| Gov. Tim Walz didn’t get the move he wanted last fall, but he is packing up anyway. Moving trucks and boxes have shown up as the first family is starting its transition back to the Summit Avenue residence that Minnesota governors have used for decades. It was under renovations for the past year plus; the Walz family lived in the Eastcliff property owned by the University of Minnesota in the meantime. The temporary quarters were under heavy security for months when Walz was the vice presidential nominee for Democrats. Had he won, he would have occupied the Naval Observatory in Washington. Eastcliff has been home to University of Minnesota presidents but was open during a shift in the top there. The state rented it after abandoning a lease for a more expensive suburban location that drew the ire of some lawmakers as excessive.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan took another step in formalizing her 2026 bid for U.S. Senate: launching a campaign website. Flanagan has notes crediting her political mentor, former U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone. That includes a nod to his signature quote, “We all do better when we all do better” and a green campaign bus zooms across the bottom of the page. She says if elected she’ll “fight to rebuild the middle class, protect our rights, and hold the extremist billionaires trying to run off with our country accountable.” Also of note: Flanagan skips a link to her X profile on her campaign site. It’s the latest in a DFL move away from the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.
Absentee voting kicks off today in a consequential Ramsey County House race. Voters in Shoreview and Roseville can start casting their votes in the special election for an open House seat. The result could give Republicans a two-vote advantage or place Democrats and Republicans in a tie. DFLer David Gottfried and Republican Paul Wikstrom are facing off in the race. The last day to vote is March 11.
The House will have to wait to celebrate passage of its first bill. House Republicans saw the first bill put to a vote this year fall to defeat, delivering a setback on a GOP measure to require more data disclosure by the attorney general’s office. As Peter Cox reports, the bill failed to get the needed 68 votes Thursday . “We’re adding two words to our statute books that protect our democracy, that protect our transparency, the right of the people of Minnesota to know what's happening in their office,” said Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey. “This is an easy yes vote.” Democrats framed it as politically motivated and a bill that was rushed to the floor. It would have declared more data from state attorney general investigations as public. Certain data on inactive investigations could be withheld only if it is regarding individual people, but not organizations, businesses or nonprofits. Republicans need to find at least one Democrat to help get passage of bills that aren’t by their nature bipartisan. The GOP has 67 seats and it takes 68 to pass a bill. Democrats hold 66 seats with one vacant until a March special election.
Your regular reminder: The Legislature is and always has exempted itself from the state’s open records laws. Over the years there have been suggestions the Data Practices Act requirements that lawmakers impose on state agencies, local governments and other public entities apply to legislators, too. The response is typically that the Legislature needs to protect interactions with constituents (never mind that some of those same constituents interact with the other entities covered) or that deliberations should be protected (there are carve-outs for agency deliberations already). Don’t expect lawmakers to put that same transparency focus on themselves this session.
The Minnesota Senate took a small step for budget savings yesterday, agreeing to a lower total for senators’ postal supplies. The body on a bipartisan basis agreed to lower rates for the supplies to write home to constituents compared to their appropriation law year. Amid an uncertain economic backdrop, Republicans urged Democrats to accept the lower rate and send a message that lawmakers are working to bring down state spending. Tougher budget talks are on the way during the remainder of the legislative session.
A proposal to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls’ sports teams is on its way to the House floor. The proposal passed on a party-line vote through the House Education Policy Committee on Wednesday night with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats against. It would bar student athletes from competing on women’s and girls’ school athletic teams unless they have “a reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes eggs for fertilization.” GOP lawmakers, parents and female athletes said the bill would prevent trans athletes from gaining an unfair advantage in women’s sports. Meanwhile, trans athletes and coaches, LGBTQ+ advocates and DFL lawmakers said it would discriminate against trans women and girls and could pose problems with enforcement. It’s unlikely to yield 68 votes needed to pass a bill off of the House floor. Attorney General Keith Ellison issued a legal opinion yesterday saying that if the Minnesota State High School League moved to bar the athletes to conform to a federal executive order, it would violate Minnesota’s Human Rights Act.
The latest iteration of a sports betting bill fell to a 6-6 Senate committee vote last week. End of story? Not to MinnPost’s Peter Callaghan, who has this in-depth look at why some lawmakers seem immovable on the topic — from the most liberal of members to the most conservative. Gambling addiction combined with access to addictive technology are giving some legislators pause while one lawmaker said it would be silly to regulate and tax an industry only to use money to treat the societal ills it creates. On the other side of the coin are lawmakers who say their constituents want access to sports betting platforms and many are using them despite the lack of legalization here. But, it’s all a numbers game. And until three come up 68-34-1 (Senate passage threshold, House passage threshold and governor signature) it’ll be more talk than action on the issue at the Capitol. | 