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Plans for the campaign

Carney plans to advance the following agenda, both in his campaign for Governor, and as a paid consultant to "independent minded" state Legislative candidates of all parties, or no party:

A reexamination and renewal of the Progressive movement in the early 1900's, applying principles from it to today's problems and challenges.  A major focus will be on the questions: "What is '... a republican form of government'? How is it supposed to work?  In this context, three contracts with voters will be advanced:

• "A Minnesota Republican Governor's Contract with Voters" (TBA)

• "A Minnesota Republican State Legislator's Contract with Voters" (complete, will be online soon)

• "A Minnesota Republican State Auditor's Contract with Voters" (TBA)

A defense and advocacy for the Minnesota Political Refund Program, both in the courts, and through public discourse.

A not-yet-drafted Constitutional Amendment providing for a way for Citizens to vote on the increase (or decrease) in State Government spending every two years, as a percentage above or below inflation.  "This amendment will be designed to provide both a cap on spending for the Legislature -- and a restraint on the Governor's veto power when the Legislature is within that cap," Carney said.  "While I strongly oppose the recent use of unallotment, Governor Pawlenty has correctly pointed out that the rate of growth in State spending is unsustainable.  We can and must get this spending under control, and rethink how we do things.  Programs must be economical, transparent and effective.  But this can best be accomplished by independent minded people working together at the Legislature -- not by a 'boots on the ground' minority caucus supporting a budget-ax-wielding 'unalloter,'" Carney said.  "The Governor is not the third house of the Legislature, and must never try to be that," Carney added.

A Constitutional Amendment designed to control judicial activism.  "I presented this to then House Speaker Steve Sviggum in a video taped 2006 interview, and he said he could support it," Carney said.

A detailed study of Unallotment -- Carney is writing a book on this, and plans to have it done soon.  It may be initially published "as is", with a plan to issue a subsequent edition, based partly on feedback from the first edition.

Transportation and housing initiatives designed to promote economic growth.  Carney already has a "sky bi" transportation plan on line, including a ten page report, a map, and a 10 minute video on youtube.com.  Carney has also been developing designs for a new kind of earth sheltered multipurpose building, which will be presented and announced during the course of the campaign.  "I believe both of these ideas have the potential to contribute to Minnesota's quality of life, to make housing and transportation far more affordable, and to serve as a foundation for new industry sectors," Carney said.

Rethinking the economy.  "At this point, I've only gotten as far as the title of a book,... it's 'Choking on Blessings: the Economic of Abundance.'  Here's the nub: the fundamental long term consequence of the industrial revolution has been to so vastly increase the capacity of humans to produce things they need, that the real economic problem now isn't scarcity -- it's abundance.  In a post-industrial society, scarcity of the necessaries of life is not a natural economic phenomena,... is actually something artificial... something that we, as a society, manufacture.  That's about as far as I've gotten so far.  This won't be a main focus of the campaign, but it's percolating.  I'll add this: 'European Style Socialism' is a legitimate rap on the Obama Administration and the Democrats at the national level -- it's something I do not want.  However, I don't see the Republicans at the national level offering a solution that gives proper weight to events of the last hundred or hundred and fifty years.  The full dinner pail and laissez faire simply isn't any kind of a complete and adequate solution to the economic challenges we face today.  So,... a title, a paragraph, it's a start," Carney said.

Advancing and trying to answer a persistent question: Don't we need more love in our politics and our public life?  "I'm talking about the I Corinthians 13 sense," Carney said. 

Proving that a candidate can get a lot of votes, and have a major political impact, while spending almost nothing on the campaign.

"RT and We"; "Timmy and We"

"I came to see the recent Minneapolis City elections as a kind of coordinated suppression of democracy," Carney said.  "This is something I plan to elaborate on -- I think Mayor Rybak is in many ways positioning and presenting himself as a kind of 'Minnesota Obama Czar' -- a state level version of unconfirmed and unaccountable Obama Czar's at the Federal level.   The Mayor's recent campaign was Kremlinesque in the extent to which he evaded and avoided any engagement on many serious issues and challenges facing the City.  I am particularly concerned about affordable housing, opportunities for small business, and the City's financial and internal audit functions," Carney said.  "I plan to be continuing the "RT and me" series I started in the Mayoral campaign, but renamed "RT and We", as in We the People.  I will be seeking to interview Mayor Rybak on these subjects, and on his plans for Minnesota if he were to be elected Governor.  If he doesn't cooperate -- and I think he won't -- that won't stop the series, it will just change the focus to numerous serious issues that he won't address, presumably because he doesn't have answers. I also plan to launch a "Timmy and We" series -- if Governor Pawlenty is not willing to engage with me and/or others, in videotaped interviews, on the issue of unallotment in particular.  Governor Pawlenty has a lot of explaining to do regarding unallotment, and with my unique knowledge and background, I'm just the person for him to do the explaining to," Carney said.

"Beyond this, I am very interested in sitting down for video taped interview/discussions with other candidates for Governor and State Auditor," Carney said.  Carney's recent video work, done during the course of his campaign for Mayor, can be viewed at www.republicancontract.com.

