Brian McClung

Live from the Capitol

tptadmin — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:09:32 -0500

Mary Lahammer reports from the House Gallery with the latest budget news.

Headlines

tptadmin — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:20:33 -0500

Finding property tax relief that pleases everyone remains the biggest outstanding issue, funding for the Mall of America expansion is in question and vandals strike the Capitol today, defacing three gubernatorial portraits.

Murphy v. Pawlenty

Mary Lahammer — Tue, 6 May 2008 12:58:00 -0500

Sen. Steve Murphy says the governor's staff told him he had to pick 2 out of 3 provisions in transportation bill, so Murphy says he has to drop booster seat language to preserve a primary seatbelt offense and graduated driver’s licenses for teens.

Murphy just told Commissioner Michael Campion that he would convene the transportation conference committee in the governor's office and the public is invited, unless someone from the governor's office comes to his conference committee later today. Murph is steamed. Dems said the governor is choosing to save teens and adults lives but not children. It's heated rhetoric for sure. They say he's playing politics with public safety policy. Public Safety Commissioner Campion tried to communicate that the governor sees seatbelts and graduated licenses as the priorities. Campion at one point said he cannot speak for the governor, but that's exactly what the governor's commissioners are supposed to do. Campion was in a tough spot and lawmakers noted that.

Bonding Chair Alice Hausman says this looks a lot like Central Corridor where the governor vetoes something as a broader bargaining chip. Many members hinted that House Republicans' opposition could also be driving the last-minute changes. We'll see how the rest of this drama unfolds today. Other lawmakers tell me this could affect the entire tone of end of session negotiations which were going well.

Here's what the governor's spokesperson Brian McClung has to say:

Sen. Murphy’s comments are untrue. This is just the latest example of erratic behavior by Sen. Murphy.

Our office did not tell him the bill would be vetoed unless one of the three provisions was removed. We have explained to legislators that the Governor has taken public positions on two of the three provisions, primary seat belts and additional teen driving restrictions. It is possible that Sen. Murphy misinterpreted or intentionally misrepresented the information we shared with him and others.

Governor Pawlenty has been a strong supporter of provisions to increase safety on our roads, including lowering the state’s blood alcohol standard to .08 and graduated driver’s licenses. To imply that we are not supportive of additional safety measures is a disservice to the public and to the debate.

Did You Know?

tptadmin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:16:09 -0500

Did you know that there's a minor tiff at the capitol involving the Governor's published schedule?

Schedule Showdown

Mary Lahammer — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:44:28 -0500

Democrats are rubbing their public schedules in the governor's face today, but they're doing it with a sense of humor. Last week reporters renewed our concerns about events missing from the governor's public events schedule that we are given. We got word of two speeches the governor apparently gave in two days that were not on that schedule. Some of these reports and concerns are coming from Gov. Pawlenty's fellow Republicans. I have had some GOPers worried about what's going on in the governor's office from his chief of staff threatening a lawmaker to his press secretary getting angry over blogs (other than mine!).

Gov. Pawlenty in his press conference today didn't get defensive even when saying Rep. Sertich may be "overdramatizing" the conversation about "cheap shots. " Pawlenty did verify that the conversation did take place. He also provided some humor on the topic of schedules when his Press Secretary Brian McClung said "you have something at 3:05." Pawlenty said "what is it?" McClung didn't appear to want to answer that in front of the press. The room was filled with laughter as the governor said "tell them to push it back." One reporter commented how smooth and amiable the guy remains when he could appear snippy, that's why it actually benefits him to have the press knowing about and covering his events. When he deals with us directly it's much more effective than a statement from the office. Sertich says he's "glad the governor admitted it" regarding the threats and responded to the governor's "cheap shots" analogy with reminder that Sertich played basketball but he "didn't wear pads."

