| Not surprisingly, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have different ideas on how to boost the economy. The two presidential nominees are using the week before their debate to sharpen their economic messaging and appeal to the middle class. The AP has this breakout of the competing philosophies: Trump is betting that Americans are craving big tax cuts while Harris is honing in on the message that the ultra-wealthy should pay more in taxes. She says she plans to use that revenue to help spur the construction of 3 million housing units across the country and offer tax breaks to parents and first time homebuyers. Trump has proposed no taxes on tips paid to workers or on Social Security income. Harris has also embraced the idea of not taxing workers’ tips.
The U.S. accused Russia of using state media to spread disinformation before the November election. The U.S. Justice Department announced wide-ranging actions yesterday meant to call out Russian influence in the upcoming election, unsealing criminal charges against two employees of a Russian state-run media company and seizing 32 internet domains used by the Kremlin to spread disinformation and weaken global support for Ukraine. One criminal case accuses two employees of a Russian state-funded media organization of paying a Tennessee-based content creation company to publish nearly 2,000 videos containing Russian propaganda. The Tennessee-based company responded that it was unaware it was being used by Russia.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made his way around Pennsylvania yesterday in his first big solo trip of the campaign in a key state to the presidential race. The Democratic vice presidential nominee is there again today. Rochelle Olson of the M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A Star Tribune is along for the trip and filed several colorful pool reports, touching on everything from the music on the motorcade sound system to the Walz embrace of local customs such as “Whoopie Pies” (two small cakes about the size of a donut with a layer of vanilla frosting or cream cheese or some other seasonal flavor). Walz also threw some shade on his home-state football squad: As Olson writes, “He noted that Minnesota and Pennsylvania have a lot in common but ‘Super Bowl rings is not one of them.’” The events he was at were very controlled, with friendly audiences and few interactions with reporters that put him on the spot on policy or personal matters.
The Walz family, like many in America, is not in sync in its politics. Republicans are amplifying the family discord. Several apparently distant Nebraska relatives of the Minnesota governor are depicted showing a preference for Republican Donald Trump, although there are also questions about the origin of the image and exactly who is in it . It was first shared by a Republican who ran for governor in Nebraska. And then there’s Jeff Walz, the brother of Tim, who gained attention over the weekend for posting about his sibling on social media in a negative light. A reporter from NewsNation interviewed Jeff, who is estranged from Tim, but the brother toned down his criticism. He said he won’t be campaigning for or against Tim Walz. But Jeff Walz said he is upset that he didn’t get a heads-up about his selection as a vice presidential candidate and that the family heard about it from media reports, raising security concerns.
Another U.S. House inquiry into Tim Walz was put in motion yesterday, this time over his administration’s handling of the Feeding Our Future nutrition fraud case. The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce issued a subpoena to Walz , the Minnesota Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of an ongoing inquiry into what federal prosecutors have called the largest pandemic fraud scheme in the country. The subpoena demands that Walz turn over documents concerning oversight of Feeding our Future. Committee chair U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., wrote in a letter to Walz that the committee is requesting the information to show “the extent of your responsibilities and actions addressing the massive fraud that resulted in the abuse of taxpayer dollars intended for hungry children.”
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s conversion to Catholicism has helped shape the Ohio senator’s political views. So did a little-known group of Catholic thinkers. Vance has said Catholicism has helped provide him with a new way of looking at addiction, family breakdowns and other social ills. It also put him in touch with a Catholic intellectual movement known as “postliberal Catholicism” that was little known to the American public until Vance’s rise to the national stage as the Republican nominee for vice president. Postliberals want a more muscular government than conservative Catholics of the past and envision a counterrevolution in which they take over government bureaucracy. Vance has signaled his alignment with some of what postliberal Catholics have advocated for. He has said Republicans should take over institutions “to make them work for our people” and has advocated for government policies to spur childbearing.
A jury trial in the burglary case of state Sen. Nicole Mitchell won’t start before Minnesota lawmakers return for the 2025 session. The case register in Becker County shows that the Mitchell case will go to trial on Jan. 27 . That’s about two weeks after the Legislature starts its new session. Mitchell has faced calls from members of both parties to step down, but she has maintained that her April arrest was a misunderstanding. Ethics proceedings against her have been largely on hold while the criminal case plays out. Another hearing of the ethics subcommittee had been set for next week, but that, too, could be deferred. A reminder that the Senate is currently split between Democrats and Republicans 33 to 33, with a special election in November the linchpin for which party gets the majority. And if Gov. Walz becomes vice president, another vacancy would occur as the Senate president moves up to lieutenant governor. In other words, 2025 could get bumpy.
Minnesota voters will decide this fall whether to renew a proposal that earmarks a portion of the state’s lottery proceeds for conservation, clean water and parks projects. Dana Ferguson reports a group of more than 130 business, conservation and environmental organizations announced yesterday they would campaign together to convince people to vote “yes” on a measure on November’s ballot. In 1988, voters cleared the way for the creation of the lottery and approved a constitutional amendment that dedicates the resulting funding to conservation efforts. Ten years later, a measure to extend that until 2025 overwhelmingly won approval. The proposal’s backers hope it will be an easy choice for voters to say “yes” again.
An outside group is trying to figure out how far the boundaries of “express advocacy” extend in Minnesota law, and the campaign finance board has produced some laddered guidance. The group, which declined to be identified publicly, sought an advisory opinion after posing several hypotheticals about political language it might seek to use in materials. It was essentially seeking pre-clearance to potentially run TV ads or send mailers. The campaign board’s advisory opinion seems to suggest some of the verbiage is OK but others could be problematic. Read up here on what regulators put into the advisory opinion, which is just that — advisory. | 
