Minnesota's Republican governor, Tim Pawlenty, has his eyes firmly fixed on higher office. Drinking deep of the "no new taxes" Kool-Aid, he has been a consistent opponent of infrastructure investment. Even though the state's gas tax hasn't been raised in more than 20 years, Pawlenty has fought bipartisan attempts to raise the gas tax by 5-10 cents per gallon to pay for badly needed infrastructure repair. (He also consistently opposed light rail as a member of the state legislature, though he's modified his stance as it's become clear how popular our limited system has quickly become.)
Last year, in fact, the state canceled the rebuilding of the most notorious highway bottleneck in the Twin Cities because it didn't have the money to pay for it. In an embarrassing scheme, Pawlenty actually tried to get the road contractors to front the money for the project. They declined, and it was postponed.
If Democrats in this still slightly purple-tinged state are smart, they will pounce on this tragedy and blatantly use it for political gain. Make the case that years of no-new-taxes, government-is-the-problem rhetoric from the GOP has led to the decay of our infrastructure, and it's time to invest in our state. You wouldn't want to live in a house with a collapsing roof, and you don't want to live in a state with collapsing bridges. This is a theme that will resonate, and Democrats should hit it hard.