Dear Neighbor,
We thought this would be the week when Democrats started passing their omnibus spending bills because the 40-percent state budget increase they enacted last year wasn’t enough for them.
Then the unthinkable happened as a Democrat State Senator was charged with felony burglary. Her voting absence leaves the balance of power in that body deadlocked at 33-33, putting the Democrats’ partisan agenda on hold because it is unacceptable to allow a legislator to participate in legislative business while facing felony burglary charges.
As a citizen, she is owed due process. As a Senator, she betrayed the trust of the public and her constituents and she should resign from her elected office.
Allowing her to vote would be a black mark on our state and undermine the integrity of our Legislature as an institution. It would be beyond absurd for a charged home invader to potentially cast the deciding vote on Second Amendment bills that diminish a person’s ability to defend themself and their family during an invasion of their home.
The expectation is she will not be permitted to participate remotely or in person until these felony charges have been resolved.
The best path for an orderly conclusion to this session starts with Democrat leaders throwing overboard any radical legislation they planned to ram through on party-line votes late in the session. Then bipartisan negotiations must take place to determine what non-controversial bills that serve all Minnesotans’ best interests can pass both chambers before we adjourn.
I hope the Senator gets the help they need. In the meantime, we must put our reputation and trust of the institution ahead of short-term political goals. Members must be held to the standards set forth in the Senate’s rules.
In other news, late last week I took a meeting with mothers and grandmothers that was listed on my legislative schedule as “gender-affirming care,” having no idea what their position on the issue might be. As it turned out, they each had children or grandchildren who had been guided (some might say groomed) by non-custodial adults in school districts to embrace a transgender identity and begin “transition” in conflict with their biological sex.
These matriarchs were extraordinarily well-informed regarding the emerging science surrounding gender dysphoria and desperate for help to reclaim their children’s lives, or at the very least help prevent such abuse from occurring in other families. This came on the heels of Reps. Leigh Finke and Byron Curran making the false claim on the House floor that parents are in the driver's seat of minor transitions.
It was one of the most chilling meetings of my term, and one I will not soon forget. We need to uphold parental rights and protect children from sexual manipulation and exploitation by adults. An amendment of mine to that affect was rejected by the Democrat majority in the House Children and Families committee the same day.
Watch for more from the House soon as we navigate the final weeks of this session with a Senate on the brink of meltdown.
Sincerely,
Walter