Good morning, and happy Tuesday.
State campaign fundraising reports are due today. We’ll get full details later, but some campaigns are already releasing summaries. Republican-endorsed candidate for governor Scott Jensen’s campaign says it raised $560,000 since the last report about a month ago and about $600,000 cash on hand. DFL Gov, Tim Walz is expected to have a significant fundraising advantage. More here tomorrow.
MPR’s Brian Bakst reports that the number of people using absentee ballots ahead of the Aug. 9 primary is way down compared to two years ago. As of Friday, about 40,000 absentee ballots were returned and marked accepted. It would take a huge surge to get anywhere close to the numbers seen in 2020 when COVID-19 pandemic fears led many voters to choose a remote option. For example, about 79,000 Hennepin County absentee ballots had been accepted through July of 2020. It’s one tenth of that as of last Friday at 7,885. Two years ago, nearly 60 percent of primary votes were cast through the mail or in absentee fashion. There were more than 543,000 absentee and mail votes overall in that primary. Less than a quarter of eligible voters participated in the last two statewide primaries.
Amid record low unemployment, Minnesota government officials are urging businesses to expand their view of who could work for them.MPR’s Tim Nelson has the story: In June, Minnesota had the lowest state unemployment rate ever recorded in the U.S., and that means workers are harder than ever to find. Harder — but not impossible. Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Groves has previously highlighted other potential labor pools, including people over 55, immigrants and people leaving correctional facilities. He said the disabled community offers another opportunity for employers in Minnesota who are struggling to find workers, with nearly three job openings for every person looking for a job. Grove said nearly 10 percent of Minnesotans report having at least one disability, and employers can find real value among them. "People with disabilities come with a lot of abilities, actually, and when you look at the loyalty, the problem-solving ability, just the hard work ethic that you see in this community — we think more employers that should be aware that there are actually a lot of people with disabilities in our economy that can do great work,” he said.
Some advocacy groups are pushing for the city of Minneapolis to spend money to help people coming to the city from other states that outlaw or restrict abortion.MPR’s Michelle Wiley has the story: The abortion fund, Our Justice, along with Pro-Choice Minnesota and Minneapolis City Council members Aisha Chughtai and Robin Wonsley, have launched a campaign to get the city to provide direct funding for abortion access. “We're already at double the requests that we were at this time last year,” said Megumi Rierson, communications director with the abortion fund Our Justice. “We're seeing significantly more patients coming specifically from Texas, which will likely mean that requests will be a little bit more expensive,” they continued, “Because it will not only be abortion funding, it will also be a matter of us getting a hotel room for folks. And also referring out for travel support.” Rierson said they’re asking the city to create a general item in the budget for $800,000 that would go to the fund. It would be managed by the city health department, and available through an open RFP process to “any group that operates in Minneapolis to provide abortion funding care, abortion funding, practical support and travel and lodging support.” So far, several members of the Minneapolis city council said they would support the fund. Others didn't respond, or said they haven't had time to review the proposal.
Several Minnesota public employee unions prevailed Monday in a pair of decisions from a federal appeals court. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the unions don’t have to repay fair-share dues collected from nonmembers before the legal landscape changed in 2018. That year, the U.S. Supreme Court said no one can be forced to pay dues to a union they refuse to join. Several employees tried to recoup money they had paid prior to that major high-court decision. But the appeals court sided with the unions’ arguments that the paycheck withholdings were constitutional at the time and no retroactive reimbursement was necessary. | 