Rep Wardlow gets his marching orders

Rep. Lynn Wardlow may push the voting button, but listen to this video and you'll hear House Minority Leader Marty Seifert telling him what to do and when during the last hours of the legislative session.


It could be that Rep. Wardlow (Republican-38B-Eagan) was inattentive and didn't realize he hadn't voted. I've contacted Rep. Wardlow for his side of the story and haven't heard back from him yet.

For the moment, let's give Rep. Wardlow the benefit of the doubt and say he was just asleep at the switch. If this is just a case of being inattentive, I can only hope he knew what he was voting against.

The vote was on the Health and Human Services bill. As you can see from the tally board, Rep. Wardlow voted no... which was a vote against health insurance for more than 30,000 kids, a vote against critical funding for nursing homes and mental health programs as well as a vote against important reforms to lower skyrocketing costs for the 93% of Minnesotans who already have health insurance.

Why would someone be against health care coverage for kids? If Rep. Wardlow calls me back (and I hope he does, since I'm a consituent in his district) I'll ask him that. But it sure appears that he voted no because he was told to do so. If that's the case, perhaps Marty Seifert is really my State Representative. I don't remember him being on the 38B ballot last November, but perhaps just like Rep. Wardlow I wasn't paying attention when I voted.