Good morning, and welcome to February. 

It’s precinct caucus night in Minnesota. What does that mean? Brian Bakst has a rundown . One thing to watch for tonight – who tops the straw poll of GOP gubernatorial candidates? The Republican candidates have been spending considerable time and money focusing on what’s a relatively narrow universe of regular caucus attendees or newcomers they might convince to get involved. They’re traveling the state to attend party forums or bump elbows in cafes, even if it’s not that many people in attendance. For Republicans, the endorsement matters. Every endorsed gubernatorial candidate has won the nomination for the past six elections, often fending off big-time primary challengers in the process. As for the straw poll, with this many candidates, there probably won’t be one who breaks from the pack at this stage. But it’ll definitely separate the contenders from the pretenders. 

There were bars and trial balloons on the first day of the 2022 legislative session,MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports. Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan brought the bars (which were baked by staff). Here are the trial balloons: House Speaker Melissa Hortman suggested the House and Senate should agree soon to spend a billion dollars to replenish the unemployment insurance trust fund and another billion to give frontline pandemic workers bonuses.  "We know we know we have an unemployment insurance trust fund deficit. We know that at the low end that's about 1.2 billion,” Hortman said. “And we know we have this unfinished business for frontline workers. In a show of good faith, Democrats and Republicans working together, we could take care of Minnesota's workers and businesses in pretty short order.”  Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller suggested Senate Republicans might be open to one-time tax rebates instead of permanent rate cuts, but he said the rebates would have to be “a heck of a lot” bigger than those proposed by Walz., and that they cannot be called Walz checks, as the governor suggested.  “It is not Governor Walz’s money,” Miller said. “It’s the people’s money. It’s the taxpayers’ money.” 

Ryan Wilson announced a run for State Auditor as a Republican. Wilson is a Maple Grove attorney and the former CEO of a medical device research company. “I’m running to ask the tough questions and bring accountability and transparency to government,” WIlson said in a statement. “Minnesotans recognize their tax dollars are invested in their local communities, but they need to know their money is producing results.” Julie Blaha, the DFL incumbent, is running for reelection. She sent a statement to the Star Tribune saying "Minnesota's state auditors have had a proud history of working as unbiased arbiters of truth — holding governments accountable for their spending and helping local governments create local solutions," Blaha said. "Unfortunately, my opponent has a different approach. He has a history of politicizing issues, including pandemic responses, education, and local control. That's exactly the wrong approach for a state auditor."

I noted yesterday that former judge and legislator Tad Jude announced a GOP run for Minnesota Attorney General. Just after I sent the newsletter the Minnesota DFL Party responded. “Tad Jude is a far-right extremist who wants to ban and criminalize virtually all abortion, even in cases of sexual assault. Jude also wants to force police officers to investigate women who make the difficult and personal medical decision to have an abortion. Pulling police off the street and using them to investigate women’s private medical decisions is cruel, barbaric, and would make our communities less safe,” DFL Party Chair Ken Martin said. “With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to eliminate protections for reproductive health care, Tad Jude’s election as Attorney General would be a threat to women across Minnesota and risk sending our state back to the dark ages.”

DFL U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar announced her reelection campaign Monday. “When I first ran for this office there was one thing I kept coming back to. Something I said to myself and to the voters over and over: I believe that a better world is possible,” Omar said. “I still believe that.”