The COVID-19 news hasn’t been encouraging this week. Case jumps, classroom closures and new safety measures. Peter Cox has our story on nursing home administrators telling lawmakers about being pushed to the brink. Expect lots of talk about that in the upcoming session. MPR data guy David Montgomery wrote about new info he’s been looking at. Fair warning: It’s dirty.

The virus is causing rearranging of political activity as well. The DFL Party said Thursday it would allow for alternatives to in-person caucuses on Feb. 1. The state party is leaving it up to local units to decide the venue of the gatherings that mark the official campaign-year kickoff. Those decisions will be finalized by next Wednesday. What’s non-negotiable? For DFL caucuses that are held in person, masks are a must and proof of vaccination or a recent negative test is required. No word yet on any COVID-inspired changes at Republican caucuses. 

Another difference around the DFL and GOP caucuses: Republicans will hold a straw ballot to measure governor’s race preferences of candidates for governor; Democrats will not. DFL Party Chair Ken Martin told me that only Gov. Tim Walz met a deadline to get on a party ballot and the party isn’t required by law to do a straw ballot with only a single candidate.

Walz will join Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith today as the three DFLers highlight new bridge funding coming Minnesota’s way through the recently enacted infrastructure law. According to the Federal Highway Administration, $302 million will be poured into Minnesota bridge work over the next five years. The agency estimates it will assist in the rehab or replacement of 5,600 bridges in the state.

Klobuchar also spoke with Mark Zdechlik for his story on changes that would give Medicare administrators more leverage on prescription drug prices.

The Sentencing Guidelines Commission put off a vote on a change that could shorten some sentences. The Star Tribune’s Stephen Montemayor has a write-up. Crime and punishment will be a big focus this year, in the legislative session and the campaign. GOP Sen. Paul Gazelka, who is running for governor, lays out a proposal limiting “prosecutorial discretion” at the Capitol today.

The latest installment in my pre-caucus interviews with GOP governor candidates included a wide-ranging discussion Thursday with Neil Shah. He’s the 41-year-old dermatologist making his first run for office. He has had a surprising showing in preliminary preference ballots and said he raised more than $200,000 last year but had to burn through a lot of it to introduce himself to Republicans who will endorse a candidate in May. More soon on themes in the race, but here are some snippets.

Shah said no candidate is breaking from the pack. “It's going to be a dogfight, and it's going to come down to a contested convention. No one's going to have anywhere near the 60 percent that they need. We all have relatively strong pockets of support that are slightly different. There’s some overlap between bases of support.” 

In debates and other multi-candidate appearances, Shah hasn’t shied from calling out other Republicans for past votes or what he sees as their failure to deliver. “I've been pretty clear about going after people that have an R after their name that are unwilling to stand up for conservative values. And I will tell you that that is anathema to a significant fraction of the party establishment in particular. I mean I think the grassroots folks are happy to see that. They're not happy with what they've seen occur from people that call themselves Republicans and have a voting record that it would be difficult to identify as a conservative voting record. But the party faithful still think that all Republicans are good Republicans, and I have a problem with that.”

Shah cuts against the grain in his party by supporting efforts to decriminalize marijuana possession, which is short of the full legalization Democrats like Walz back. Shah said his party’s stance has been too rigid for too long. “It's lost us votes, rightfully so, in terms of the drug war, particularly communities of color that were hit by particularly stiff sentencing attached to the drug war. We have a lot of work to do in those neighborhoods. And I think this is a good first step to show that, look, we've moved on from that. It was unsuccessful. It was not helpful. And there's a path forward that both satisfies the need to limit substances that can be deleterious but also recognizes the potential benefit to a segment of the population and removes the government to some degree from that issue.”

As I’ve reported previously , Shah’s donation history includes giving to two of his GOP rivals – Sens. Michelle Benson and Gazelka – and the guy he’s hoping to ultimately beat: DFL Gov. Tim Walz. He explained that his contributions were made when he was involved in advocacy around medical issues being debated at the Capitol. “We were trying to sit down with both sides of the swamp in St. Paul and say, ‘Hey, you guys know health care costs too much, we can help bring it down. Here's some pieces of legislation that would allow us to survive and compete.’ And so you sit down with both sides, and I gave money to Kurt Daudt and Gazelka and Walz. And I guess I'm not sure which of those three contributions I regret the most because Walz I knew wasn't going to necessarily be pro-business. But the other two are expected to stand up for us more and they didn’t.”

Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul, has decided he’ll leave the Legislature after this term and after more than three decades in the House. His 16 terms rank him fourth among the 134 current House members in longevity. He’s led committees with jurisdiction over education and more recently public safety. Mariani was a lead lawmaker in passage of new laws around police accountability. He’s just the latest legislator to announce a departure. Most are Democrats. Some lawmakers from both parties are leaving to seek new offices. Election years following the once-per-decade redistricting often see a wave of retirements. 

Sen. Warren Limmer, the longest-serving Republican incumbent in the state right now, said he is running again. His 2020 race was the priciest legislative contest on record in Minnesota history and will likely be treated as competitive again this fall.

Thanks for riding along with me this week while Mike Mulcahy got a deserved break. There will be no newsletter on Monday given the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Watch for dispatches from Tim Pugmire the rest of next week.