Many thanks for your time, energy, support and contributions.  I am very grateful to you all; we would not be celebrating without the efforts of each and every one of you. We stayed positive, focused on the issues, and the voters responded.

My deep appreciation to our community members who voted for me.  I will work very hard to justify the trust you have placed in me. My assurances to those who did not support me at the polls – I will work hard to ...]]> Dear Friends,

Many thanks for your time, energy, support and contributions.  I am very grateful to you all; we would not be celebrating without the efforts of each and every one of you. We stayed positive, focused on the issues, and the voters responded.

My deep appreciation to our community members who voted for me.  I will work very hard to justify the trust you have placed in me. My assurances to those who did not support me at the polls – I will work hard to represent you well, and my door will always be open.  Now is the time for us to come together, concentrate on the important issues, and move Minnesota forward.

My focus is now on how best to represent each and every one of you.  I will do my best to keep you informed, and encourage you to contact me at any time with your thoughts, questions, and concerns.   I look forward to representing you at the state capitol.

Again, thank you for your support, your hard work, your time, your commitment, and your faith in me. I am deeply honored to be your next state representative.

Minnetonka, Minnesota – There is misleading and then there is just plain lying. Republicans clearly crossed that line with an attack mailer this weekend on Yvonne Selcer that falsely claimed she paid her 2012 property taxes late.

Selcer filed an official complaint today with Office of Administrative Hearings citing a mailer paid for the House Republican Campaign Committee that stated “Selcer even failed to pay her own 2012 property taxes on time.” Selcer did pay her taxes on time in 2012, as evidenced by ...]]> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Minnetonka, Minnesota – There is misleading and then there is just plain lying. Republicans clearly crossed that line with an attack mailer this weekend on Yvonne Selcer that falsely claimed she paid her 2012 property taxes late.

Selcer filed an official complaint today with Office of Administrative Hearings citing a mailer paid for the House Republican Campaign Committee that stated “Selcer even failed to pay her own 2012 property taxes on time.” Selcer did pay her taxes on time in 2012, as evidenced by the Hennepin County Attorney’s public website. The link can be found here:

https://www16.co.hennepin.mn.us/taxpayments/taxesdue.jsp?pid=2811722110011

My husband and I take our reputations very seriously. We’ve never had a late property tax payment in our lives, so to have someone intentionally spread a lie like this is disappointing,” said Selcer. “Voters want and deserve an honest campaign and this type of attack is a disservice to all voters.”

This is the latest of many attacks that have flooded the district in TV ads and mailers from special interest group supporting Selcer opponent, incumbent Representative Kirk Stensrud. Selcer said she was disappointed Republicans were stooping to dishonest campaign tactics instead of focusing on the issues important to Minnetonka and Eden Prairie voters.

“Voters want a campaign based not on dishonest smears, but on the issues and experience of each candidate,” said Selcer. “I have run a positive campaign, focused on my priorities of working across the aisle to create jobs and responsibly balance the state budget. That is the message I will continue to share with voters in the remaining days of the campaign.”

Selcer has earned the reputation of someone who can work together to get things done. As chair of the Hopkins School Board Selcer worked with Democrats and Republicans to balance the school budget on time and under budget. She has the endorsement of leaders from across the political spectrum including Vice President Walter Mondale and former Republican Governor Arne Carlson. Selcer also selected bipartisan campaign co-chairs: Karen Anderson, former Mayor of Minnetonka (Republican), and Lori Weissman, longtime district resident and community volunteer (Democrat).

In big bold print on an 8 1/2 by 11 glossy mailer they state:

“Higher Taxes … and Now, Failing to Pay Her Own Taxes.” – LIE

“Selcer even failed to pay her own 2012 property taxes on time.” – LIE

Below is my 2012 property tax statement which can easily found online at https://www16.co.hennepin.mn.us/taxpayments/taxesdue.jsp?pid=2811722110011.

They issued the following joint statement:

“High-powered outside financial interests are spending large sums of money on false and misleading ads against Yvonne Selcer.

Ask yourself one question – who will better represent you?

Yvonne Selcer is supported by friends, neighbors, educators, and organizations such as Small Business Minnesota. We will all be better served by making sure we ...]]> Our campaign would like to announce the endorsements of two icons of Minnesota politics, former Vice President of the United States, Walter Mondale, and Former Governor of Minnesota, Arne Carlson.

They issued the following joint statement:

“High-powered outside financial interests are spending large sums of money on false and misleading ads against Yvonne Selcer.

Ask yourself one question – who will better represent you?

