Good morning, and happy Thursday. Here's the Digest. 1. Klobuchar and the debate. Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is one of 10 Democratic presidential candidates who will debate in Houston, Texas Thursday night after meeting the fundraising and polling requirements to qualify. There are still 20 candidates in the race, so managing to qualify is no small feat, and the smaller debate roster is good news for Klobuchar. It means the debate will be broadcast all in one night, instead of split into two nights like the previous debates, and she will share the stage will all of the frontrunners in the race. The three-hour debate is an opportunity for Klobuchar to get the attention she needs to her to keep her presidential campaign alive, which is consistently polling at the back of the pack. “The closer you get to the caucuses, the less time you have to make a move. Right about now, Senator Klobuchar is probably starting to feel a lot of pressure to start moving up in the polls in a significant way,” said Alex Conant, a veteran of Republican presidential campaigns, including former Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s 2012 bid for the nomination. “That is very hard to do, she is going to have few opportunities to do it, and her best opportunity are these upcoming debates.” She’s already qualified for the fourth debate next month in Ohio, but a strong performance Thursday could not only mean a surge in the polls, it could also send key delegates, donors and new endorsements her way. ( MPR News) 2. Klobuchar and the debate part 2. Senator Amy Klobuchar keeps having to tell Democratic voters the things they can’t have: Medicare for all, free college, mandatory gun confiscation and decriminalizing all border crossings. In the first two Democratic debates, Ms. Klobuchar, a Minnesota moderate, refused both to embrace the party’s more liberal ideas or to draw an explicit contrast with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Instead, she served as something of a palate cleanser between others onstage vying for the viral moment denied to her so far. “I had to give the mom answer,” Ms. Klobuchar said Tuesday. It’s a strategy betting on the long-term patience of Democratic primary voters she hopes will eventually pick a candidate selling herself as uniquely able to win back Midwestern voters who fled to President Trump in 2016 — if only she can attract their attention. “I hope that these moderators will ask one of the other candidates, bring up one of my ideas and say, ‘Why isn’t this a good idea?’ That would be a nice framing,” Ms. Klobuchar said. “A lot of questions have been 30-second responses to other people’s ideas.” Through two debates and seven months of campaigning, the traits that served Ms. Klobuchar in winning three Senate elections in Minnesota have limited her appeal in the Democratic presidential campaign. Back home, she has pursued a relatively safe electoral strategy, aiming to appeal to moderate Republicans while enjoying the unquestioned support of the liberal Democratic base without catering to her party’s left wing. Heading into Thursday night’s debate in Houston, some of Ms. Klobuchar’s key supporters are concerned that she hasn’t made a lasting mark in her first two debate performances. “They served her up to go after the other people running and she declined to go there, she went against Donald Trump,” said Andy McGuire, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman, who has endorsed Ms. Klobuchar. “She’s not a mean person, which sometimes in debates you have to be.” (New York Times)
3. DFL lawmaker resigns from U of M energy job. A Democratic lawmaker has resigned from a position at the University of Minnesota amid questions about how he got the gig and whether it conflicted with his work at the State Capitol. And the woman who hired him, a former Democratic lawmaker herself, was reassigned this week as well. State Rep. Jamie Long, a freshman DFLer from Minneapolis, was hired in July as an “energy research project specialist” at the university’s Institute on the Environment. He resigned from the post — a fellowship funded by an undisclosed donor — “earlier this week,” he said Wednesday. Long is vice chair of a House climate and energy committee and an assistant majority leader of the House Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucus. The woman who hired him, former state Sen. Ellen Anderson of St. Paul, had served as executive director of the institute’s Energy Transition Lab until Tuesday, when she was reassigned “to work on other projects,” according to the U. The lab works with experts to find solutions that could reduce carbon emissions and promote clean energy.The shakeup was precipitated by a Republican state lawmaker who dug into Long’s hiring via a public records request. That lawmaker, Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent, on Wednesday called for an investigation into the situation. “Rep. Long was able to write his own position description, set his own hours, and tailor his hours to ensure he was fully employed while the Legislature was out of session,” said Swedzinski, who suggested the hiring might have “run afoul of our ethics and campaign finance laws” — an allegation Long denied. Long denied doing anything wrong. Anderson declined to comment. (Pioneer Press)
4. Assisted suicide hearing draws a crowd. Minnesota lawmakers heard passionate testimony Wednesday on both sides of a hotly disputed proposal to allow people with terminal illnesses to end their lives with the help of medical professionals. Many Democrats in the Minnesota House back a bill allowing medically assisted suicide, a practice that’s been approved in eight other states and Washington, D.C. Assisted suicide has been legal in Oregon for more than 20 years, and lawmakers in other states, including Minnesota, have patterned similar proposals after Oregon’s law. But some religious figures and Minnesota lawmakers, including a key GOP leader in the Senate, warn that giving people say over when to end their lives would be dangerous for vulnerable people who have disabilities or are suicidal. More than 200 people from Minnesota and around the country packed an informational hearing of the House Health and Human Services Policy Committee, which could advance the proposal when the Legislature convenes next February. Testimony did not fall along clear partisan lines. Doctors on both sides of the issue, along with religious leaders, people with terminal illnesses and their families, took turns at the microphone and gave dueling opinions. (Star Tribune)
5. Copper-nickel mining touted as a weapon against climate change. Just as steel made from Minnesota’s iron ore powered the U.S. military to victory during World War II, supporters of copper-nickel mining in the state say the industry could help defeat another global challenge: the climate crisis. Demand is on the rise for renewable energy and electric cars that rely on copper, nickel, cobalt and other metals. And as the world continues to transition away from fossil fuels, the need for those minerals will only continue to grow. In August, Gov. Tim Walz told MinnPost the state should allow mining if it expects to reach a carbon-free future. “There’s 5.5 tons of copper in every megawatt of solar, and it comes from somewhere,” he said. That argument has grown popular with Twin Metals Minnesota and PolyMet Mining, which hope to build the state’s first copper-nickel mines, as well as their political allies. It’s often used to ease concerns that a boom in so-called sulfide mining could pollute Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) with toxic mine waste and acidic runoff.Yet the clean energy case has not won over ardent skeptics of copper-nickel mining in the state. Environmental groups say a focus on recycling and mining in more favorable environments can ensure an energy transition without risk of water pollution in Minnesota. Some have accused mining companies of being insincere to say they’re helping fight climate change when they have not advocated for clean energy policy at the Legislature. “Actions speak louder than words for these mining companies,” said Kathryn Hoffman, CEO of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. “We need policy change to move us toward a clean energy economy.” (MinnPost) |
