Steve Kelley: the MinnesotaBrown interview

Today we explore the Minnesota gubernatorial candidacy of Steve Kelley. My candidate series is now nearing completion. Previous posts have included (chronologically) Tom Bakk, Paul Thissen, Mark Dayton, Matt Entenza, John Marty, Susan Gaertner, Tom Rukavina and Margaret Anderson Kelliher. With St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s departure as an exploratory candidate, the last candidate in the series will be Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.

This series has now lasted more than a year. When it’s finished I’ll have some deeper analysis of the entire field. I’ll republish them with added material for an e-book I hope to write and market for DFL delegates and the scads of political operatives who will one day rule the earth. And by “rule” I mean make persuasion calls and canvass.

The interview

Steve Kelley will officially announced his run for governor on Monday. I received the e-mail alert from his campaign about the “special announcement” to take place at Mahtomedi High School Oct. 19 while I was actually talking to Kelley last Friday, Oct. 16, by phone. As with many other campaigns this cycle, I remain impressed with the amount of message and media work that goes on even while the candidate is set on some other task.

Like other DFL candidates, Kelley struck on some familiar themes.

“Minnesota faces great challenges,” he said. “My work as a legislator would allow me to act on a range of issues. Health care, economic development, education; I was successful with these issues in the legislature and I can do more as governor.”

Kelley served in the Minnesota Legislature from 1992 to 2006, chaired the Senate Education Committee, and nearly earned the DFL endorsement for Governor in 2006, falling short to eventual nominee Mike Hatch. Kelley was then endorsed by the state central committee in the kerfuffle that followed Matt Entenza’s departure of the Attorney General’s race that year, falling to Hatch ally Lori Swanson after a hastily conducted primary campaign. Kelley is currently a teacher and senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute and the director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy.

“Our campaign and my work as governor will focus on some core values,” said Kelley. “One, opportunity for everyone. There are too many who aren’t employed. We haven’t been helping all the kids in our schools be successful. We need to be a fair state, with justice for everyone, health care for everyone.”

Also on Kelley’s list are environmental protection and the end of “stigmatizing” of gays through unfair marriage laws. Through these myriad familiar issues, Kelley says he offers a record of innovation, providing new solutions to old policy debates.

Practically speaking, Kelley also offers something geographic and demographic to the race. It’s all about the suburbs, where population and political influence are growing. The DFL field contains three candidates with a Minneapolis address, two with a St. Paul address, two from the Iron Range – all places that have been part of the traditional DFL base. Only Dayton, to some extent Marty, and Kelley can claim suburban addresses, and Kelley in particular found a successful political message through the right-leaning ‘90s and early 2000s in his Hopkins district.

“We’ve got to run the kind of campaign that turns out Democrats but persuades independents that we’ve got a governor that will work for everyone, not just Democrats.”

This blog represents the Iron Range, an area hit particularly hard during this recession and that faces unique economic, political and governmental challenges during the next few decades. Kelley laid out the basics of his potential approach to the region, where high DFL turnout often tips close races.

First, we need to recognize that mining will continue to be important in the economy of the future,” Kelley said. “But (steel and iron ore) prices will continue to go up and down as part of the global economy, and the Iron Range is now truly part of a global economy. The state needs to continue supporting mining on the Range and at the same time pay attention to the environment, because much of the population growth in Iron Range counties comes from people who move there because it is a beautiful place to live.

“Secondly,” Kelley continued. “I’ve always supported that we have a telecommunication network that allows high tech work to go on anywhere in the state, including the Iron Range. To a certain extent Iron Range Resources and local cities have been exploring this and as governor I would support local leadership in that direction.

“Third, there’s a significant overlap in the Iron Range economy and the forestry economy. Sustainable forestry can take advantage of high value markets for our timber markets.”
Kelley mentioned a project that he’s been exploring in his work at the Humphrey Institute, sustainable polymers, or plastics made from plants.

“The potential isn’t just in agriculture products but also in pine trees and other forestry products,” said Kelley, who vowed to support the continuation of that research as governor, along with exploration of other biofuels.

Central to this battle, Kelley said, are the state’s and region’s colleges and universities. Northeastern Minnesota is home to five community and technical colleges that serve several remote communities.

“My goals is to have it so that birth through higher education, there is opportunity for every student, so that everywhere in Minnesota we can boast an effective workforce with citizens literate in a range of things,” said Kelley.

That may sound like some of the sound bites that have come from Gov. Tim Pawlenty, but Kelley said his philosophy differs in some key ways.

“One part is that first you need a governor who believes that higher education is a public good not just a private good,” said Kelley. “Ventura and Pawlenty have acted as though higher education is only good for the students getting the degrees, that there isn’t a value to society in these institutions. I’m of the opposite view. Yes, there’s a real value to students – life improvement, career enhancement – but there is also a greater value. We all do better where there are more educated students. We will not be able to compete globally if we don’t have more of our kids graduating from some kind of postsecondary education, whether that’s two-year programs, four year degrees or more.”

How to change the downward momentum in education?

“We need to raise revenue,” said Kelley. “I have a whole range of options on the table and haven’t picked one yet, but we need a more progressive tax system than we have today.

It’s not just revenue, however, Kelley highlights the imperative to close the achievement gap for students in poverty, often students of color.

“There are a lot of theories, but it’s time for a governor who recognizes that the achievement gap has to do with the income gap. If we’re going to close the achievement gap schools can’t do it by them selves, we’ve got to line up community help and make sure that kids are getting the right care from zero to high school to college, that their families are healthy and that they have stable housing. He compares his concept to a similar idea that’s been used with success in Harlem.

“I’m the only one who is talking about how to see all these pieces working together and the only one with an announced plan on this,” said Kelley.

