Good afternoon,
MPR is going to be experimenting a bit with this newsletter, now that we're entering a bit of a fallow period with the Legislature primarily done but the 2022 campaign not yet in full swing. There's always news in national and international politics, of course, and we'll round up some of that, but this is a Minnesota politics newsletter, and that's going to remain the focus.
So before getting into the news and links today, I'm going to start things off with a question for you, the readers. I recently read a biography of the great 19th century British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, and one of the things it kept mentioning was how Gladstone (and other prominent figures like his rival Benjamin Disraeli) made their names as orators and especially as parliamentary orators. Obviously times have changed a lot since the 19th century, and oratory in particular is not nearly so central to politics and popular entertainment as it once was. But it all got me thinking: Who is the best speechmaker in the Minnesota Legislature?
Shoot me an email with up to three nominations (and use that link, which has a pre-chosen subject line that I can use to organize my receipts). You can optionally also include arguments for why you think they're a good speaker, or a link to video of a great floor speech. I'll treat all these nominations as on background, meaning I won't attribute them to you, unless you explicitly say I can.
Sometime next week I'll round up the nominations and share them back with you!
Now, here's what's going on in politics today.
Minnesota State Rep. John Thompson, DFL-St. Paul, recently claimed to have been racially profiled by St. Paul police during a recent traffic stop. Thompson was apparently pulled over for lacking a front license plate — the kind of "pretextual stop" that legislative Democrats tried unsuccessfully to ban this year. Here are the details of the incident:
- Thompson was cited for driving on a suspended Minnesota drivers license.
- The Minnesota Department of Public Safety says Thompson's license was suspended in 2019 for failure to pay child support.
- But Thompson says he never had a Minnesota driver's license and doesn't owe child support.
- Instead the Minnesota state lawmaker says he has a Wisconsin license. Police say that's the license Thompson presented when he was pulled over.
- Thompson has claimed to have lived on the east side of St. Paul for 18 years.
- Minnesota law requires new arrivals to apply for a Minnesota license within 60 days of becoming a resident; Wisconsin doesn't allow people to have licenses from both states at the same time.
- Thompson told the officer that he was a state lawmaker during the interaction.
[Read more from the Pioneer Press' Mara Gottfried and Dave Orrick]
The Senate adjourned Wednesday without confirming or rejecting any more of Gov. Tim Walz's commissioners, but Housing Commissioner Jennifer Ho's job remains in danger. Unlike other cabinet members like Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Sarah Strommen, Ho didn't get any assurances that her job was safe. She's on the hot seat after a slow rollout to a back-rent program. [Read more from MinnPost's Peter Callaghan]
Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka hasn't publicly decided whether he's running for governor, but someone registered the domain "gazelkaformn.com" this week. That could be preparation for a run, it could be him keeping his options open, or it could be someone else entirely squatting on a domain that Gazelka might want. (The tendency of political opponents to scoop up domain names with a rival candidate's name for the purposes of attacks is one reason why potential candidates sometimes register websites long before they decide to run!) [ Read more from Brian Bakst]
Back in May, Walz rolled out a host of incentives for people to get COVID-19 vaccinations. Unlike some states, which have offered a small number of eye-catching lottery prizes, Walz offered up to 100,000 small prizes, like State Fair tickets or park passes. But the take-up has been slow. Around 135,000 people got vaccinated in June and thus are eligible for a prize, but only 17,409 have contacted the state to claim one. Of those who did, most just took a $25 cash card. [ Read more from the Star Tribune's Glenn Howatt]
The controversial Line 3 oil pipeline in northern Minnesota has seen a standoff between protesters trying to stop the pipeline and local law enforcement enforcing pipeline builder Enbridge's property rights. But one exception to the tension and clashes has been Clearwater County, where Sheriff Darin Halverson has emphasized dialogue with protesters and has in turn — so far — largely received cooperation from protesters in his jurisdiction. [ Read more from Kirsti Marohn]
CenturyLink is asking Minnesota's Public Utilities Commission to release it from what it calls antiquated regulations on its dwindling landline business. Challenging this are the Department of Commerce and the Attorney General's office, who say CenturyLink isn't meeting customer service requirements. [Read more from the Star Tribune's Mike Hughlett]
Security fencing around the U.S. Capitol is finally coming down, more than six months after it went up following the Jan. 6 attack on the building. [Read more from Politico's Nicholas Wu]
Party time: Republican pollster Echelon Insights has a fascinating recurring project where they poll voters and ask them:
Suppose the Democratic and Republican parties were replaced by a new set of political parties. Which of these parties would you be most likely to support? A party that would...
- Put the middle class first, pass universal health insurance, strengthen labor unions and raise taxes on the wealthy to support programs for those less well off
- Stop illegal immigration, put America First, stand up to political correctness and end unfair trade deals
- Defend the American system of free enterprise, promote traditional family values and ensure a strong military
- Advance social progress including women's rights and LGBTQ rights, work with other countries through free trade and diplomacy, cut the deficit and reform capitalism with sensible regulation
- Pass a Green New Deal to build a carbon-free economy with jobs for all, break up big corporations, end systemic inequality and promote social and economic justice
Or, in other words, a European-style Labor or Social Democratic Party, a Trumpist Nationalist Party, a Conservative or Christian Democratic Party (along the lines of the pre-Trump GOP), a Liberal Party that's socially progressive and fiscally moderate and a Green Party.
You can quibble with some of the descriptions here, but here's the results they got when they asked voters this question in June: | | |
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The real-life Republican Party could be understood as a coalition between these hypothetical Nationalist and Conservative parties (43 percent of voters) and the Democrats as a Liberal-Labor-Green alliance (45 percent of voters).
But of course if the U.S. had an actual parliamentary system, those wouldn't be the only possible alliances. You could easily see, for example, these Conservative and Liberal parties striking an alliance, or even a German-style "grand coalition " of Conservatives, Liberals and Labor, excluding the Nationalists to the right and the Greens to the left. Or you could see the Greens team up with Labor for a government aimed at economic progressivism, excluding those capitalist Liberals. Or even a populist alliance of Nationalists and Labor.
Dig deeper: Why does the U.S. have only two major parties? It basically comes down to a few structural factors, most famously "Durverger's Law" that first-past-the-post voting systems like the U.S. uses tends to encourage two big parties instead of coalitions splitting their vote among minor parties. (Though note that this "law" has its critics.)
Primary colors: You might have noticed that in the above graph I colored the Conservative Party blue and the Labor Party red — the opposite of the standard left-right color scheme in the U.S. But internationally, red is a color generally associated with the left, while blue is often adopted by conservative factions. You can learn all about that, and why I picked yellow for Liberals and black for Nationalists, on one of my favorite Wikipedia pages, "Political colour."
Something completely different: Novelist Upton Sinclair turned his hand to politics in the 1930s, running for governor of California. As a novelist, he promoted his campaign with an innovative technique: He wrote a fictional history of California from an imaginary future in which Sinclair had won and — spoiler alert — all his policies turned out to be massive successes. But it turned out Sinclair's "People's History of California" had a long, unintended life — including inspiring a real-life cult. [ Read more from Adam Morris in Lapham's Quarterly]
Listen: Back before I was born, Breton musician Alan Stivell released a groundbreaking album, "Renaissance of the Celtic Harp," which propelled traditional Celtic harp music back into the public eye. Its highlight was the B-side, an 19-minute medley of tunes from around the Celtic world. [Listen] | |
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