislative approval.
Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, said he was worried about changes to a behavioral health center in Eveleth, on the Iron Range.
“This is frightening, and it’s got to be stopped,” Rukavina said.
But Human Services Commissioner Cal Ludeman said the administration was within its rights to make the changes, which would help the department close its share of a projected $1 billion statewide budget deficit. Capitol lawmakers and Pawlenty already have agreed on more than $300 million in cuts.
Ludeman said the department provided too many beds in some cases and offered unnecessary levels of care in others. The changes will include revising the services at several facilities, and six — including a handful of state-run dental clinics — would close.
In their place, new psychiatric care centers would provide 24-hour stays for patients, and facilities would help them recover and go home. A new 24-hour system also would help conduct faster assessments and placements of mentally ill people.
“We need to be able to provide better care, but at lower cost,” Ludeman said.
Several unions oppose the move, including AFSCME Council 5, which said last month that the cuts and resulting job loss would harm patients and put staff in danger.
The union pointed to staffing cuts at the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center, saying assaults on staff members have increased dramatically.
“The human cost of understaffing is unconscionable,” council director Eliot Seide said.
Read the rest of the article here.
April 3, 2010| Posted in In the News
4/03/10 by Dave Mindeman
I get home from work on the Saturday evening before Easter. I pick up a few things getting ready for supper. I hear the doorbell ring…pick up a newspaper and glance at it as I go to the door. Finally look up and there, towering in the window stands …..
Paul Thissen.
Wow. Now that’s some serious doorknocking. Drives down to Apple Valley and hits a few delegate doors. We talk for a bit. He has big Easter planned tomorrow with his young’uns. We talk a little about the legislative session and about his principled stand on the GAMC “fix”. Just yakkin’ away.
Paul Thissen.
My wife is with me, talking as well. When Paul walks out the door, she says….”Now, if I was a delegate — that would impress me.”
Well, I have to say…I was impressed as well.
March 29, 2010| Posted in In the News
Marshall Independent
Candidates, legislators speak at DFL event
By Deb Gau
MORTON – The campaigning for Minnesota gubernatorial and legislative candidacy is already under way for 2010. But no matter the final choices, candidates visiting a Senate District 21 DFL fundraiser Saturday said it was important that Democrats stand united…
…Thissen said another challenge to rural Minnesota is how to encourage agriculture when fewer and fewer young people are becoming farmers, and high land prices provide an obstacle to getting started. Thissen said he is working on legislation that would provide tax credits or other incentives for buying farmland or transferring it to a new owner.
Thissen said he also had some concerns about health care. While the passing of the national health care bill was a positive thing for many people, he said, “I worry we’re not going to be able to maintain the system” financially. That system might need further regulation, he said.
Thissen wasn’t the only official to mention the health care bill Saturday. U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson addressed his voting against the bill during a short speech at the fundraiser.
“I’m aware people are very much disappointed in my vote,” Peterson said, citing thousands of phone calls and e-mails at his office. “There are reasons for it,” although he said it would take more time than he had to explain them all. Now that it has passed, however, Peterson said, “I will support it, and I will work to make this work.”
Full text is available at www.marshallindependent.com
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