House Majority Leader Tony Sertich released his public events schedule today, which included such scintillating details as "6:30 AM Leave Chisholm for St. Paul (available by phone)." What it does include is events that are closed to the press like caucus meetings; that's the same kind of detail we are seeking from the governor's office. Then, to really rub it in, the Senate sent a media advisory that they'll be meeting with the governor on Wednesday. It says, "Legislative leaders initiated the meeting and asked it be done in a public setting. However the governor has asked for the meeting to be private." Then a classic ironic parting shot, "The four leaders will be available to the media immediately following the meeting."

Now there's another schedule to throw into the heap. House Minority Leader Marty Seifert distributed the funniest schedule yet. It starts with 6:30 a.m. shower and dressing of his kids. It even gives the room numbers for private meetings of the GOP Executive Board and GOP Caucus (does that mean they're public?). And to top it off, a shot at the majority leader: "5:45 p.m. Comfort Rep. Sertich." Bedtime is 11:00 p.m. As Seifert and his media person said "we're all about transparency."

Gov Staff Threaten Sertich?

Mary Lahammer — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:18:14 -0500

Rep. Tony Sertich came to the press today to claim that several weeks ago a “staff member from the governor’s office” called him and said he was relaying a message from the governor that “cheap shots are cheap, but not free” and that the governor looked forward to seeing Sertich’s bills. Making a threat that Gov. Pawlenty was going to veto Sertich’s bonding projects.

Sertich says the fact the governor said his line-items were to trim a bill that was too big is a “lie” because he was paying back Sertich for his comments that were critical about the governor’s level of engagement. On March 14, when this call apparently took place lawmakers had not sent the governor a final bonding bill. It was still being negotiated.

Sertich will not reveal who called. He said this was between him and the governor.

Gov. Pawlenty's Communications Director responded by not denying the call took place, but said specific bonding projects were not mentioned. Here are his exact words, he put them in bold, not me:

Even if others do not, we respect the spirit of confidentiality that is generally part of private conversations, so I won’t go into great detail regarding who said what.

Rep. Sertich and all Democrats had fair notice of the consequences if they chose to violate the state’s credit card limit by passing a fiscally irresponsible bonding bill. In fact, after they did so, they recommended that the Governor line-item projects, rather than veto the whole bill.

When speaking with Rep. Sertich, no one on our staff linked projects in the bonding bill to any comments made regarding the relative value of cheap shots.

Gender Gap Recap--McClung Letter

Mary Lahammer — Tue, 8 Apr 2008 08:56:09 -0500

This unsigned anonymous note is what greeted me this morning in my Capitol office. Frankly, it's rather creepy to me to have people putting accusatory notes in my office when I'm not there. I have had people stalk me, who leave anonymous notes, follow me and have threatened to kill me. This is true for almost anyone who works in television, so we're a bit sensitive to such actions. So if anyone knows who is responsible, please let me know because it's at the very least highly unprofessional and downright creepy.

Now, to the specific questions: The creepy questioner asks "Do you have any evidence related to this charge?" First of all, in my blog post I wasn't making a charge. I was asking a question. "Veto Gender Gap?" was the headline. Note the question mark. I was reflecting an issue raised by four other people, not me. As was noted in the post, Sen. Anderson, Sen. Pappas, Rep. Sertich and at least one reporter raised the issue.

For further evidence, my colleagues have spelled it out pretty clearly in their stories. St. Paul took the brunt of the vetoes. The largest projects that were vetoed came from St. Paul: Central Corridor, Bell Museum, Como Zoo, and more. The female chair Rep. Alice Hausman is from St. Paul. One reporter saw her appear to be crying after the vetoes. Her St. Paul senators said she ran out of the governor’s office because she was so upset.

*Update, the governor's press secretary wrote the note and just supplied this response:

Mary –

I tried calling you yesterday evening and this morning, but have missed you. Please feel free to post this entire email on your blog if you’d like (in fact, I’d prefer if you did so my side of the story can be fully shared with your readers)

I left you that note around 6:00 p.m. yesterday. I came downstairs to talk with you, but when you weren’t there, I just wrote a note and left it. Unfortunately, I forgot to write my name on it, but after I slid it under the door I figured I’d just call you first thing Tuesday to discuss it. I didn’t intend it as an “anonymous” note, as I always planned to follow up with a call.

