Good morning, and happy Friday.
At noon on the radio today I will moderate the final debate between Gov. Tim Walz and Scott Jensen. We’ll also be streaming at MPRNews.org. I hope you can tune in.
The Star Tribune has a story that says Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office had the power to investigate fraud in the federal food aid program and the group Feeding Our Future that eventually led to 50 people being charged by federal authorities and $250 million allegedly stolen. The story includes this: Two former senior members of the Minnesota Attorney General's Office, both Democrats who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, were critical of Ellison's handling of the case. The two said the department could have used its broad investigative powers to collect bank records and other financial documents well before the feds got involved. They said that might have allowed the state to prove fraud and shut down Feeding Our Future before the bulk of payments were made. Beverly Heydinger, a former deputy attorney general who left the office in 1998, agreed there may have been "missteps" in the state's handling of the case. "It is a big deal, and it is easy to look back in retrospect and say: Had you known then what you know now, could you have done this or could you done that?" Heydinger said. "But I don't think there is anything to suggest that the attorney general was asleep at the wheel."
MPR’s Dana Ferguson has a look at the campaign for Minnesota secretary of state between incumbent DFLer Steve Simon and Republican Kim Crockett, who was endorsed this week by former President Donald Trump. Crockett has proposed that the state should consider shortening the early voting period, more frequently purge inactive voters from the state’s voting rolls, and require people to show a photo I.D. to cast a ballot. “I think the solution is to calm down the rhetoric around elections by enacting better election policies,” Crockett said. “Find the cracks in the system, be humble about mistakes and fix it so that when we all sit down at Thanksgiving, we'll look at each other and we'll say, ‘That was fair, I believe in the results of the election,’ rather than being suspicious of them.” Simon has rejected that approach and said that Crockett and others who deny the results of the 2020 election are the ones stirring mistrust in the system. “They would take us backwards,” Simon said. “And our consensus over many decades in Minnesota, it doesn't matter who's in charge –Republican, Democrat– has been that we prize access for the everyday voter if you're eligible to vote, and you can show that the experience should be as trouble free as it can reasonably be.”
An intra-party power struggle is roiling the campaign in what should be a safe Republican legislative district around Fergus Falls in western Minnesota. A write-in candidate, alleging cheating by party officials, is challenging the Republican candidate. MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports: The conflict in the Otter Tail county Republican Party isn't new. It's been brewing the past few election cycles, but one party official says the dispute is coming to a head this year. Jordan Rasmusson is the endorsed Republican candidate in Senate District 9. Elected to the state House two years ago, he earned party endorsement for the Senate seat and won a close primary contest against challenger Nathan Miller this year. But Miller pushed on with a write-in campaign in the general election. The Republican Party of Minnesota recently filed a complaint with the state Office of Administrative Hearings alleging Miller is violating state law by identifying himself as a Republican candidate.
Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura has endorsed DFL Gov. Tim Walz for reelection. In a video released Thursday by Walz's campaign, Ventura said he doesn’t believe in the two major parties, but he says this year's election is too important not to weigh in. "When COVID-19 hit, Tim was there to keep our state safe,” Ventura said in the video. “That’s the governor’s most important job. Tim has proved he does what’s right for Minnesota, not what is politically easy." Ventura said he can't back Republicans because so many have refused to condemn the January 6th insurrection. And Ventura said Walz will support access to abortion and reproductive health care. Ventura was a third party candidate when he was elected governor in 1998. He says he's still an independent.
A statement from Republican Party of Minnesota chair David Hann called Ventura “a well-known extremist and conspiracy theorist” “As a Vietnam veteran, I am appalled that Gov. Tim Walz would seek and tout the endorsement of such a discredited conspiracy theorist,” said Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman David Hann. “Jesse Ventura claimed 9/11 was caused by the government and that all of our country’s wars were started under false pretenses. This endorsement is an embarrassment and shows that Walz is losing and desperate for support. Tim Walz owes every military family and those of 9/11 victims an apology.”
As we’ve said, the suburbs will be key to deciding which party controls the Minnesota House and Senate next year.MinnPost takes a deep dive: Allison Liuzzi, the project director for Minnesota Compass, the data center for the Wilder Foundation, breaks the state into three geographic groupings: the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the suburbs in the seven counties that make up the rest of the Twin Cities metro, and Greater Minnesota. “They are our largest voting bloc,” she said of the suburbs. In the 2020 election, 44 percent of voters were from these suburban areas, about 20,000 votes more than Greater Minnesota (the final 12 percent are from the two cities). But in 2014, more voters came from Greater Minnesota than the suburbs, 46 percent to 43 percent. And suburban voter turnout leads a state with overall high turnout. In 2020, suburban precincts had 84 percent of voters cast ballots compared to 73 percent in the two cities and 76 percent in Greater Minnesota. “There’s a lot of power there and that’s a shift in the last two elections,” she said.
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