Seifert questions Emmer’s temperament to be governor
The race to see who wins GOP backing in the campaign for governor is heating up. Earlier, we reported that Rep. Marty Seifert criticized Rep. Tom Emmer for authoring a bill that would have placed limits on independent expenditures, 527s and PACs (I updated that blog post with Emmer's comments on it). Seifert also lobbed another criticism of Emmer during an interview on Emmer's 2005 bill. He raised the issue of Emmer's temperament.
When discussing the bill, Seifert pointed to a 2005 City Pages article that quoted Emmer criticizing Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life for opposing the proposed limits:
Initially, Emmer was optimistic that the bill would be passed, but once it got to the floor, support suddenly dissipated. Various interest groups, most notably Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, stepped up their attacks on the measure. The anti-choice nonprofit group passed out literature condemning the bill and told house members that the vote would be counted in the organization's influential legislative scorecards, even though the issue has nothing to do with abortion.
"What a crock of crap that is," says Emmer, who is pro-life and was endorsed by the MCCL in 2004. He's now disgusted by the group's high-handed tactics: "I've told them to knock it off. I don't ever want to hear from them again. I don't appreciate people passing me notes while I'm in committee telling me how to vote."
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Seifert said Emmer's quote in that article shows that Emmer doesn't have the temperament to be governor.
"The delegates need to know what they're getting," Seifert said. "Right now, they're coming in and getting a good speech for five minutes and the people leave the room and they have no idea about what happens in terms of these other issues like legislation sponsored, etc. I think they need to know if someone needs to come in and wows you with fire breathing, that may be enough but I think people need to know the whole story."
The criticism is a double whammy for Seifert. First, it raises the issue that Emmer supported limits on campaign spending that are opposed by many conservatives. (Emmer now says he doesn't support any limits on campaign spending but was trying to clear up the state's campaign finance laws at the time). Secondly, it puts Emmer at odds with the MCCL, a group that has considerable influence over Republican activists.
For his part, Emmer criticized Seifert for even bringing up a bill he authored in 2005. He said GOP delegates and the rest of the public are more concerned about bread and butter issues. He said Seifert is worried that Emmer has the momentum in the campaign.
"Somebody is raising a bill from 2005 on campaign practices when the real issues that people are talking about are what? They're talking about jobs. They're talking about the future," Emmer said. "They're talking about their families. This is a desperate attempt to create some kind of conflict."
Republicans will meet on April 30th to back a candidate for governor. Both Seifert and Emmer say they'll drop out of the race if they don't win the party endorsement.