Good morning. Caution, many numbers ahead.
The campaign fuel gauges give us a sense of which candidates are in the driver’s seat early in 2024. Yesterday was the deadline for federal candidates to disclose their final 2023 fundraising numbers. (We’ll get to state-level candidates in tomorrow’s newsletter.) Some rounded-off highlights focused on the cash each had on hand to begin the year: Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar entered the year with about $5.1 million in available cash. No Republicans posted figures as of this morning, and her newest challenger wasn’t in the race until this year. 1st District Republican Rep. Brad Finstad, so far without a challenger, had $384,000 on Jan. 1. 2nd District DFL Rep. Angie Craig has $2.15 million banked. The Republicans vying for the nomination there: Joe Teirab had $269,000; Tayler Rahm came in with $60,000. In the open 3rd District, DFLer Kelly Morrison entered the year with $301,000 and DFLer Ron Harris had shy of $23,000 leftover. None of the Republicans in the race reported figures. 4th District DFL Rep. Betty McCollum had $589,000 and no Republican figures were disclosed. 5th District DFL Rep. Ilhan Omar had about $1.5 million on Jan. 1 to $347,000 for DFL challenger Don Samuels. New numbers for Sarah Gad weren’t posted by this morning. Republican Dalia Al-Aqidi came into 2024 with $61,000 at the ready. 6th District GOP Rep. Tom Emmer was sitting on $1.9 million. DFLer Austin Winkleman drained his account. 7th District GOP Rep. Michelle Fishbach carried $312,000 into the election year, far more than the $21,000 of fellow Republican Stephen Boyd and the $132 of the GOP’s Annette Watson. No Democrat has gotten going there. 8th District Republican Rep. Pete Stauber had $856,000 stocked up. DFL challenger Jen Schultz had $228,000.
The year-end reports gave us our first full look at campaign finance activity of Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips. The Minnesota congressman posted $5 million in campaign receipts, but $4 million of that came through a personal loan from Phillips. Paid media advertising, ballot access efforts, campaign consulting and security were among his biggest expenses. Outside political action committees built up to back up Phillips included Pass the Torch USA, which spent about $1.2 million by the close of 2023, and We Deserve Better Inc., which spent $1.6 million.
KSTP has given us the first Minnesota-specific independent polling of 2024. The poll done by Survey USA found Minnesota voters give Democratic President Joe Biden a slight edge in a hypothetical matchup with former Republican President Donald Trump, although it is within the poll’s “credibility interval” and there are many who are undecided or picking another candidate. In other words, these numbers are subject to shifts as the race develops.
Gov. Tim Walz has filled a slot on the Minnesota Court of Appeals. He named JuPaul Harris to fill the vacancy left by Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan, who is now on the federal bench. Since 2018, Harris has served as a judge in the Second Judicial District in Ramsey County and previously served as a judicial referee in Hennepin County. More judicial appointments are coming soon, including two picks for the state Supreme Court.
Rep. Ilhan Omar is again getting wide attention for something she said, but exactly what that was remains in dispute. The Minnesota congresswoman’s words from a speech last week have prompted Republican calls for her resignation, but those were based on a Somali-to-English translation that went viral and that Omar and allies say is inaccurate. The Star Tribune runs through what was said, why others are hearing the remarks in a different way and the ensuing controversy. As with other swirls around Omar, this one is unlikely to be put to rest quickly.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey has vetoed a city council resolution on Gaza. Nine council members voted to pass the resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza last week, which is enough to override the mayor’s veto if there is an attempt to do so. But Frey said the resolution, “all but erases that of Israeli Jews… Including some people’s history as valid, truthful, and righteous as it may be, while ignoring others, is neither progressive nor inclusive.” Frey said he supports a ceasefire, but argues that the language used in the resolution is “one-sided.” He said he would support the language of other cease-fire resolutions, such as those adopted in Hastings and in Greensboro, N.C.
A little politics break for you: If you were part of a Minnesota band in the last quarter of the 20th century, there’s a strong chance J. Free has a cassette recording of your show. Free worked as a club employee at The Longhorn Bar, First Avenue and the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis and said he recorded a few thousand bands from the 1970s to 1990s. He’s now trying to reconnect with those bands and return the tapes to them. Free currently lives in Portland, Ore. A nonprofit called DemoMN in Minneapolis has offered their space as a new home for the cassettes. He wants to reunite as many bands with their recordings as he can before donating them. The list of bands he recorded is extensive. Check it out! (Credit to Racket for sharing this story first.) | 