Elwyn Tinklenberg

In last week's Weekly Report, we wrote that Sixth Congressional District DFL candidate Elwyn Tinklenberg is pro-life, which is what his campaign told us. We quickly heard from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life executive director Scott Fischbach, who said, "You can call yourself whatever you want. We'll make sure voters know in detail where he stands."

To Fischbach, the Tinklenberg campaign's claim that their guy is pro-life is misleading because Tinklenberg won't restore protection of the unborn by addressing Roe v. Wade.

"Tinklenberg put out rhetoric he knows will play in the district, without committing to life," Fischbach said. Fischbach concedes that Tinklenberg might understand abortion isn't good; however, that's not enough to earn a pro-life label in his book. MCCL's mission is to "restore protection for unborn children and their mothers," and to Fischbach, that requires a commitment to support work that will overturn Roe v. Wade, something Tinklenberg is on record as opposing.

Tinklenberg disagreed with Fischbach's definition of pro-life, describing this limited definition of pro-life as a "punitive, legalistic approach," that has resulted in little progress for children and pregnant women. He considers himself pro-life, and said it is his goal to reduce the number of abortions in the country.

"It is not my mission to eliminate the protection provided in Roe, or criminalize the relationship between a woman and her doctor," Tinklenberg said. To him, there is more to being pro-life than overturning Roe v. Wade. A broader definition is more productive, he said, pointing out that part of protecting the unborn is providing assurance of economic security in the areas of housing, health care and employment, as well as providing quality education on pregnancy prevention.

"I want to end inefficient polarizing debates and start working towards solutions we all can agree on," Tinklenberg said.

Fischbach said Tinklenberg was in a tough spot: To win, he needs to be pro-life; but if he were truly pro-life, support from state and national DFL party groups would diminish.

Tinklenberg again disagreed with Fischbach, saying, "I have no problem sticking up for what I believe. I'm too old to try and impress anybody." He said he aligns himself with the DFL pro-life voices of U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (MN8) and U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson (MN7). Oberstar currently has a 71% rating on the National Right to Life scorecard, while Peterson garnered 85%. Tinklenberg's opponent, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN6) has a 100% rating.

Tinklenberg has not completed any MCCL candidate questionnaires because he considers MCCL's definition of pro-life to be too narrow. Fischbach said it's because he doesn't want to make a commitment.

"His campaign may try to mislead pro-life voters in the sixth district, but our federal PAC will do what it has to do to make sure pro-life voters know Michelle Bachmann is pro-life and Tinklenberg is not," Fischbach promised.

The bridge collapse--in what's sure to be an excruciatingly painful process--will put the spotlight on what anyone who has worked in Minnesota transportation policy has known for decades: the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is a mess. No one administration or political party is to blame. The Rudy Perpich (DFL) Administration (1982-1990), the Arne Carlson (R) Administration (1990-1998), the Jesse Ventura (I) Administration (1998-2002) and the Tim Pawlenty (R) Administration (2002-to present) have all made the same call. There are other, sexier things to fund rather than existing infrastructure and that's what's happened.

In recent years, "sexy" has meant $25 million in state bonding money for a new Guthrie Theater, located on the Mississippi River a mere several blocks from the collapsed bridge, and a new Twins ballpark. Funded with a .15% sales tax on goods and services in Hennepin County, it will be about half mile as the crow flies on the other side of downtown. Ironically, the ceremonial groundbreaking was scheduled for the night after the collapse but was canceled. And, let's not forget that the city of Minneapolis spent $3 million to move the Shubert Theater a few blocks (which stands vacant on Hennepin Avenue where it waits for state bonding money).

Those who have griped about the lack of adequately funding existing road and bridge infrastructure maintenance over the years, mainly the highway contractors, their subcontractors and the unions, never got very far because their interests seemed so self-serving. There was no traction among the general public, who thought new new theaters and stadiums were sexier than roads and bridges, too.

MnDOT has well-documented needs without the means to pay for them. Nationally, funding infrastructure needs has suffered the same "not sexy" problem, along with economics 101, funding guns v. butter. In Minnesota, there are no guns to pay for, but there are people funding needs that weren't in most of the government budgets of the 20th century. There was no "E" for early in the current E-12 education system and funding formulas (the funding of which consumes about half the state's current budget). There was no sense that government needed to provide health insurance for myriad categories of people.

Back to the Pawlenty Administration. There's added transportation funding rancor there that exceeds not just raising the gas tax. When Pawlenty first named Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau to be his Transportation Commissioner, hopes in the transportation community were high. As a legislator, Molnau chaired a transportation funding committee in the House. She "got" the MnDOT mess. The expectation was that she would straighten it out. She did not, for reasons I simply don't know but surmise to be the ones outlined above--no strong political direction to do the dirty work.

Finally, while on the subject of Minnesota transportation commissioners, one of the lowlights this past week was former Jesse Ventura Administration Commissioner of Transportation Elwyn Tinklenberg. Mere hours after the bridge went down, he was being interviewed on KARE-11 TV (our local NBC affiliate) standing in front of the dark Capitol building blathering (there is no better word) about MnDOT's "constant deterioration of the budget, constant layoffs, failure to replace people," etc. Most of what he said was not only not true, but it was crass in the immediate aftermath of the bridge falling down. And for the record, the collective opinion on Tinklenberg in the transporation job was much worse than Molnau's.