The Minnesota problem for Democrats

     "Since Democrats are the party of government, Democrats need to be good at governing."
          Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, 2006

Kulongoski said having efficient, well-run government departments was the first job of Democrats who hold office.  

He said people won't trust our judgment on policy if they see we cannot manage day-to-day government.

Ted Kulongoski

He said this in my living room in Medford talking to a group of donors to his re-election campaign. I like Kulongoski. Before being elected governor, he was the state's Insurance Commissioner, and under his watch Oregon reorganized its Workers Compensation system. It is widely described as one of the best in the nation. Good for employers. Good for injured workers. He took a pragmatic approach to government and was criticized by liberal Democrats for being too centrist, and by Republicans for being a Democrat. He got re-elected.

This brings me to the Minnesota problem. It is indeed a problem. Democrats would do best to face it squarely rather than to minimize it, deflect it, or call it racism.

Massive fraud involving tens of millions of dollars took place in Minnesota's administration of its welfare program. It was exposed by a Trump-oriented investigator-journalist, so the instinctive reaction of Democrats was to argue that the accusation was invented or badly distorted for partisan purposes. After all, that is the nature of right-wing media and the Trump administration. Liars lie.

Governor Tim Walz said they lied for a reason, racism:

“This is what happens when they target communities for their own benefit; this is what happens when they scapegoat, and this is what happens when they no longer hide the idea of white supremacy.”

The Minnesota Department of Education administered a food supplement program at the time of the Covid outbreak. A nonprofit organization, Feeding Our Future, was the contractor that administered most of the feeding sites. They were overwhelmed by the number of applicants. They were sloppy. Providers noticed the sloppiness and took advantage.  

Much of the fraud took place among members of the Somali community of Minnesota. They are a coherent voting bloc. They are Black, Muslim, generally pro-Palestine, and Democratic. A New York Times reporter quoted a Somali-American fraud investigator who had left the Minnesota attorney general's office. The investigator said Minnesota was reluctant to probe the problems, saying that the state's government feared "political backlash among the Somali community, which is a core voting bloc” for Democrats."

The NYT article quoted Ahmed Samatar, a Somali studies professor at Macalester College, who explained that Somali refugees who came to the United States after their country’s civil war were raised in a culture in which stealing from the country’s dysfunctional and corrupt government was widespread.

Minimizing the fraud by dismissing it either as the nature of Somali culture and experience, or, alternatively, as a fabrication borne of anti-Somali racism and white supremacy, puts Democrats on the wrong side of the fraud issue. It is OK for Democrats to oppose fraud. 

The public is willing to support needs-based poverty programs, but it is deeply suspicious of them. People suspect freeloaders and flagrant waste. It does not protect anti-poverty programs when Democrats minimize sloppy administration. It hurts the programs. It buttresses the Republican case that the programs are just a mechanism for Democrats to buy votes.

Democrats should oppose Medicaid fraud and do it proudly, Democrats should thank -- not condemn -- whistleblowers who find waste, fraud, or errors. Do a judo move and roll with the punch. Welcome the exposure. After all, Democrats are the party of good government.

It seems simple and obvious: Be on the side of honest government. Don't defend bad behavior by people or groups on one's political team. 

Democrats have a branding opportunity.  Be the "Drain the Swamp" party. It is a good brand. Trump got elected on the claim that he was too rich to be corrupted. Since election, Trump has been flagrant in his personal grift, in his selective prosecution and partisan donation-prompted pardons, and in his quid-pro-quo support for billionaires. It is pay-for-play on a new scale. Trump has staked out a new brand: Corruption is OK if he and his friends do it.

Flag for sale on Etsy. 

That leaves lots of room for Democrats to be the good government party. That means they need to walk the talk. Condemn Medicaid fraud and government waste. Clean it up. Prosecute fraud. DOGE did its job so poorly that it backfired. Democrats can show that they want to do a good, careful job eliminating fraud and waste, finding it wherever it pops up, including in friendly territory.  No playing favorites. If lawbreakers of Somali ethnicity are prosecuted, it is OK. It isn't OK because they are Somali, but because they stole from the American taxpayer. It is OK to be against theft. It isn't racist. It is good government.

Democrats can do this.

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