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Madeleine Baran
St. Paul, Minn.

Dayton hires PUC nominee pushed out by GOP senators

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Ellen Anderson
Former state Sen. Ellen Anderson was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton to chair the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in 2011. Anderson, a DFLer, served in the Legislature for nearly 20 years prior to her appointment.
Photo courtesy of the Public Utilities Commission

Former DFL Sen. Ellen Anderson says she has accepted a new job offer from Governor Mark Dayton. The decision comes a day after GOP lawmakers rejected the confirmation of Anderson to serve as chair of the Public Utilities Commission.

"In the last few hours I have confirmed that I will be working for the governor as a senior advisor on energy and environmental issues. And I'm very grateful to him for his support and very excited about this new opportunity, so stay tuned," she said.

Anderson told MPR's Morning Edition she's working on transitioning to her new position this week. She says the position has yet to be fully defined, but she expects to have more information within the next several days.

The GOP Senate voted along party lines Monday to reject Anderson's confirmation. Dayton reacted angrily to the vote, saying it showed Republicans are unfit to govern.

Soon after the vote, Dayton accused Republicans of "wrongly maligning" Ellen Anderson, and said her confirmation had been "cruelly rejected." Dayton was just warming up. He listed several recent GOP missteps, including last month's resignation of Majority Leader Amy Koch amid allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a male staffer.

"You'd think that after their leadership scandals, which caused them to replace all of their leaders last month, they would behave themselves for at least a little while," Dayton said. "But they seem incapable of doing so."

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(MPR reporter Tim Pugmire contributed to this report.)

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Ellen Anderson
Former state Sen. Ellen Anderson was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton to chair the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in 2011. Anderson, a DFLer, served in the Legislature for nearly 20 years prior to her appointment.
Photo courtesy of the Public Utilities Commission