Capitol View for June 17

Good morning. June is just flying right by.

A batch of state campaign finance reports hit over the weekend. They’re not for all offices or all campaign committees. This round covered political parties and funds — you know the ones that can raise and spend unlimited sums in ways that candidates cannot on key races. I didn’t spend my Father’s Day going over all of them, but here are a few highlights:

The House DFL has a big cash advantage over the House GOP as of June 1. The House DFL had $1,115,212 cash on hand entering this month; the HRCC had $787,471.

The Senate Republicans are up a similar margin over the Senate DFL with that all-on-the-line seat now part of this year’s stakes. The Republican-run Senate Victory Fund had $1,359,238 in available cash to the $990,562 for the Senate DFL.

The Minnesota DFL remains the main player on the state party block. It had $2,033,332 in cash on hand to start June. That’s far more than the $78,192 for the state GOP, which also was carrying $103,065 in unpaid bills.

The state parties also file federal campaign reports each month and we don’t have those yet, so it’s tough to say with certainty how much the Republican Party pulled in during its May 17 fundraiser headlined by former President Donald Trump. We do now know that in the 10 days prior it scooped up about $175,000 in large donations. But it also had considerable expenses associated with the fundraiser.

Outside groups are always as — or more — important than the parties when it comes to key legislative races. There will be plenty trying to tip the relatively small number of competitive seats to their liking, whether that’s phone banks, mailers or broadcast ad spending. There are some new players on the block this year, although they’re seeded by some familiar donors and run by seasoned operatives. The Democratic-aligned We All Do Better PAC sprung up this spring and in its first few months has already collected $850,000. Renew Minnesota, which plans to be active on the Republican side, has about $97,000 in money banked but notably has also already spent about $40,000 on independent expenditures in closely watched legislative races.

Minnesota has two major parties right now but in the presidential race there will be a much-longer list of candidates on the ballot for voters to chose from. It takes just 2,000 voter signatures for a candidate to get on Minnesota’s ballot, a relatively low threshold compared to other states. That means those fed up by President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will have bailout options. The Star Tribune’s Briana Bierschbach took a look at the state’s tendencies to support third-party candidates. Even a small showing by other candidates could make a difference this year.

Speaking of Briana, she joined us on a special podcast-only edition of Politics Friday. She joined me, KARE 11’s John Croman and the APM Research Lab’s Craig Helmstetter to talk about our joint poll that was released last week. We’ll have more episodes throughout the summer until the return of the noon broadcast for the campaign stretch.

We’re waiting on some big decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court as it ends its term this month. There are those around the federal prosecutions of Trump, environmental standards enforcement, social media company liability and gun laws pertaining to those subject to domestic violence orders. Last week, the court put out a much-awaited decision on bump-stocks that allow for firing of more bullets more quickly . It serves as a reminder that the conservative-led Supreme Court still is a wild card in this year’s election if voters have strong opinions on the cases it decides. The winner of this year’s presidential election is in a position to name at least two justices to the nine-member court given the likelihood of retirements ahead.