Precinct caucuses are partisan meetings organized by Minnesota’s political parties both to begin the process of selecting candidates for the 2012 election as well as to establish policy positions that shape party platforms.  Caucuses are held in locations all across Minnesota, are open to the public, and participation is encouraged to give individuals a voice in which candidates will be chosen to run for  elected office.

HOW CAN ATTENDING A PRECINCT CAUCUS HELP ANIMALS?

By attending a caucus, you are taking a powerful step towards determining who may ultimately represent you in elected office.  Caucusing is an excellent and easy way to get involved as an advocate for animals.  You can introduce resolutions on behalf of animal issues that may become part of your chosen party’s platform.  You have the opportunity to actively support candidates who pledge to work for humane animal policies, or you can oppose candidates who take a poor stance on animal issues.

Here is more information on caucusing.

Here is more information on introducing resolutions. Includes 3 sample resolutions to protect dogs and cats, farm animals, and wildlife.

Thank you for getting involved and for speaking up for those who cannot!

You’re invited to lobby for the animals!

Would you like to speak up for Minnesota’s animals? Here’s your chance to let your state legislators know that animal issues matter to you and that you’d like them to support animal protection legislation.

—Event information and registration—

Hope to see you there!

Please see Issues and Legislation: Current Legislation 2011-2012: Animal Bills 2012 for a short list of some bills before the Minnesota Legislature that affect Minnesota’s animals, including dog and cat breeder regulation, repeal of pound seizure, the 2011 ag-gag bill, and bills affecting wolves.

For a complete list of all animal bills that is updated weekly, please see Issues and Legislation: Current Legislation 2011-2012.

Thank you for staying engaged and working to improve conditions for Minnesota’s animals!

First of many boxes full of petitions brought to the Capitol this week!

The Minnesota Legislature convened on Tuesday this week. On Wednesday and Thursday, Minnesota Voters for Animal Protection was excited to deliver THOUSANDS of petitions from supporters to elected officials across Minnesota! We brought the petitions to the State Capitol in St. Paul and delivered them directly to the offices of almost every one of the 201 state legislators.

Petitions were collected at outreach events in the Twin Cities, the suburbs, Rochester and St. Cloud, and also collected online from every corner of Minnesota. This means nearly every legislator heard from his or her constituents and we reinforced the message to legislators that animal issues are important to the voters in their district!

Stopping by Rep. Davnie's office to bring him petitions from his constituents

MVAP has been running two petition drives over the last year: one in support of a bill to regulate the commercial breeding of dogs and cats, and the other in opposition to Minnesota’s ‘ag-gag’ bill. Both of these issues have elicited a tremendous response, and it is vital that legislators continue to hear from average Minnesotans in their districts, not only from those invested in the commercial dog/cat breeding and industrialized agriculture industries.

Our petition drives are ongoing, since the two bills are still alive in the 2012 session. Here is more information on the pending ag-gag legislation, and here is information on the pending dog and cat breeding regulation bill. If you have not yet signed, you can sign the petitions below. Please invite others you know to sign as well!

Sign the petition to oppose ag-gag legislation here.

Sign the petition to support the dog and cat breeder regulation here.

With your help, we are building more pressure to advance the humane treatment of animals in Minnesota. Thank you!

Minnesota Voters for Animal Protection would like to thank Rep. Greiling for her compassionate leadership and her willingness to author legislation to enhance protections for service animals. We wish her the best in the next phase of her life.

Representative Mindy Greiling represents District 54A- all or parts of Rosevile, St. Anthony, Lauderdale. Representative Greiling received a better-than-perfect score (100+%) on MVAP’s 2009-2010 Humane Scorecard. In addition to her record of voting with the animals on the House floor, in the 2009-2010 biennium Rep. Greiling authored legislation to increase protections for service animals.

From the St. Paul Pioneer Press Jan 20, 2012 

Longtime Democratic Rep. Mindy Greiling of Roseville said Wednesday that she won’t run for re-election this fall after almost two decades in the Legislature.

Greiling was first elected in 1992 and became one of her party’s leaders on education. She was the chairwoman of the House Education Finance Committee for four years, until Republicans took control of the Legislature last year.

Greiling, 63, said her biggest accomplishment was pushing for a simpler and more balanced approach to funding schools. Dubbed the new Minnesota Miracle, the proposal would have pumped an additional $2.4 billion into public schools at all levels. Failing to pass it was her biggest disappointment, Greiling said.

House Minority Leader Paul Thissen said Greiling has always been a fighter and tireless advocate for Minnesota’s students and schools and those with mental illness.

“Throughout her years of service, Mindy has challenged us as a Legislature to do more and go further, especially when it comes to adequately funding our schools,” Thissen said in a statement. “I hope we can all live up to this challenge this session and beyond.”

