As a result of my legislation in 2014, the Secretary of State Steve Simon is sending out 10,000 postcards – each month through September 2016 – to those turning 18 and to those with new driver's license addresses, to encourage them to get registered to vote.

This highlights civic engagement and shortens registration lines. What's not to love in Minnesota's focus on access to voting! I'm proud to do this kind of legislative work for our great state.

Read the full MinnPost article "Minnesotans turning 18 will get a reminder from the Secretary of State: Register to Vote" by Joe Kimball. 

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Campaign finance reform is urgently needed. Not only is BIG money flooding our state, but much of it is DARK money: we don't know who is paying. I have introduced a campaign disclosure bill to address this.

But we will also approach this another way: our state constitution says "the legislature shall provide for disclosure..." We can add onto these words through a constitutional amendment in order to bring that intent up to date after Citizens United opened the floodgates.

The Supreme Court ruled that money was “speech” but also said that states can (and must) regulate the disclosure of who is paying. We in Minnesota need full disclosure of who is behind the electioneering in order to make good choices. With a constitutional amendment, we let the people decide!

Wonderful to now have U of M research prove the cost-effectiveness of doulas for low-income women. It was my legislation (and Sen. Sandy Pappas') in 2007 that gave all mothers the right to have a doula with them in childbirth, set up a certification registry, and pushed toward MA coverage, along with my legislation in 2013 that made that happen. So glad to support healthy outcomes for moms and babies.

Check out the StarTribune article "Doulas offer safety, cost savings, University of Minnesota study finds" by Jeremy Olson for more information and a short video about what a Doula is. 

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“Fair share” dues are for paid for receiving the benefits of union negotiations. A current case before the Supreme Court, Friedrichs v. CTA, is challenging as an inappropriate requirement of employees these portion of union dues that go into negotiating and representing workers, who then all share in the benefits of that negotiating and representing.

The very idea of uniting to work together for the common good of the employees is violated when everyone would benefit from negotiations paid for by only some. We usually call those “freeloaders.”

Beyond this basic sense of fairness, we can see this court challenge is one more attempt to break unions, break them financially at the very time that 99% of new income since the 2008 recovery has gone to the top 1%.

Unions were created to BALANCE this inequity. And people were killed in the fight for the right to unite together to require such basics as safe working conditions and fair pay for a fair day’s labor. No business owner could make a penny without the work of those employed. Conscientious employers make sure their employees share in the rewards of the market. Those employers who are focused, for whatever reason, only on their profits need to be required to take into consideration the human beings, and their families, who serve with them.