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January 10, 2003
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Former
lobbyist appointed as new governor’s ‘tribal
liaison’
Governor Pawlenty’s new tribal liaison is Terri Velner.
Velner resigned from her position as a
registered lobbyist with the law firm Winthrop and Weinstein in order
to take
the job with the governor’s office. Her
clients included the Prairie Island Dakota Community, Manitoba Hydro,
the
Minnesota Energy Consumers, and Farmland Industries, which describes
itself as
“the largest farmer-owned cooperative in North America” and has heavy
investments in agricultural chemicals manufacture.
Velner declined to comment on her new job as tribal liaison,
other than emphasizing that she has resigned from Winthrop and
Weinstein. She said that although she is
non-Indian she
is familiar with Indian issues, and she explained that Pawlenty’s staff
have
been directed to refer questions from the press to the new governor’s
communications director.
According to communications director Daniel Wolter, Velner
“is one of the policy managers in the government relations area.” Wolter explained that she was hired “based
on her expertise in certain areas … she is a policy person.” In addition to helping formulate Minnesota’s
policy toward Indians for the Pawlenty administration, Velner will also
work on
natural resources and agricultural policy.
The former lobbyist has “expertise in the issue clusters:
natural resources, agriculture, and her ‘tribal work’ in the past,” the
communications director said. Additional
details of Velner’s experience were not
available at press time,
although Wolter said that he would provide this newspaper with a copy
of
Velner’s resume in time for next week’s issue.
He added that Velner will “represent the governor’s views
and ideas in the legislature,” and that she will be charged with
“keeping the
dialogue open with key constituents.” When
Press/ON asked about “key
constituents,” Wolter said that
what he meant was “all constituents … that have interests in the
areas”
that the new tribal liaison will be dealing with.
When asked whether the governor’s office is concerned about
potentially problematic biases from a policy person whose understanding
of
Indian issues appears to be grounded in her work as a lobbyist for
Prairie
Island and at a law firm stressing “sovereign immunity,” “tribal
jurisdiction,”
and tribal “policy drafting and implementation,” Wolter said that
Velner was
chosen because she is “someone who knows the lay of the land.” He added that the governor intends to be
“impartial and fair.” Anyone who knew
Pawlenty in the Legislature knows that “the governor is very open and
accessible,” Wolter said.
Wolter also said that Indian issues did not play a
significant role in Pawlenty’s campaign, and that “right now” the
governor’s
office is “in a budget crisis mode” and had not yet had time to draft
the
specifics of its Indian policy nor the process through which that
policy will
be formulated.
Governor
Pawlenty’s official address is:
Office of the Governor, 130 State Capitol, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.
Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155. Telephone:
(651) 296-3391 or (800) 657-3717. Facsimile:
(651) 296-2089. E-mail: tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us
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