Anti-mining effort overwhelmingly defeated - Hibbing Daily Tribune

LAKEVILLE, Minn. — Labor Democrats decided to fight Saturday and won a major victory for the party’s future on the Iron Range.

It wasn’t even close.

Resolution 54, an anti-mining effort twice-delayed by the state DFL, was overwhelmingly defeated with a hand-count vote by the Central Committee. The vote prevents the issue from being kicked down the road a third time, and sends a message DFLers hope will help it retain and regain statewide seats in rural Minnesota, including the governor’s race in 2018.

“I think the Iron Rangers can wake in the morning and have a different perspective of the DFL,” said State Rep. Jason Metsa, DFL-Virginia. “It’s been a long time coming for us to vote on the issue.”

That vote came after an intense back and forth in the halls of Lakeville North High School between the environmental caucus pushing the resolution and representatives from the Range.

Metsa was negotiating a compromise with the caucus, whose leaders sought to table the issue after a compromise to withdraw the motion was nixed by the party’s rules.

A fiery Dave Lislegard, city councilor for Aurora, and other labor leaders emphatically convinced the representative that Saturday was the day to give the party an ultimatum: Are they with the Range or not?

Metsa said afterward that some Range leaders were waffling on the offer to table, but the impromptu hallway meeting drew a strong consensus to fight.

The gloves were off and the Range went to battle.

“It all starts with the courage not to compromise our way of life,” Lislegard said. “Any compromise would have further divided our region from the state. This was a big win for the working families of the Range. A straight up and down vote was the way to move our region forward.”

A straight vote was hard to come by as the environmental caucus pushed to table, calling for more negotiations on a resolution that fit their platform and the labor caucus.

Environmental Caucus Chair Veda Kanitz said her motion to table was an olive branch to the opposition, pitching party unity after several meetings with labor that failed to produce an agreement.

“We went into meetings good faith efforts, but progress was made,” she said. “This conversation must continue. There is no way for this body to permanently decide this issue.”

While tabling the resolution gained momentum, an impassioned Congressman Rick Nolan, DFL-Crosby, roused the crowd in the auditorium with a plea to truly unite by not taking a stance against the issue. Nolan was speaking on behalf of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Al Franken and Congressman Tim Walz.

Nolan said in an interview after the meeting that his voting record for mining and the Iron Range helped re-elect him, but he battled jabs about Resolution 54 during the election cycle. He won his seat by a razor-thin 0.56 percent, and along with President-elect Donald Trump’s November victory, was used as an example to the Central Committee where the DFL was failing in rural parts of the state.

DFL Chair Ken Martin broke down the numbers earlier in the day, pointing out that Trump had a 23 percent swing in white blue collar voters in Minnesota, his biggest demographic gain nationally.

That divide extended to Range DFLers who were questioning ditching the party altogether if Resolution 54 passed. They wouldn’t be alone as the Iron Range carried a Republican president this year, the first time since the 1930s.

“Nobody loves the environment more than the Rangers,” Nolan said in a speech to the committee, urging them to vote on the full resolution. “I don’t want to see the party take a stance against mining or agriculture or manufacturing.”

The message was sent to DFLers in Lakeville, who denied the motion to table and denied an amendment to change sulfide-bearing rock to copper-nickel mining.

That’s where the momentum really swung to the pro-mining crowd and flipped some members of the far left, who recognized in statements that passing the resolution would alienate the Range and the way of life for miners. They also recognized the potential future impact on races in 2018.

Martin said in a phone interview after the meeting he was pleased to see Democrats were talking with Range DFLers and other rural Minnesotans. He added that it was time some resolution came on the issue.

Party leaders suspected a compromise could be reached heading into Saturday that excluded mining and referred generally to all industry. But when the only amendment singled out copper-nickel mining, the concern of being “tone deaf” after an ugly election cycle simmered. Martin was among those happy to see the resolution fall flat in the forms presented, and said the down vote is what the DFL needs to start winning lost or on-the-fence voters back.

“If we would have had this hanging over our head … it would have caused a lot of challenges not just on the Iron Range, but the entire state of Minnesota,” he said. “We have to listen to people better and be the party fighting for everyone.”