Wisconsin Republicans vs. Minnesota Democrats

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Wisconsin outpaced Minnesota for a very long time. Basically from Minnesota's inception as a state until about 1990, Wisconsin beat us in most categories. Only since then has Minnesota caught up.  The number of jobs in Minnesota has caught up with Wisconsin.
Most of this has to do with the relative corporate power of the Twin Cities.  Outside of the Twin Cities, MN and WI are very similar atm.

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MN wasnt better off under Pawlenty than WI under Doyle...we were quite similar.  Anemic job growth, anemic income growth, rising poverty...

We both faced the same issues...old infrastructure, aging population, reliance on nondiverse economies outside of the Twin Cities, which stagnated with new people flooding the labor market.

Incomes grew Among the rich and away from the city...but only among a few established players like large farm owners or local manufacturing.

Meanwhile government services were scaled back year after year.  Both MN and WI suffered in the Bush economy.

The main difference is that since 2008, Minnesota has grown much faster than Wisconsin. This is especially been since 2010 when Dayton and Walker were elected.

We were both in very similar trajectories during the 1990s and in the last decade. Only in this decade have we caught up.