Gazelka Chides The Governor

State Senator Paul Gazelka of Brainerd held a news conference in St. Paul to respond to recent criticism from Governor Mark Dayton. Gazelka claims Gov. Dayton has repeatedly characterized members of the Legislature’s freshmen class as “extreme right-wing caucus members.”

The Freshman Republican said, “I’m a small business owner myself. I’ve felt the impacts of the recent economy just as much as every other small business owner. I’ve always felt that government, like my business, like my family, shouldn’t spend more than the resources we have. Our state government has more money than it had last biennium and living within in the resources we have is not far-right, but a mainstream approach and I think it is unreasonable to label us as extremists simply because we don’t want to increase the size of government by 15% like Governor Dayton does.”