Minn. Senator's Name Would Grace Street, But It's Illegal

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Democratic state senator's name would grace a rebuilt street under a public construction bill released Monday — an illegal honor that one Republican lawmaker says reeks of political favoritism.

It's one line in Senate Democrats' $1.5 billion public works package. The Legislature would provide $3 million to redesign and construct a street on Blaine's National Sports Center complex, requiring it to be named Alice Johnson Avenue, after the area's retiring senator.

Johnson said she fought to fund the street project but played no part in her name getting attached to it. Sen. Leroy Stumpf, the bill's author and chair of the Senate Capital Investment Committee, assumed responsibility, saying there was a "groundswell of support" for Johnson as she finishes out her final year at the Legislature.

Stumpf said he was unaware of a 2009 state law that bans streets, buildings and bridges from being named after living people, and vowed to remove the renaming provision.

"We wanted to give her some kind of lasting way to remember what she's done," Stumpf said. "I'm sure she'd probably humbly say, 'Oh, you shouldn't have done it.'"

Republicans quickly seized on the honor lined up for a sitting state senator, labeling it an abuse of power.

"It's just the most self-serving thing you've ever seen," said Sen. David Osmek, R-Mound. "It doesn't matter whether it was Sen. Johnson. ... You don't name streets for people in legislation when they're still in the Legislature."

Minnesota Senate