The problem is that if the DFL wants the House back, that almost certainly means they're going to need to take back some rural seats (or continue flipping suburban metro districts). Based on the new maps, most GOP metro districts are fringe-y/exurban. They're just not going to be swayed by transit. Hell, some of them probably think of themselves as separate from the metro.Well pandering sure didn't work.I hear angering rural voters is a great way to flip just-lost House seats from red from blue.Eh, if the new majority wants to play hardball on public transit, DFL can play hardball on rural infrastructure. The last bonding bill was full of rural pork projects, and that was with complete DFL control.
The DFL will absolutely need to make inroads in rural Minnesota. Fight against pork? Sure. But the last thing we need is some sort of budget or transportation impasse where the GOP can go out to rural constituents and say, "The Minneapolis liberals are more concerned about their boondoggle choo-choo in the city than repairing the crumbling infrastructure around the entire state."