Good morning and happy Thursday. Republican-endorsed candidate for governor Scott Jensen could be in line for another $245,000 in public campaign subsidies and has DFL Gov. Tim Walz to thank for it. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports that Walz declined to sign a subsidy agreement by a Tuesday deadline, meaning part of the fund allotted for the race will be split among qualifying opponents. As of now, only Jensen meets the qualifications, but there’s a remote chance one or two marijuana party candidates would become eligible. The subsidy program uses money from voluntary income tax checkoffs. The candidates must agree to abide by race spending limits and meet other fundraising thresholds to access the dollars. With the likely shift of money from Walz, Jensen could fetch up to $582,000 that becomes available after the Aug. 9 primary. Walz’s decision to forgo the program could also free Jensen from the spending limit of more than $4.2 million. Similar scenarios are playing out down the ballot, as Brian lays out in this Twitter thread.
A day after suggesting Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan were talking too much about abortion, Jensen and his running mate Matt Birk were themselves talking about abortion. Birk put a video on Twitter Wednesday responding to Flanagan’s criticism Tuesday of a speech he gave last month. Birk doubled down on some of the comments he made in the speech and accused Flanagan of politicizing them. "I've done over 200 pro-life events over the last 10 years, and I've given the same speech pretty much every time," he said. Birk said he wasn’t saying women shouldn’t have careers, but that motherhood should be elevated. And he turned the remarks on Flanagan, "Aren't you a mother?,” he asked. “Isn't that more important than being lieutenant governor?" Meanwhile, Jensen put out a release saying Walz was ducking a tough decision on whether to appeal a state judge’s ruling that rolled back some state restrictions on abortion and deferring to the attorney general’s office. “Just like he did during the 2020 riots and during the July 4th mayhem in downtown Minneapolis, Governor Walz is freezing under pressure and deferring to someone else because the political winds are not clearly in his favor,” Jensen said. “However, rest assured when I’m governor, not only will I never surrender my ability to lead to Keith Ellison, but I’ll stand up for women’s health not because it's politically advantageous, but because it’s the right thing to do.”
One of the people who helped make legal cannabis an issue that drew enough support to create two major state political parties says he will now back the DFL.Peter Callaghan at MinnPost reports: Michael Ford, who as chair of the Legal Marijuana Now Party helped it gain major party status in 2018, is now a cofounder of a coalition to help DFLers in battleground races. Specifically, the MN Is Ready organization will target races where marijuana party candidates have the potential of siphoning votes from DFLers and help Republicans win. “I organized a campaign to get candidates on the ballot for that election just so we could maintain minor party status,” Ford said. “We didn’t expect to get major party status. That was a shock. The idea was to get enough votes so legislators would see the issue, take it seriously and not be afraid to take a solid stance.”
In Rochester, non-partisan municipal political campaigns have become platforms for a host of grievances that have defined national politics the last two years: President Trump's loss, the nation's response to COVID-19, and concerns about civil unrest are all making their way into school board, city council and mayoral races. MPR’s Catharine Richert has the story: "The late House Speaker, Tip O'Neill was famous for saying that all politics is local. But that just really isn't true in most cases today,” said University of Minnesota political science professor Kathryn Pearson. Echoes of national, partisan hot-button issues can be heard in many campaigns this year — even in local races where candidates aren’t party endorsed, Pearson said. “As partisan polarization and partisan coordination among candidates has increased since then, politics really has become nationalized,” she said.
Republican Tyler Kistner, who’s running against DFL incumbent U.S. Rep Angie Craig in Minnesota’s 2nd District filed a document disclosing his personal finances this week, more than two months after it was due.The Star Tribune reports: Kistner's report, required for all members of Congress and candidates under House ethics rules, showed he earned $67,500 between January of last year and May 15 of this year with his consulting firm TC Strategic. He reported $28,000 of that income was earned last year. A second-time candidate for Congress, Kistner was required to file his latest financial disclosure in May or seek an extension from the House clerk's office. Craig filed a ethics complaint over the missed deadline. | 