Relating to the state’s budget crisis – both for citizens and state government – Kelley laments the rising cost of health care.

“A national plan would help the state with its fiscal problems,” said Kelley. “We take on more of a burden in paying health care costs that other states, so we have to control inflation in costs. For instance, higher education cost increases often have to with rising health care costs in higher education budgets. We need to reverse those trends to bring money back into higher education and other places where it’s needed.”

Kelley said that if he were governor now he’d be working with Minnesota’s congressional delegation to ensure that the federal health insurance reform benefited Minnesota.

“The assumption is that (the federal bill) will be a net positive but that it won’t cover everybody,” said Kelley. “We need to consider the moral imperative that everyone should have health coverage that is affordable.”

On the governor’s role in the economic crisis, including job creation, Kelley argues that the first priority is infrastructure, creating the environment in which jobs can grow naturally. Central to that is Kelley’s aforementioned commitment to a high speed internet network that serves the whole state, something that he has been championing in some form since 1993, long before the existence of this or any other political blog. Included in his infrastructure push would be electrical grid improvements and transportation initiatives.

Kelley’s higher education focus shows in his second economic priority, the support of the University of Minnesota and other research institutions to develop new technologies and train the next generation of high level innovators.

Kelley’s final economic priority is what he describes as “a set of tools that encourages the economic growth of companies in the state.” This would include tax credits and other incentives to both attract and also keep Minnesota companies located in Minnesota.

“This governor (Pawlenty) goes around Minnesota’s economic climate when we need to talk about Minnesota’s positives,” said Kelley.

Fundamentally, it’s Kelley’s record that sets him apart, he said.

“These ideas are not newly formed convictions that I developed because all of a sudden I’m running for governor,” said Kelley. “I’ve developed these convictions on my own over the course of a career. Leadership is a term that gets thrown around but leadership is not just a privilege, it’s a responsibility. It comes from not giving up, coming up with new ideas and trying again and again to implement them. DFLers and Minnesotans in general know that what I say I want to do matches what I’ve done the last 16 years.”

And on strategy?

“We’re working hard to accomplish a break-out moment, but there is a shortage of concrete benchmarks that people can use to determine how campaigns are doing,” said Kelley. “My game plan is to be at the top of the list, but I recognize that there are several candidates who will be players at the convention.”

Kelley, who went down to the final ballot in 2006’s three-way endorsement battle, said his goal right now is to become the strong second or third choice for delegates committed to other candidates in what will be a much larger, more unpredictable convention.

“At this point I’m really pleased that many of my supporters from last time, previous delegates, are with me again. That gives me a huge advantage and they are people from all over the state. And the past delegates I’m picking up aren’t just my supporters from last time. They include Hatch and Lourey delegates, too.”

Kelley is hoping that support, and the support of other delegates, is the winning combination for what is probably his last chance at the governor’s office.

My analysis

Steve Kelley is the only candidate in the field for whom I can say the following: One tiny twist of fate in the previous election process and we’d be talking about a tough but winnable re-election fight for Governor Steve Kelley. If Steve Kelley had been the endorsed candidate in 2006 he could have won a tough primary and avoided the gaffes the caused Mike Hatch to lose the general to Gov. Tim Pawlenty in a strong DFL year.

There are arguments against this theory. One, Steve Kelley would not have been a sure bet in the 2006 primary against candidates that likely would have included then Attorney General Hatch and liberal stalwart Sen. Becky Lourey. After all, the endorsed Kelley would later lose the hurriedly realigned 2006 Attorney General nomination to Lori Swanson (all of this occurring when AG endorsee Matt Entenza, a 2010 top tier gubernatorial candidate, dropped out of the race).

Possibly, but also consider the possibility that Kelley would have been more organized for a gubernatorial run, including post-convention momentum, than he was for the stutter-start AG campaign in which the party offered fewer resources. Furthermore, an endorsed Kelley might have been able to talk Becky Lourey into dropping out of the primary, which might have led to a favorable one-on-one against Hatch. In the general election, a friendly suburban technocrat like Kelley would have fared much better against Pawlenty in what was a national DFL wave election. I’m almost certain he would have won. And I say all of this even though I was a Hatch delegate in 2006 who wouldn’t have agreed with the future me at the time. Fundamentally, I was impressed with Kelley’s nomination speech and his concession speech. I wasn’t alone.

That said Kelley faces serious problems in breaking out of this huge pack of DFL candidates in this field. He’s been out of the State Senate now for four years and while it’s encouraging that he’s spent his subsequent time working in higher education, instead of the more lucrative lobbying or private sector fields, his outsider status is a hurdle.

There are two often divergent instincts that hit convention delegates as the deadlock of a multi-ballot convention sets in. Assuming their first choice is out or in trouble these delegates might feel the urge to back “the electable one.” The other urge would be to go with “the likable one,” the one they hated telling “no” during the 8,157 persuasion calls they received leading up to the convention. These two candidates are usually different people. This year, Steve Kelley is banking on the hope that he might represent the best of both options to many uncommitted, disillusioned and worried delegates wandering the floor after the sun goes down. Kelley might be the only candidate who can rally hard in late ballots. With suburban bonafieds he can speak confidently about rural and urban issues. He knows policy and politics.

For Kelley, the challenge will be to place in the top half of the field on the first ballot and then increase it by small amounts through the second or third, which will be very dramatic, indeed, traumatic as the field thins. Once one or more of the Range candidates, three or more of the city candidates and/or one of the frontrunners is forced out, up to a third of the floor will be shopping candidates at the same time. If Kelley wins half of them, he suddenly gets a new look from everyone else. If Steve Kelley were to last until the final two against anyone in the field, it’d be hard for a hardened DFL insider (the kind who will likely dominate this convention) to avoid asking the question: “Did we miss an opportunity in 2006?”