As session ends, liberal group launches campaign

Minutes after the gavel went down on the end of the 2012 legislative session, the Alliance for a Better Minnesota went live with a new website that will serve as a landing pad for the liberal group's campaign for Democrats to take back the Legislature.

"A Better Legislature" is "an online and paid media campaign to hold legislators accountable for their misplaced priorities and to make the public aware of the negative impacts of Republican leadership on Minnesota," a press release on the new website states.

The campaign will highlight homes and schools, the website says - two issues that the Republican-controlled Legislature has "consistently ignored" by "increasing property taxes on middle-class families and borrowing billions of dollars from Minnesota's schools."

If this video is any indication, "A Better Legislature" provides an peek at what ABM's strategy will be over the next few months: hammer the GOP for last year's government shutdown, two constitutional amendments that will be on the ballot this fall, and former Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch's affair with former staffer Michael Brodkorb.

With financial assistance from a handful of wealthy donors, including members of Gov. Mark Dayton's family, unions and other interest groups, ABM poured all its resources into electing Dayton in 2010.

But Democrats lost control of the Legislature that year, and ABM leaders have said they plan to make winning seats for DFLers their priority in 2012.

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