REGIONAL— Political attack ads that claim area DFL legislators voted to boost their pay by $15,000 in 2019 are patently false. That’s according to Joe Boyle, an International Falls attorney and DFL party chair in Koochiching County.
The attacks have appeared in fliers and have aired on both radio and television in recent days as the campaign for northeastern Minnesota legislative seats has ramped up. The general election is set for Tuesday, Nov. 8 and early voting is already underway.
At issue is the claim, pushed by both the Republican House Campaign Committee and the Republican Party of Minnesota, that District 3A Rep. Rob Ecklund and District 6B Rep. Dave Lislegard voted to give themselves an enormous pay raise in 2019.
Legislators did receive a substantial pay raise, that took effect in 2017 and another much smaller increase in 2019. But lawmakers didn’t vote on those increases. Instead, an independent commission established by a constitutional amendment approved overwhelmingly by the state’s voters in 2016, made that call, and lawmakers— even those who said they opposed the increase— ultimately agreed they had no choice in the matter.
Boyle agreed, and he should know since he sits on the 16-member legislative salary commission created following the adoption of the constitutional amendment. The amendment, which was designed to take pay raises out of the hands of legislators, required the governor and the...
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