Good Wednesday morning. Here’s your Digest. 1. Klobuchar takes on front-runner Warren in debate. Sen. Amy Klobuchar went into Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate facing the very real prospect it could be her last and turned in her most aggressive performance to date with repeated jabs at a leading rival. "The difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something you can actually get done," Klobuchar said to Sen. Elizabeth Warren toward the end of a spirited back-and-forth over Medicare for All, which Warren supports and Klobuchar does not. Over three previous Democratic debates, Klobuchar rarely attacked her Democratic rivals head-on. But the stakes are rising, Klobuchar remains stalled at low single digits in the polls, and she has not yet qualified for the next Democratic debate in November. Her predicament set the stage for several runs at the Massachusetts senator, who has been leading the Democratic race in recent polls. "At least Bernie [Sanders] is being honest," Klobuchar said to Warren, after she didn't directly answer whether tax increases would be needed to implement Medicare for All. "Elizabeth, you have not said that," Klobuchar said, addressing Warren. Star Tribune 2. Cash flows into Minnesota races. DFL U.S. Sen. Tina Smith pulled in $1.3 million for her 2020 re-election bid between July and the end of September. Her best-known Republican opponent former U.S. Rep. Jason Lewis, who didn’t get into the race until late August, raised more than $413,000. The money is already piling up in the Senate race more than a year before election day, according to third quarter campaign finance reports released this week. Smith has $2.7 million in total in the bank to spend on the race, while Lewis is holding on to more than $360,000. And it’s just one of a handful of targeted races federal races in Minnesota next year, where several congressional districts are also in play. That includes the 2nd District, where DFL Rep. Angie Craig reported raising more than $500,000 during the third quarter with more than $1.1 million on hand. MPR News 3. Franken questions source of Stauber contributions. It was the first snowy night on the Iron Range when a few dozen supporters of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party and former U.S. Sen. Al Franken gathered in the Crown Ballroom, off Howard Street in downtown Hibbing. It was about 7 p.m. when Franken ascended to the microphone. He was salt-and-peppered and clean-shaven, sporting black-frammed glasses and a “Minnesota Nice” brand of wit first cultivated in his youth in Albert Lea and St. Louis Park and later during his stretch at Saturday Night Live. But after acknowledging his local ties to the late Tom Rukavina, a legislator beloved on the Range, and his remembrance of garnering his first endorsement here from the steelworkers at Hibbing Taconite, he moved quickly to discuss how illegal money was allegedly spent in federal campaigns for Republican Congressman Pete Stauber and other GOP politicians in Minnesota during the 2018 midterms. “Now, this is an independent expenditure, so Stauber can easily say, ‘Well, I’m not supposed to know about this. I don’t know about this,’” Franken said. “OK, he can say that, but he hasn’t said that, and he hasn’t said it because he has said nothing — nothing!” On Monday afternoon, Troy Young, a spokesperson for the Stauber campaign, told the HDT via a phone conversation that the congressman would not comment on anything mentioned at the DFL fundraiser. Hibbing Daily Tribune 4. Ag PAC spends in support of Peterson. Radio campaign advertisements paid for by a new super political action committee led by sugar advocates started running Thursday, Oct. 10, in western Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District supporting Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson. The ads are paid for by the Committee for Stronger Rural Communities, a political action committee announced in August and chaired by farmer Kelly Erickson of Hallock, Minn., a board member for American Crystal Sugar, Co., a farmer-owned cooperative based in Moorhead. Peterson in June told Forum News Service he would announce his plan for a run for a 16th term in January or February 2020. He is chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and has served as the ranking Democrat. "The election is a long way off," Erickson said. "To start running now is quite unprecedented. Politics has changed in America." The super PAC's advertisements started playing on the day that President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visited Minneapolis in an attempt to swing the state red in 2020. Erickson said the timing of the advertising was planned earlier and was a coincidence. AgWeek 5. Part of park named for Mondale. Changing autumn leaves made a picturesque backdrop for a tribute to former Vice President Walter Mondale Tuesday at William O’Brien State Park along the St. Croix River. Mondale, 91, sat beside a crackling fire as dignitaries sang his praises — from the governor to a national parks superintendent to state Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Sarah Strommen — as a portion of the park was renamed in honor of the former senator and ambassador. "Early leaders like Vice President Mondale set us on the path of success that we see today," Strommen said. Minnesota House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler placed Mondale in esteemed company. “Vice President Mondale ranks with our conservation heroes of the past — Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt — in the legacy he has left for all of us,” Winkler said. MPR News
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