Yvonne Selcer is supported by friends, neighbors, educators, and organizations such as Small Business Minnesota. We will all be better served by making sure we vote for Yvonne Selcer on November 6th.”

We have long been accustomed to a growth in political exaggeration the closer we get to an election. A recent counterpoint by state Rep. Keith Downey proclaiming a state budget ...]]> The Freedom Club PAC sent out its fourth mailer entitled “History Making Debt”.  It’s ironic that this mailer came out on the same day as Arne Carlson’s commentary in the Star Tribune on the lack of fiscal integrity of the republican leadership in St. Paul.  Here’s his commentary in its entirety.

Republican legislators have forsaken fiscal integrity

We have long been accustomed to a growth in political exaggeration the closer we get to an election. A recent counterpoint by state Rep. Keith Downey proclaiming a state budget “surplus” was a case in point (“Why so down about a budget surplus? Oct. 8). Rather than being candid with a public that hungers for truthfulness, Downey decided to continue the old partisan propaganda from the past.

It goes back to 2003 with the ascendency of Tim Pawlenty as governor and the dominating influence of Grover Norquist. For eight years, under the banner of “no new taxes,” Minnesota balanced its budget with massive multibillion-dollar “borrowings,” accounting shifts, fee and tuition increases, accelerated tax payments, delayed bill payments and shifting costs to local governments.

These policies continued after the 2010 elections under a more Tea Party-inclined Republican Legislature. The results have been truly harmful:

1) All three Wall Street rating agencies have downgraded our creditworthiness, citing continued poor decisionmaking.

2) The largest property tax increases in our history have taken place. From 2004 to 2012 (property taxes lag by a year), the average total increase was $370 million per year. For the nine prior years, the average had been some $107 million per year. So much for the truthfulness of the “no new taxes” slogan.

Downey claims that there is a $1.2 billion surplus in the current two-year budget cycle as a result of last year’s budget settlement. This is a fiction, plain and simple. Budget documents from Minnesota Management and Budget show a temporary budgetary balance of zero, not a surplus.

Furthermore, this zero balance was made possible only because the 2011 budget settlement delayed paying aid to our school districts, thereby artificially reducing state costs in the current biennium. In total, this constitutes a loan to the state from our public schools to the tune of nearly $3,000 per student.

Further, the Legislature sold our future tobacco settlement revenue for the sake of a one-time upfront cash fix to pay for current operating expenses. This is costing the state $1.67 for every $1 received. Finally, this budget solution involved eliminating the Homestead Credit and cutting other property tax relief programs.

It is a bit like receiving your bank statement and celebrating a healthy balance. Then, in going through the check register, you discover that a couple of checks are still outstanding.

The end result is that when all this budget chicanery is eliminated, the next budget cycle of 2013-14 will commence with an approximate $4.4 billion deficit. This includes a structural deficit of $2 billion and the K-12 debt of $2.4 billion. An improving economy could lower that figure.

The sad reality is that this new Republican Tea Party team has been more about the politics of getting elected and the “social” issues than about restoring old-fashioned fiscal integrity. Endless hours have been spent on issues like abortion, including compelling the presence of a physician when a woman takes a morning-after pill; the marriage amendment, and the Brodkorb sex scandal, etc. However, virtually no time was spent on creating a strategy to regain the state’s AAA bond rating or to improve its financial practices.

Hopefully, the next Legislature will conclude that we cannot continue to stumble from deficit to deficit and instead focus its attention on getting its own house in order.

Perhaps legislators will consider doing the following:

1) Creating a truly bipartisan commission that reflects the talent we have in business, higher education, the administration and the Legislature for the purpose of designing a growth-oriented budget along with a reformed tax code that encourages meaningful investment. Minnesota has been successful when it harnesses its best and works to be on the cutting edge of economic advances ranging from medical technology to food processing to the environment. The possibilities of top-level job growth are endless, and the relationships between business, education and government will facilitate technology transfer and encourage more research and growth opportunities. But it starts with leadership.

2) Agreeing to keep all of the divisive social issues off the table. The focus should be on significantly improving our financial management and upgrading our educational outcomes.

3) No more candidates pledging to Norquist or anyone else except for a pledge to the public to serve its best long-term interests.

Now this would be meaningful progress.

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Arne H. Carlson was governor of Minnesota from 1991 to 1999.

Carlson, Arne. “Commentaries.” Republican Legislators Have Forsaken Fiscal Integrity. N.p., 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. <http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/174277461.html?refer=y>.

-        Mark Twain, Chapters from My Autobiography

When statistics are used in a Freedom Club PAC mailer, it’s best to look to independent sources for your facts:

Hopkins Schools under Selcer

Opponent in Minnesota Legislature