Maybe that special session on frontline worker bonus pay could happen after all. Even though the working group on frontline pay couldn’t reach an agreement on how to distribute $250 million in “hero pay” and basically punted to the Legislature, Dana Ferguson of Inforum reports Gov. Tim Walz and GOP legislative leaders are talking behind closed doors about the pay plan and drought relief. “I think it was a good-faith effort being made to try and find some compromise," Walz said. "I’m still stressing this idea that I think we are much closer on the essential workers; that could be solved. I think we’re there on drought relief and I even think there’s some consensus around some of the asks I had on COVID.” Walz indicated a special session could happen before Thanksgiving. "Discussions on those topics are ongoing, but we are hopeful the governor will call a special session and we can get the bonus checks to front-line workers soon,"  said Rachel Aplikowski, a spokeswoman for the Senate GOP.  No word on whether the sides have agreed on whether state commissioners would be safe from confirmation votes during a special session, as Walz has demanded.

MPR’s David Montgomery has a deep data dive into how the election played out in Minneapolis: Jacob Frey’s second term win wasn’t a fluke of ranked-choice voting, nor driven by low turnout. In fact, voter turnout this week was the highest of any Minneapolis mayoral election in at least 40 years. Instead, Frey won by building up the broadest coalition of any of the candidates running. That included his base of around 43 percent of the electorate — twice as high as any of his opponents, and more than his two primary rivals combined. But that fell short of a majority. Frey got there by piling up the second- and third-choice votes his opponents had hoped to deny him.  Ultimately, nearly 60 percent of all ballots cast ranked Frey either first, second or third. He was the only candidate ranked on more than half the ballots.

And one leftover question from the Minneapolis results. In Ward 2 where incumbent council member Cam Gordon was defeated, the unofficial winner Robin Wonsley Worlobah finished just 19 votes ahead of Yusra Arab. That’s a margin of .2 percent, less than the .5 percent margin that allows for a publicly funded recount. Yusra Arab has to ask for the recount for it to go forward and there is no word yet whether she will do that. The written request must be filed with the city clerk within seven days of next Friday when the city’s canvassing board is scheduled to meet. 

The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear a significant voting rights case at the end of the month. Justices will hold oral arguments on Nov. 30 in an appeal by people with past felony convictions. They are trying to restore the ability to vote sooner. At issue is a Minnesota law that restricts eligibility until probation or other punishment is completed even after a person has been released from incarceration. The case has run parallel to a legislative effort to restore felon voting rights.

And this from Brian Bakst: Getting a credible campaign for governor off the ground isn’t cheap, but some of the Republicans began in better shape than others.  The current or former lawmakers in the field (there are three) had campaign accounts from their legislative races. They could shovel the leftover money into their new governor campaigns. Former state Sen. Scott Jensen moved about $31,000 over upon his launch in March, and he says he’s raised more than $1 million since. Sen. Paul Gazelka, the latest race entrant, made a $71,000 transfer more recently. No word yet from Sen. Michelle Benson, who entered 2021 with $30,000 at her disposal. None of the candidates for Minnesota’s highest office or legislative races has to fully report on their finances until the end of January.

That’s it for this long week. Have a good weekend, and don’t forget to fall back. See you again here Monday.