Good morning. Happy summer break to the many parents whose home offices just got a little bit louder.
A new Minnesota poll has President Joe Biden with a narrow edge over former president Donald Trump, but both remain unpopular. Biden was preferred by just shy of 45 percent of respondents compared to about 41 percent for Trump in the live-interview poll conducted last week for MPR News, KARE 11 and the Star Tribune. That’s considered a dead heat given the poll’s margin of sampling error. Most of those surveyed disapproved of Biden’s job performance and Trump’s standing. A small percentage of the 800 people surveyed preferred a third-party candidate — independent Robert F. Kennedy had the support of about 6 percent. Only a sliver of them remained undecided. You can read more about the findings here.
Candidates looking to fill State Sen. Kelly Morrison’s vacant seat must file for the election by Tuesday. Gov. Tim Walz called a writ of special election on Friday to fill Morrison’s seat following her resignation to pursue federal office. The quick turnaround paves the way for the special election to be held on Nov. 5. Any primaries would fall in August. The special election will determine which party controls the Senate next year given a now 33-33 split. All 134 House seats and chamber control are also on the ballot this year.
In some states that say they elect judges, governors choose them instead. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that in two states with judicial elections, Georgia and Minnesota, nearly every state supreme court justice steps down midterm, allowing the governor to appoint a successor instead of the state holding an open election for a new justice. Since 1980 in Minnesota, all but one of 30 justices were appointed rather than elected to the Minnesota Supreme Court. This year, Walz appointed two new justices to the Supreme Court to replace retiring justices Margaret H. Chutich and G. Barry Anderson. All seven justices have now been appointed by DFL governors. Across the country, state supreme court races have become pivotal in legal battles over abortion, elections, education, the environment an LGBTQ+ rights. As these courts have the last word in an increasing number of high-profile disputes, the act of substituting elections with a governor’s appointment has become increasingly consequential.
The Supreme Court sided with Native American tribes in a dispute with the federal government over the cost of health care when tribes run programs. The court held that the federal government had been under-funding Native American tribes that administer their own healthcare programs for 30 years and must pay potentially hundreds of millions more going forward. In its 5-4 ruling, the court found that federal law requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to pay the overhead costs tribes incur when spending money from Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers. The ruling is a victory for the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona and the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming, which had sued over the funding.
Nearly 6,000 Minnesotans applied for the electric vehicle rebate. Kirsti Marohn reports about one-third of those who successfully applied for an EV rebate have received a check. The Legislature set aside money for EV rebates last year. Minnesotans could apply for a rebate of up to $2,500 for a new EV or up to $600 for a used one. The Minnesota Department of Commerce hopes that all checks will be dished out by August.
It’s hard living in harmony in these politically divisive times. Unless, you know, you actually live in Harmony. Residents of Harmony Township , nestled in the outskirts of Janesville, Wis., near the Illinois state line, tend to live up to its name. And while the rest of the political landscape can be pretty volatile, residents there report “you don’t get the feeling of people being against each other.” They also offer a pretty reliable barometer of the political leanings in the swing state. Since 2000, Harmony voters have sided with the winner in all 13 presidential and gubernatorial races. The township’s knack for picking winners is pretty crazy given the numbers — four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a point. | 