Good morning and welcome to Friday. State finance officials will release the latest revenue forecast later today, which will give Gov. Mark Dayton and the Legislature an idea of how much money they have to work with as they begin the 2017 session. We’ll follow it throughout the day. In the meantime, here’s the Digest.
1. Minnesota Republicans are riding high after big general election wins by state legislative candidates and a stronger than expected showing in Minnesota by President-elect Donald Trump. Party leaders are now trying to make sure those Trump-inspired voters stick around and remain active. Some of the Trump supporters say they’re not interested in backing a candidate for governor in 2018 who didn’t support Trump this year. (MPR News)
2. A lot of GOP candidates for the Legislature used Democrats’ support for a new Senate office building against them in the past couple elections. Now that Republicans are about to control the Senate again, they’ve started moving into their new offices in the building. And some are even willing to admit it’s got a pretty nice view. (MPR News)
3. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman says he won’t run for re-election next year and will leave city hall after serving three terms. Coleman is widely thought to be interested in a run for governor in 2018, but he says he’s not ready to announce yet. Former council members Melvin Carter III and Pat Harris, as well as former school board member Tom Goldstein have expressed interest in running to replace Coleman as mayor. (Pioneer Press)
4. Keith Ellison may have lost a key ally in his effort to become chair of the Democratic National Committee. The chair of the Anti-Defamation League is taking issue with remarks Ellison made about Israel in 2010. Jonathan Greenblatt cited a speech Ellison gave where he said, “The United States foreign policy in the Middle East is governed by what is good or bad through a country of 7 million people. A region of 350 million all turns on a country of 7 million. Does that make sense? Is that logic? Right? When the Americans who trace their roots back to those 350 million get involved, everything changes.” Ellison responded with an open letter saying that statement was selectively edited and taken out of context. (Politico)
5. The price of keeping those Carrier jobs in Indianapolis is becoming clearer. The state incentives add up to $7 million over 10 years. From this story: “1,000 jobs is less than 0.01 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Moreover, the country still has about 1.5 million fewer manufacturing jobs than it did prior to the recession. Trump faces a reality that journalists have pointed out over and over, both during this campaign and during the earlier years of the Obama presidency: manufacturing jobs aren’t coming back, at least not to anywhere near their prior highs.” (NPR)
6. The president-elect’s choice for defense secretary is retired Marine General James Mattis. Heled the United States Central Command from 2010 to 2013. It oversees military operations in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. The Obama administration believed he was too hawkish on Iran, but he also disagrees with some of Trump’s positions, including that torture is effective and that working more closely with Russia is a good idea. Because he so recently retired from the military, Congress would have to grant a special waiver to approve his appointment. (New York Times)
