PoliGraph: GOP claim on Dayton vetoes rings true
As the 2012 legislative session comes to a close, Senate Republicans are taking stock of which bills became law, and which stalled in Gov. Mark Dayton's office.
Senate Republicans say that the majority of the bills Dayton has vetoed this year were bipartisan.
"Fact: 86% of Dayton's vetoed bills have been bipartisan," says a flyer being floated by the caucus.
Fact: The Senate GOP gets this claim right.
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The Evidence
As of May 10, Dayton had vetoed 30 bills. Of those, 26 had bipartisan support.
The remaining four, which included a bill that would have allowed the state to suspend federal health care laws and regulations and a bill that would allow the state to contract waste services without determining whether state employees can do it, had only Republican support.
In some cases, such as a bill that dealt with annuity products regulation and a bill that would have prohibited the Commissioner of Education from enforcing unadopted rules, the legislation had broad DFL support in one or both chambers.
In other cases, support was narrow; five of the bills Dayton vetoed had only two DFL supporters. But such instances were in the minority.
The Verdict
Though it's important to note that the GOP takes a narrow view of the meaning of "bipartisan" in a few cases, it's true that 86 percent of the bills Dayton has vetoed so far this year had some support from both sides of the aisle.
This claim leans toward accurate.
SOURCES
Scribd, Dayton Vetoes Bipartisan Bills, May 10, 2012
Minnesota Legislature, Veto Details: 2012, Gov. Mark Dayton, accessed May 10, 2012
E-mail exchange, Susan Closmore, Senate Republican Caucus, May 10, 2012