The best and worst of times to be running

Mr. Mark Dayton recently made some announcements regarding his campaign for Governor.  "On an economic value rather than book value basis, I believe my net worth is about $400,000, however, it's almost all highly illiquid real estate.  I will make further disclosures as the campaign proceeds -- in the context of the recession/depression going, this may add a certain kind of 'reality tv / reality politics' seasoning to the campaign.  Stay tuned," Carney said.

Humor virus alert

Carney has been known for injecting humor into campaigns, even to the point where people have questioned whether he is a serious candidate.  "I plan to continue this.  However, I want to say two things up front.  First, my candidacy and the ideas I'm trying to advance are things that I do take seriously.  But second, elements of humor can make things more interesting, and encourage people to see and think in new ways.  With the right kind of humor, you can often sneak ideas right past someone's nose,... and into their mind,... and before they know it they'll be thinking something they didn't know they thought before but they actually thought it all along.  And sometimes, once these ideas get in a person's mind, they grow and grow, and finally they're so big you just can't ever get them out again," Carney said.  "Of course, you have to be very careful to use only the finest quality ideas,... but I always do that," Carney added.

Happy new year!

Below is the text of a recent op-ed submission to the Star Tribune

Title: Danger: an Unallotment Constitutional Crisis

On December 30, Ramsey County Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin issued an order in the second "unallotment case": the Pawlenty Administration must stop "reducing allotments to the Minnesota Supplemental Aid Special Diet program...". The Legislature appropriated $5.3 million for this program, and Governor Pawlenty signed the bill.

Our unallotment statute requires “probable receipts for the general fund will be less than anticipated, and that the amount available for the remainder of the biennium will be less than needed.” State law also specifies a process for first making allotments, following legislative intent. In 2009 none of that happened. Instead, the Governor used vetoes to launch a new biennium with an unbalanced budget. He then claimed an unprecedented power to immediately balance it using unallotment to reduce spending by $2.7 billion -- about ten times the amount of any previous program of unallotment.

Courts strive mightily to avoid "political questions" such as disputes on budgets, revenue and spending. However, the Judge makes it clear that our present situation is so different that Judicial intervention is required on Constitutional grounds -- specifically the Separation of Powers. Here is the nub of Judge Gearin's memorandum:

"By exercising his unallotment authority to apply to reductions in revenues that were determined by a forecast made before the budget had even been enacted and by not excluding reductions that were already known when the budget was enacted, the Governor crossed the line between legitimate exercise of his authority to unallot and interference with the Legislative power to make laws, including statutes allocating resources and raising revenues. The authority of the Governor to unallot is an authority intended to save the state in times of a previously unforeseen budget crisis, it is not meant to be used as a weapon by the executive branch to break a stalemate in budget negotiations with the legislature or to rewrite the appropriations bill."

Judge Gearin's opinion is advisory in this sense: a restraining order is granted when the Court concludes the requesting party is likely to win the case. Therefore, while the unallotment litigation may be far from over, this Judicial conclusion has arrived: Governor Pawlenty has overreached so far that courts will and must act to reverse -- as unconstitutional -- an improper use of unallotment powers.

Judge Gearin also wrote of the other two branches: "Those branches have the institutional competency to break the present budgetary deadlocks, not the judicial branch."

To fully understand that "institutional competency", we must keep in mind that the Legislature can impeach -- on non-criminal grounds -- for "corrupt conduct in office." If the House impeached Governor Pawlenty, he would immediately be suspended from his duties. On the day Judge Gearin heard the restraining order arguments I testified before the House Rules Committee. I recommended a study be commenced of how the phrase "corrupt conduct in office" should properly be understood. If Governor Pawlenty can't lead us away from the brink, the Legislature does have the power both to suspend him, and remove him from office.

We can and should try to avoid such an outcome. However, in the final analysis, wouldn't we all rather see the Legislature and the Governor resolve the issue instead of the Courts? If we put too much strain on our Courts and Judges the result could be a Constitutional Crisis. Impeachment is a malady with a high fever, but the Constitutional provisions are clear. There is no danger of a Constitutional Crisis. And we have a way to break impeachment fever: elections. We the Citizens of Minnesota can, should and would hold the Legislature accountable -- up or down -- if they conclude impeachment is necessary and proper.

The last time a Republican Governor faced something similar to what we have today, Al Quie confronted some tough choices. He rose above partisan sniping, and worked with Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe. At one point in the process, Governor Quie asked Senator Moe to come to his office, just so the Governor could tell him: “I love you.” This story is from Riding into the Sunrise, a recent and excellent biography of Governor Quie. Governor Quie put the best interest of Minnesota ahead of his political career. He knew that politics is part of life, but not all of it. Like acid rain, polarized politics pollutes all lakes; it affects and harms all relationships among all people. Governor Quie understands this -- he knows that a greater good is served when all of us try to work together in a spirit of cooperation. As Minnesota citizens, of all parties or of no party, we can and should accept nothing less.

Governor Quie likes Governor Pawlenty, and served as his honorary campaign chairman in 2006. Our best hope at this point might be that Governor Pawlenty and his friend Governor Quie will talk about our situation some time soon.

Minneapolis Republican Robert S. Carney Jr. is the lead plaintiff in the first lawsuit filed challenging Governor Pawlenty's claimed unallotment powers.