Letter to the Editor, Posted: 12/15/04
By T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter
Senate Tax Committee Chairman Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, has asked Gov. Pawlenty to back off from negotiations with Minnesota Indian gaming tribes and instead appoint a representative.
ěThe governor needs to regroup, take the high road and designate a person who can recapture and maintain a productive relationship with tribal leaders,î said Pogemiller on Dec. 6 in a press release.
Pogemiller cited recent letters from tribal officials to Pawlenty expressing their loss of faith in the governorís leadership.
In a scathing letter (Oct. 6), Chairwoman Helen Blue-Redner, of the Upper Sioux Community, wrote ěyour views are skewed; your comparisons are other-worldly,î and further charged Pawlenty was ěpracticing a form of racial profiling because you are directly placing the burden of the state on the backs of Indian people.î
Mille Lacs Band Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin, in her letter to Pawlenty (Nov. 17), wrote that the tribe came to the governor in good faith but that he, Pawlenty, had politicized the gaming issue.
Pawlenty had ěpoisoned the water,î Benjamin wrote.
ěAt this point, there is no point in participating in a one-sided discussion with no real hope of a solution,î wrote Benjamin.
Pogemiller said the state had partnered in good faith with the tribes on many issues before.
The governor should step aside and let someone else represent the state with the tribes, argued Pogemiller.
ěThe state needs a fresh start,î he said.
Rep. Pete Nelson, R-Lindstrom, recently sold his butcher shop after decades in business.
Nelson hasnít decided what he wants to do next, and is really not going to think about it until the first of the year, he explained.
Thereís a possible opportunity to get into the food research business, he explained. But nothing has been decided.
Nelson, a cancer survivor, a few months back had a bad accident in the butcher shop. He cut one arm so deep as to sever tendons and more alarming, a large blood vessel. He required seven pints of blood and at one time, went into cardiac arrest due to loss of blood.
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