What bothered me is that, once again, you posted an untrue and unfair accusation from Democrats without contacting our office for a response. You did this on March 14 when you posted their claim that the Governor had not met with DFL leaders, which was not true. And now you post their claim that gender was a factor in the Governor line-item vetoes without contacting our office for a response. This claim is also untrue.

Several other reporters heard DFL legislators claim gender bias regarding the Governor’s vetoes. But none of those reporters actually reported on it, because the claim is ludicrous on its face. This is a Governor who has worked very closely with women over the course of both his private sector and public sector careers. His Lt. Governor is a woman. More than 75 percent of the policy staff in the Governor’s Office are women. His general counsel is a woman. It’s pretty serious to claim that the Governor took official actions with gender in mind as a factor. I believe, at a minimum, you should have given us an opportunity to respond before posting such a claim.

You also said in your post that “the question some reporters started asking is if gender looks like a factor.” No reporter asked that question in the press conference with Governor Pawlenty, so I guess you mean that reporters asked that question after some DFL legislators raised the issue in the hallway after the press conference.

Again, I apologize for not signing my name to the note I left you. And I agree that my handwriting is pretty creepy. I really need to work on my penmanship. Not signing the note was an unfortunate oversight on my part, but I just jotted it down standing in the hallway of the press corps yesterday evening. My concerns about your blog posting still stand, however. I look forward to continuing to work with you around the Capitol.

Sincerely,

Brian McClung
Director of Communications
Office of Governor Tim Pawlenty

Override a Go

Mary Lahammer — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:00:56 -0600

It appears an override attempt in the House is going to go through today. The biggest news may be that the governor appears to have let Republicans off the hook. Last week we reported that Gov. Pawlenty visited the House Republican caucus. According to a leading House Republican, the governor told House Republicans if 5-10 of them had to override than they were supposed to just do it on the first attempt. Some caucus members said if they knew the governor was going to say that they wouldn't have invited him. Some of the Republicans who voted for the bill are saying they're doing this for the governor because the bridge collapse and the fact "he's boxed himself in on transportation." We just saw Sertich and Anderson Kelliher and they were all smiles as they head into the floor session. The House Speaker also already has a press conference scheduled for 10 minutes after the floor session. You don't do that if you're not confident.

Update: I just heard from Brian McClung, Pawlenty's Communications Director. McClung says the governor is "not letting anyone off the hook." McClung verified that Pawlenty did say to the Republican caucus that "If you are going to override, there's no reason to do it 3, 4, 5 times." meaning — don't drag it out. Some caucus members seemed to have interpreted that as letting votes off the hook, McClung says that was not the governor's goal. Pawlenty has been working phones from D.C. this morning, calling House Republicans urging them to uphold his veto. But it seems there's some confusion over how his remarks were interpreted by caucus members.

Gov's Travels on Hold

Mary Lahammer — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:03:00 -0500

I just heard from Gov. Pawlenty's Press Secretary Brian McClung and he says the governor's travel plans are on hold pending legislative action. As I reported earlier, Pawlenty was scheduled to be in Washington D.C. tomorrow as chair of the National Governor's Association to talk about energy issues with other NGA leaders. Pawlenty is waiting to take action and sign it quickly after the legislature finishes its work. I think it's now certain that lawmakers will not complete the special session today, Sept. 11th. The Senate is just now taking up the flood relief bill. There's debate and concern that the Senate won't take the exact same House language. The two bodies still differ even though they're controlled by the same party (that's always been true). The House planned to pass their bill and go home and not let the Senate try to change language. Lawmakers are getting tired and frustrated and they want to go home.

Capitol Update - May 15, 2007

tptadmin — Tue, 15 May 2007 11:46:32 -0500