Rep. Pat Garofalo, the Republican chairman of the education finance committee, has publicly sparred with Greiling over the years on education issues. Although the two are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, Garofalo said he has a lot of respect for his colleague.

“She’s a good friend who has served her constituents well,” Garofalo said. “It’s a loss for the state of Minnesota that she’s not running again.”

This fall’s election will be a contentious one. Minnesota has to redraw political lines this year, so all state legislators are up for re-election. Republicans control both the House and Senate by slim margins.

Greiling said redistricting was one of the many reasons she decided not to run for re-election. Running a campaign is hard work, she said, and she knew deep down that it was time for her to move on.

Read the full story here.

by Briana Bierschbach

Representative Susan Allen

DFL attorney Susan Allen, who was vying for south Minneapolis House District 61B, won the seat with about 56 percent of the vote, beating out “Respect” candidate Nate Blumenshine. Blumenshine garnered about 43 percent of the vote.

Allen will replace former DFL Rep. Jeff Hayden, who won a special election to replace retiring Sen. Linda Berglin in Senate District 61. Allen, who has lived in the Powderhorn neighborhood for the last 14 years, works with the law firm Fredericks, Peebles & Morgan, specializing in tribal and local government relations.  Allen will be the first Native American woman to serve in the Minnesota Legislature.

Senator Kari Dziedzic

Hennepin County staffer Kari Dziedzic easily won the Senate District 59 race in northeast Minneapolis, beating out Republican candidate Ben Schwanke with about 80 percent of the vote. Dziedzic will replace longtime Minneapolis senator and former DFL Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, who resigned his seat to lead the Office of Higher Education.

Dziedzic is a staffer in Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Stenglein’s office. Her father, Walt Dziedzic, was a powerful political figure in Minneapolis politics.  Dziedzic won out in a five-way DFL primary election for the seat just last month.

Read the full article here.

See official election results on the Secretary of State’s website.

Article by: MICHAEL J. CRUMB, Associated Press

The U.S. Agriculture Department announced Monday it will close nearly 260 offices nationwide, a move that won praise for cutting costs but raised concerns about the possible effect on food safety.

The plan calls for 259 offices, labs and other facilities to be closed, affecting the USDA headquarters in Washington and operations in 46 states. Seven foreign offices also will be shut.

Other parts of the announcement were a surprise. Andrew Lorenz, deputy district manager for the Food Safety and Inspection Service in Minneapolis, learned his office would be closed, along with those in Madison, Wis., and Lawrence, Kan. ”They wiped out the entire Midwest,” said Lorenz, whose office handles all federal inspections of meat, poultry and egg products in Minnesota, Montana, the Dakotas and Wyoming. FSIS offices in Chicago and Des Moines will remain open. It was not immediately clear whether work from the other offices would be shifted to them. Lorenz said about 16 people work in his office, and he expected 12 to 14 of their jobs to be eliminated.

Elisabeth Hagen, undersecretary for food safety, said the closures would affect management and support staff as FSIS offices are consolidated from 15 to 10, but that there wouldn’t be a reduction in inspectors or inspection work. ”There will be no reduction in inspection presence at slaughter and processing facilities and no risk for consumers,” Hagen said. ”Not only do we have a statutory obligation to be in every facility, we have an unwavering commitment to food safety,” she added. “We will still be on the job, in every facility, every day.”

The USDA manages a wide array of programs, from emergency aid for farmers to grants for rural development and food assistance programs for the poor. Along with the Agricultural Research and Food Safety and Inspection services, six other departments will be affected by closures, including the Farm Service Agency and Rural Development.

Bruce Babcock, a farm economist at Iowa State University and director of the school’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, said consolidation was a long time coming, given that advances in technology made it possible to file applications and do other tasks over the phone or online. He said he’s more concerned about the USDA’s ability to maintain programs that deal with disease prevention. ”The capability to collect data and do the behind the scenes activities that really help U.S. agriculture stay safe, that should be concerning,” Babcock said.

Colin Woodall, a spokesman for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which represents more than 147,000 ranchers nationwide, applauded the USDA for trying to save taxpayers’ money in tight economic times but also expressed concern about food safety. ”We can’t say this is all great news because some offices will be closed,” he said. “We have to make sure we have the process in place to keep food safe.”

Read the full article here

Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jan. 3, 2012  Trapping effective, but will there be interest?

Now that Minnesota’s gray wolf is slated to officially come off the federal endangered species list Jan. 27, 2012, state wildlife officials are planning a wolf hunting season. The state Department of Natural Resources says trapping and hunting wolves could occur next fall. After more than 30 years of federal protection, an estimated 3,000 of the wolves now live in Minnesota, by far the largest population in any of the lower 48 states.

