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5 min readThis Week in the Laboratories of Democracy<\/p>\n5 min readThis Week in the Laboratories of Democracy<\/p>\n
(Permanent Musical Accompaniment to<\/a> This Post)<\/p>\n Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what\u2019s goin\u2019 down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin\u2019 gets done, and where they sing \u201cDanny Boy\u201d and recite the Lord\u2019s Prayer, and people talk about Christ betrayed.<\/p>\n Apologies to the shebeen that our semi-regular weekly survey was delayed by a day, but the president keeps firing attorneys general. Sometimes it\u2019s hard to catch up. But anyway…<\/p>\n We begin in Minnesota, and we caution our good friends up there to be careful on the roads<\/a> in severe weather and when the state legislature is in session. From the Minnesota Reformer:<\/p>\n Minnesota Rep. Elliott Engen, R-White Bear Township, was arrested early morning Friday on suspicion of driving while impaired. White Bear Lake Police Chief Dale Hager in a statement said that at about 1:51 a.m. Friday in White Bear Lake, officers pulled over a vehicle for traffic violations, including speeding, expired tabs and a broken headlight. White Bear officers arrested the driver, identified as Rep. Engen, for suspicion of driving while impaired. Hager said Engen took a breath test at the White Bear Lake Police Department where he blew a .13 blood alcohol concentration. The legal limit is .08. Engen was booked into the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center at 4:42 a.m. and released at 6:21 a.m Friday morning. The Minnesota House had a six-hour floor session on Thursday night that ended around 9:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Is there some hypocrisy involved here? Well, there\u2019s a Republican involved here, so draw your own conclusions.<\/p>\n Engen\u2019s DUI arrest means that both a Republican and a DFL [Democratic-Farmer-Labor] candidate for state auditor have been arrested for driving while impaired. In 2023, [Rep. Dan] Wolgamott was arrested in Kanabec County on suspicion of DWI\u2014his blood alcohol concentration was .09\u2014and a few months later pleaded guilty to a DWI charge. Back in September, Engen alluded to Wolgamott\u2019s drunken driving charge after Wolgamott launched his auditor campaign. \u201cThe DFL has been drunk at the wheel in protecting taxpayer dollars from systemic fraud,\u201d Engen posted on X.<\/p>\n I am more concerned with why Minnesota politicians of both parties seem unfamiliar with the concept of taxicabs, let alone ride-sharing apps.<\/p>\n House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, released a statement to the Reformer: \u201cI\u2019m extremely disappointed to learn of Rep. Engen\u2019s arrest. I will be working to gather information about the circumstances of his arrest and charges and will address this directly with Rep. Engen and consider further consequences as the legal process unfolds.\u201d The second-term legislator\u2014who is among the state\u2019s first Gen Z lawmakers\u2014joins a growing list of Minnesota legislators arrested on suspicion of drunk driving while in office in recent years, including Sen. John Jasinski, R-Faribault; Sen. Tou Xiong DFL-Maplewood (twice); Rep. Brion Curran, DFL-White Bear Lake; and Rep. Dan Wolgamott, DFL-St. Cloud, who is a Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate for state auditor.<\/p>\n Good God, people. Get it together.<\/p>\n We move along to Florida, which has a deeper and richer history<\/a> of politicians who belong in a zoo. Here\u2019s one James Fishback, a GOP candidate for governor, chatting with a constituent. The constituent wanted to talk about Fishback\u2019s alleged dalliance with a teenager.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t want you ever speaking about women in our state like that ever again,\u201d said Fishback. \u201cI mean, I don\u2019t want you ever smashing girls, teenage girls, in our state ever again,\u201d the voter shot back. \u201cSo promise me, never smash a minor again?\u201d\u201cWhy haven\u2019t I been arrested?\u201d said Fishback. \u201cWhy haven\u2019t I been arrested? You should be lynched!\u201d<\/p>\n Well, that seems extreme.<\/p>\n We move along to Texas, where Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running against Republican Senator John Cornyn in a primary election, once again is in the middle<\/a> of another exercise of monkey-mischief with taxpayer money. The man is a fortune wheel of government corruption. From the Texas Tribune:<\/p>\n Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s office is under scrutiny after agency employees reallocated taxpayer-funded hotel rooms to donors and other private citizens, some of whom failed to cover the cost of the stay until the state comptroller began auditing the agency\u2019s finances earlier this year. Two senior officials involved in the incident resigned soon after it was brought to agency leadership\u2019s attention.The more recent investigation centers on hotel rooms the agency booked for employees attending last year\u2019s inauguration of President Donald Trump and Supreme Court arguments over a new state law, defended by Paxton\u2019s office, that requires adult websites to verify users\u2019 ages.<\/p>\n Whoa there, cowboy.<\/p>\n The agency paid more than $20,000 for a nonrefundable block of 10 hotel rooms at the Courtyard Marriott. Then, a winter storm prevented several of the travelers from getting to Washington. The agency would have been on the hook for approximately $16,000 of unused hotel rooms, documents obtained through an open records request show. Instead, agency employees identified private citizens who wanted the rooms and agreed to pay out of pocket for them. The people who agreed to take the rooms included major Paxton donors.<\/p>\n Among those donors was a \u201ccontroversial Albanian businessman.\u201d If I am a politician with Paxton\u2019s history<\/a>, I do not want to be associated with any list that contains anyone with those bona fides. But that\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n