Minnesota Lawyer
Beth Kadoun is the administrator for the committee on taxes in the Minnesota Senate. She previously worked as the assistant commissioner for tax policy in the Department of Revenue. (Staff photo: Peter Bartz-Gallagher)
Caucus veterans Walstein and Kadoun will manage finance and tax panels
On the first day of the legislative session on Tuesday, many of the Senate’s new Republican committee administrators were still receiving the keys to their offices and waiting for their phones to be set up. But for the most part, the top committee staffers who will help Senate Republicans govern in the majority for the first time since 1972 are hardly strangers to the Capitol.
Some have ties to former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican – a testament to the connections of Senate Chief of Staff Cullen Sheehan, who ran Coleman’s 2008 Senate campaign. Others worked in the administration of former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and a number of them were past Senate or House partisan staffers.
Here’s a brief review of their respective backgrounds.
Amy Walstein (Finance), an attorney, was most recently the government relations director for the Minnesota Department of Education. Walstein was a staffer on Senate education committees and then worked in private practice before going to work for the Department of Education.
Beth Kadoun (Taxes) is a former staffer who last worked for the Senate Republican caucus 16 years ago. Kadoun brings one of the strongest resumes to the ranks of Senate committee administrators, having most recently been the state Department of Revenue assistant commissioner for tax policy. She worked in Pawlenty’s office from 2006 to 2008 as a senior policy adviser on tax and labor issues. She previously spent five years as the fiscal policy director for the Minnesota Business Partnership. For a couple of years she was a lobbyist and stay-at-home mom.
Brad Biers (Health and Human Services), a longtime Republican operative, has been a partner at the consulting firm Capitol Communications in recent years. Biers’ clients included Allen Quist in his bid for the Republican endorsement to challenge U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, a Democrat. Before that he was communications director at the Taxpayers League of Minnesota for a year. Back in 2005, Biers was Michele Bachmann’s campaign manager when she first ran for Congress.
Gregory Marcus (Education) was a staffer and a committee administrator in the House from 1995 to 2004. Most recently he worked at the Minnesota Department of Education.
Kathrine Dettman (Capital Investment) is a former House Republican staffer. From 2001-06, she was a committee legislative assistant on the House Education Finance Committee. More recently, she has worked in administration at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
Peder Mewis (Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications) was previously a legislative assistant for Sen. Michael Jungbauer.
Patrick Murray (Transportation) spent the last five years as a legislative assistant for the Messerli & Kramer lobbying firm, where he did work on transportation-related issues. From 2002 to 2004, Murray was a staffer for former Republican state Sen. Bill Belanger. Originally from Wisconsin, Murray worked for members of the state Assembly there, including Paul Ryan, who is now in Congress.
Amy Berger (Jobs and Economic Growth) spent more than five years working in U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s office, first as a caseworker and Minnesota scheduler. Beginning in 2007, she was a constituent policy liaison, with duties that included arranging a series of small business health care listening sessions for Coleman around the state. In the 2010 legislative session, she worked in the state House as a constituent services specialist and writer.
Michael Karbo (Environment and Natural Resources) was a field staffer last year on the Senate Republican Caucus’ campaign effort. He has been a legislative assistant for the committee’s new chair, Bill Ingebrigtsen.
Angela Starks (Judiciary and Public Safety) was a legislative assistant for Michele Bachmann when she was a state senator. After Bachmann was elected to Congress in 2006, Starks worked for committee chair Sen. Warren Limmer.
Jennifer Berquam (Agriculture and Rural Economies) worked for the House in 2005 and later as a legislative assistant at the Messerli & Kramer lobbying firm. In 2007, she unsuccessfully sought the Republican endorsement to succeed former House Speaker Steve Sviggum in House District 28B. The five-way contest was an intense affair that drew Republican elites from the Legislature and state party. She came in second to the special election’s eventual winner, Rep. Steve Drazkowski, before throwing her support behind him.
Aaron Cocking (Commerce and Consumer Protection) has one of the more notable political backgrounds among Senate committee administrators. Cocking did research for the state Republican Party last summer, drawing attention when he asked local law enforcement officials for information about incumbent Sen. Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley, who ran a write-in campaign against the GOP’s endorsee, Paul Gazelka. He has been an executive assistant when Senate Republicans were in the minority. He has also been a contributor to the Minnesota Democrats Exposed blog, which was the brainchild of caucus communications director Michael Brodkorb. Cocking also worked on Norm Coleman’s unsuccessful 2008 re-election campaign.
Jason Fossum (Higher Education) left his post as executive director of the Minnesota State University Student Association to take the job. His affiliation with the association went back to 1997, when he was a student at Winona State University.
Lucas Nesse (State Government Innovation and Veterans) has been a legislative assistant in the Senate Republican Caucus since 2005. During that time he got a law degree from William Mitchell. As an undergraduate at Gustavus Adolphus, Nesse did an internship in Washington with former Rep. Gil Gutknecht and an internship at the state Capitol on Speaker Steve Sviggum’s leadership staff. After graduation, he ran Rep. Rod Hamilton’s campaign. In the Senate, he worked for Minority Leader Dave Senjem. After completing his law degree, he moved into research and worked on special projects.