The rules of a hunting season will be up to the Legislature.

Wildlife officials said that at least initially, they want the wolf to have its own hunting season between November and January, when the pelts are at their finest and the deer hunting season is over. They would also prefer a lottery system to sell a small number of licenses rather than an unlimited number sold over-the-counter. Ideally, such a design would help create a “hunting and conservation aesthetic” around the wolf that would elevate it to the status of a trophy animal, said Dan Stark, a wolf biologist for the Department of Natural Resources.

Legislators and top wildlife officials said their primary goal is to make certain the wolf doesn’t go back on the endangered species list — either because its numbers drop below 1,600, the minimum called for in the state’s plan, or because of a lawsuit by conservation groups that challenge the state’s management.

“We want to work toward keeping it under state control,” said Rep. Denny McNamara, R-Hastings, chairman of the House Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee.

Public input

McNamara said legislators are already hearing from constituents in northern Minnesota who want “a serious hunt” right away.

Officials said they have not yet settled on a quota for how many wolves could be shot or trapped. That would be decided by the Legislature, with input from the public through open hearings. They said they would like a plan that allowed larger numbers to be hunted in areas near agricultural and livestock regions, where there have been conflicts, a strategy that in the long run could reduce clashes between wolves and people.

The state’s plan also allows property owners in the northeast part of the state to kill wolves if they are an immediate threat to livestock or pets. On the more agricultural southern and western edges of the state’s 35,000-square-mile wolf range, the rule is even looser: Property owners can kill any wolf that is on their land.

The Minnesota Deer Hunters Association has already proposed an aggressive plan that includes an annual harvest of 750 wolves, and over-the-counter license sales for a season that would coincide with deer hunting.

Trapping

“A lot depends on the logistics of a hunting and trapping season, but I think trappers have the potential to more efficiently harvest wolves in Minnesota than hunters,” said John Hart, who has been trapping wolves for the federal government for more than 20 years.

However, once wolves become educated to traps, they could be much more difficult to catch, he says.

But there may not be much of a market for Minnesota’s wolf pelts, and it’s uncertain how much interest Minnesota’s 6,000 trappers will have.

Pelt prices probably won’t drive interest, trappers say. The value of a Minnesota wolf pelt would vary greatly depending on quality, but an average one might fetch $100.

“I assume the vast majority will end up on someone’s walls as trophies,” said Shawn Johnson, president of the Minnesota Trappers Association.

Read the full articles:

DNR has many goals in plans for wolf hunting season

Trapping effective, but will there be interest?

Minnesota Voters for Animal Protection 2011 Year in Review

The growth we’ve experienced in this third year since our founding has been exciting and beyond our expectations! Your belief in the importance of grassroots political action to protect all animals in Minnesota is truly what makes our work possible. Thank you so much for your support in 2011.

Read our 2011 Year in Review here, and if you like what we’ve been able to get done, please consider making a donation to help us continue this work. Your donation stays in Minnesota and is immediately put to work to generate results. We are driven to create concrete and tangible improvements for animals in Minnesota by working locally and politically. Please help us take on large-scale systems and small-scale injustices that cause unnecessary suffering for animals.

Please donate today.

Thank you!

December 28, 2011, Roseville, Minn. — Minnesota Senate Republicans have selected Dave Senjem of Rochester as their new majority leader.

Senator Senjem

The vote came Tuesday night after a marathon, closed-door meeting in a suburban hotel. Senjem takes over for Senator Amy Koch, who resigned the post two weeks ago amid allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a male staffer.

He described the events that led to Koch’s abrupt resignation as “sad” and “perplexing.” It’s not clear how much of the day was devoted to a rehash of those events, but Senjem’s message was that the caucus was now moving forward.

“Over the course of the last two weeks we’ve gone through a difficult period. But we’ve come out of that, and all directions now are looking forward. No more looking backward,” he said. “The 2012 session is what we have looking us straight in the face, and that’s frankly the direction we’re looking — and of course the 2012 elections.”

Senjem previously served as Senate minority leader but did not run against Koch last year after Republicans won control of the Minnesota Senate for the first time in several decades. He said Republicans are committed to working on a clear legislative agenda and a clear campaign message for 2012, when all 67 Senate seats are up for grabs.

“Our priorities will not change. It’s jobs and the economy,” Senejem said. “It’s reforming government. It’s being good stewards of the taxpayer dollar. Simple but terribly important given the times we live in.”

The other new assistant majority leaders are Roger Chamberlain, of Lino Lakes, Paul Gazelka, of Brainerd, and Ted Lillie, of Lake Elmo.

Read the entire article here.