Benson enters governor's race, while Gazelka steps down as Senate leader
Good afternoon,
As expected, today state Sen. Michelle Benson launched her gubernatorial campaign. Benson, the chair of the Senate's Health and Human Services committee, was also the running mate for Sen. Dave Thompson's unsuccessful 2014 gubernatorial bid. Benson promised to calm "rough waters" in Minnesota and said she'd have used a more tailored, less restrictive policy response to COVID-19 than incumbent Gov. Tim Walz.
But Benson's announcement was partially upstaged — perhaps intentionally — by another likely gubernatorial rival. Sen. Paul Gazelka announced Wednesday morning that he would step down as Senate Majority Leader. That's a step Gazelka said he'd take as part of any run for governor. The timing of Gazelka's move meant he shared headline space with Benson in many news outlets. There's no early sign about who Senate Republicans will elect as their next leader. [Read more from Brian Bakst]
All members of the Legislature are up for re-election next year, with the added complication of redistricting that will significantly change the composition of many districts. So sitting lawmakers running for governor will eventually have to choose whether to run for governor or for the Legislature. However, the deadline to pick which race they'll run for doesn't come until next May, so Benson and others can see if their gubernatorial bids take off before having to make a final decision.
One likely candidate who won't have to make that choice? Paul Gazelka, who announced today that whether or not he runs for governor, he won't seek re-election to his Senate seat. [Read more from FOX 9's Theo Keith]
Walz has not yet formally announced a re-election bid but is widely expected to seek another term. Besides Benson and (soon) Gazelka, former Sen. Scott Jensen, Lexington Mayor Mike Murphy, dermatologist Neil Shah and businessman Mike Marti are also running for the Republican nomination.
Edit war: Benson's entry into the race prompted a digital scuffle among Wikipedia users, with some users adding critical statements about Benson's record to her page on the user-edited encyclopedia and others swooping in to undo those changes for not adopting the site's mandatory "neutral point of view." [ Read Benson's revision history]
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman won't seek another term next year. Freeman, the son of a former DFL governor who ran unsuccessfully for governor himself in 1998, has been targeted by progressive activists in recent years for his handling of police shootings. His retirement is likely to spark a fierce contest for the seat, with former chief public defender Mary Moriarty already expressing interest in running. [Read more from Riham Feshir and MPR News staff]
What you need to know about the Minneapolis public safety charter amendment. [Read more from Jon Collins]
A new law in Texas will ban almost all abortions in the state. It took effect Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant an emergency injunction against it. The court still could rule on the law's merits later. [ Read more from NPR's Sarah McCammon]
Something completely different: Last night I watched the new movie "Annette," streaming on Amazon Prime. I knew going in that it was a musical starring Adam Driver and that it was going to be "quirky." Quirky, at turned out, was a massive understatement for the surrealistically weird, highly stylized arthouse film. It's the kind of movie that demands critical analysis, that only makes any sense at all when you ponder its symbolism and mise-en-scène (that French, technical term highly appropriate here) and understand its dizzying array of subtle references. Some of you will love it. Many others will shut it off half an hour in if you tried to watch it.
But I can wholeheartedly recommend this one scene from "Annette," a masterpiece of both cinematography as well as acting by Simon Helberg — you know, the actor best known for playing the mop-topped engineer Howard Wolowitz on "The Big Bang Theory." If that's what you know Helberg for, this scene will be a revelation. The swirling single take, the integration of dialogue and music and emotion, at once highly stylized and naturalistic — it's the movie's best scene (and largely unrepresentative of the rest of the movie in anything except inventiveness), and one of the best scenes I've seen all year. [ Watch]
Listen: I said "Annette" is a musical? Rock opera might be a better term, with songs (and script) by avant-garde rock duo Sparks and lyrics that play with genre conventions. The arthouse nature of it hits you right from the movie's opener, the metatextual song "So May We Start," which flips off the fourth wall with the movie's director (Leos Carax) on screen inviting Sparks (Ron and Russell Mael) and the film's cast to, well, start. [Watch] | | |
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