LETTER to the Editor

To the Cottage Grove Journal, Last month, the courts in Minnesota released the new district maps for the next ten years. In October, I sent written testimony including evidence to the courts insisting on Accountability for the Minnesota House Republican Caucus and State Representative Keith Franke. It appears they paid attention to my testimony.

In 2011, the Republican-led legislature drew an extremely partisan and divisive map. Much of these local decisions seemed to help then state representative John Kriesel win re-election in 2012. Governor Mark Dayton vetoed the legislation and Kriesel soon retired after the courts released their maps.

But as part of the redistricting bill by Republicans, Saint Paul Park (where Keith Franke lives) would have been pushed into a gerrymandered and heavily Democrat State House district based on Saint Paul’s east side. However, Franke never publicly acknowledged this and instead kept trying to change the subject. Even worse, Franke has praised house Republicans who have never stated that the bill was a mistake.

That said, all the precincts and cities including Saint Paul Park that were to be gerrymandered to help Kriesel win re-election in 2012 will be pushed into house district 53b which has an incumbent state representative in Democrat Rick Hansen. And while both Franke and Hansen state they support the same things, Hansen never has had to hide the true intentions of his party while Franke has done so repeatedly. Therefore, I think you all who will be in 53b should know what needs to be done come November. William Cory Labovitch South Saint Paul