Daily Digest: Dayton lukewarm on Capitol portrait

Good morning, and welcome to Monday and the start of a new work week. Here's the Digest.

1. Dayton not interested in an official portrait. Mark Dayton is already tired of the growing questions about his upcoming departure from Minnesota governor’s office that are aimed at getting him to offer self-appraisals. Don’t even get Dayton started on one lasting mark he’ll leave in the state Capitol: the official portrait that will hang with 38 others throughout the building. “Some of these issues that deal with the terms of my departure I have not focused on,” Dayton told MPR News toward the tail end of an interview last week. “I’m not going to pay for it. I’m not going to ask the people of Minnesota to pay for it.” Dayton, who comes from a family of noted art collectors, was asked if he had started the process of picking an artist to do the painting. He made clear he hadn’t and hinted he might not.  “If somebody in the future decides they want to do a portrait of me I will send them a Polaroid snapshot and they can do so,” Dayton said. (MPR News)

2. Another gun control push expected after 20,000 march on Capitol. Thousands of Minnesotans rallied outside the state Capitol Saturday following a student-led march that began at St. Paul's Harriet Island as part of a nationwide protest against gun violence. Lawmakers, students and gun violence survivors urged the Minnesota March For Our Lives crowd to press for stronger gun control and school safety laws in the wake of the killing of 17 students and staff last month in Parkland, Fla. St. Paul Police estimated about 18,000 people moved through the city and onto the Capitol grounds. Later in the day, Minnesota State Patrol put that number closer to 20,000. By comparison, the crowd estimate for last year's women's march in St Paul, one of the largest rallies in Twin Cities history, was about 100,000. More than a dozen other demonstrations took place Saturday across Minnesota, including Willmar, Brainerd, Duluth and Winona. The flagship March For Our Lives in Washington, D.C., drew hundreds of thousands of people to Pennsylvania Avenue as part of a nationwide demonstration led by survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killings. (MPR News)

3.  Some DFLers upset with early DCCC nods. Jeff Erdmann of Eagan is a football coach at Rosemount High School who wants to add a term in Congress to his resume. He hopes to run against first term Republican U.S. Rep. Jason Lewis in Minnesota’s 2nd District. But Erdmann said he faces an obstacle in gaining the DFL Party endorsement in the form of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The Washington group, known as the DCCC, is the official campaign arm of House Democrats.  Last fall it threw its support to businesswoman Angie Craig, who narrowly lost to Lewis in the District in 2016. “To feel that they need to come in and put their thumb on the scale for the candidate that has all kinds of personal wealth, you know that’s frustrating that they’re trying to taint the system,” Erdmann said. DCCC officials made it clear money drove their choice to back Craig, he added. “We didn’t talk anything about my background, my success as a teacher, as a coach any of the values that I hold. All they wanted to talk about was where we thought we could get money-wise.” He's not the only candidate who's upset. (MPR News)

4. Women are running for office in record numbers.  Women are stepping up in Minnesota in a big way to run for office. There are three women still in the race for Minnesota’s next governor, and seven women are running to represent one of Minnesota’s eight congressional districts. Minnesota’s two incumbent U.S. senators are women, and next fall, it looks likely that one race will be a matchup between two women: DFL U.S. Sen. Tina Smith and Republican state Sen. Karin Housley. “This mirrors the national trend,” said Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Center for American Women in Politics. “We are seeing record numbers of women launching campaigns, particularly in congressional and statewide races.” It’s not exactly surprising: Women have been growing in the ranks of state and national government for years, but there are still barriers. In Minnesota, women still only hold 66 seats in the 201-seat Legislature, or roughly one-third, and there is currently only one woman representing Minnesota in the state’s Congressional delegation. And then there’s the highest glass ceiling: The governor’s office has never been held by a woman in Minnesota. (MinnPost)

5. Republicans take aim at Dayton's tax plan. The tax plan Gov. Mark Dayton recently outlined would cut taxes for most income tax filers while raising them on many businesses. It seeks to achieve the two-term DFL governor’s long-standing policy goals of a more progressive tax system, one that puts more tax burden on wealthier taxpayers while providing sufficient revenue for a host of spending priorities such as education and health care. The “number one priority,” Dayton said: “Minnesotans and their families.” Republicans, particularly in the state Senate, have offered a blistering response: Dayton’s plan is too complex, and any tax increases are uncalled for in a state where businesses and families already face some of the highest taxes in the nation. “Unless we do something to become more competitive with other states, we will continue to lose,” said Sen. Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, chairman of the Senate Taxes Committee. Republican legislators are expected to release tax proposals of their own soon. (Star Tribune)

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