Capitol View for September 17

Good morning. Seven weeks until Election Day.

Following a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life, President Joe Biden called on Congress to boost funding to the Secret Service. Biden told reporters “the Secret Service needs more help .” The Democrat said he had directed his team to make sure that the Secret Service "has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former President’s continued safety.” Trump has posted in the days since saying that he is safe and well and will not surrender.

Minnesota GOP Chair David Hann also weighed in on the apparent assassination attempt. Hann argued that rhetoric about Trump being dangerous to the country has contributed to acts of political violence against the former president. “People who have maybe not got their full faculties in place hear things like that,” Hann said. As Politico reports , Trump called for unity after the July rally shooting that left him wounded, but he hasn’t done so after the latest incident and instead has put the blame on his political rivals. Democratic leaders — including Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz — have condemned the violence and said it has no place in politics.

The former president also aired his bad blood with singer Taylor Swift Sunday on Truth Social following Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Gov. Tim Walz. Trump wrote, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” Swift’s post following last Tuesday’s debate drove hundreds of thousands of people to register to vote. The Harris campaign dug in after Trump published the post, piling on lyrics from several of Swift’s songs.

Court filings show Rep. Jeff Dotseth, R-Kettle River, was charged with domestic assault in 2008, but pleaded guilty to a lesser offense. The Minnesota Star Tribune’s Ryan Faircloth and Briana Bierschbach report that court records show the first term lawmaker’s then-wife called police to report Dotseth had assaulted her. Prosecutors charged him with misdemeanor domestic assault, which was later dismissed and Dotseth pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. His then-wife and her son characterized it as more than a decade of abuse in court filings. In a statement, Dotseth said he has worked hard to “put this difficult chapter of my life behind me.” House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said in a statement that “domestic violence is an absolute red line for me — it’s never acceptable under any circumstances.” Demuth added that the case was resolved over 15 years ago and that it concluded with no charges of domestic assault. She said she spoke to Dotseth and he reiterated the contents in his affidavit denying the allegations.

Minnesota Democratic Party leaders are set to call for Dotseth’s resignation today based on the report. House DFL leaders and the head of the party will publicly call for Dotseth to suspend his campaign for the state House of Representatives.

Former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, is out with a new book this week sharing his qualms about Gov. Tim Walz. Gazelka announced yesterday that he sped up publication of his book “Behind the Veil: A Stand Against Gov. Tim Walz” since the governor was tapped to serve as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. Gazelka says the look back focuses on “missteps handling the pandemic, freezing under pressure during the George Floyd riots, mishandling the state budget and more.” The book goes live on Wednesday in e-copy form. KSTP reports that Gazelka kept text strings between him and the governor out of the book, deciding to describe them but keep the actual messages private.

Football fans gearing up for Sunday’s Minnesota Vikings-San Francisco 49ers game might have caught a glimpse at the first campaign TV ads run in the U.S. Senate race this year. Three-term Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar aired her debut spot as part of a somewhat modest opening buy. She has millions banked for this campaign but isn’t pouring a ton of it into television. Her Republican opponent, Royce White, doesn’t have much in his campaign fund, so his ability to advertise will be limited. Klobuchar’s commercial during the Vikings game cost $30,000, according to records in WCCO-TV’s public file. The weekly buy for the market was in the low six figures, according to estimates in records across TV stations. The ad highlights policy issues she’s been involved in, from prescription drug pricing to workforce development, and features people saying “she gets the job done.”

A group with financial ties to Democratic consulting firms reportedly helped field Trump-supporting candidates as independents in key U.S. House races in several states, including Minnesota. The Associated Press reports that the Patriots Run Project has helped candidates in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska and Virginia who are running in swing districts against GOP candidates. While little is known about the organization and the people behind it, the AP reports that some candidates recruited to run by the project say they feel duped and want to see an investigation conducted to determine whether it violated election laws in any of the states. Thomas Bowman is challenging DFL Rep. Angie Craig in the 2nd Congressional District and is registered as a Constitutional Conservative candidate. His address on his candidate form lists him as being from Brooklyn Center, which is outside of the 2nd District; candidates for the U.S. House don’t have to reside in their districts. The 2nd district has seen the play to use independent candidates to siphon off major party support in the past. A Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate running in 2020 reportedly told friends that Republicans pushed him to run; that candidate, Adam Weeks, died weeks ahead of the election but still snagged nearly 25,000 votes in a close race that Craig ultimately won.

Organizers in Winona County are working diligently to register and turnout voters in the general election. Winona County has some of the lowest voter turnout numbers in the state and there are campaigns underway to simply engage voters and get them to turnout to vote. Clay Masters takes us door knocking and to a block party in Winona in his Tuesday story for Talking Sense . He did not take part in any of the water balloon fights that can be heard in the background of the block party you hear in the story because he was holding too much audio equipment.

The Minnesota Supreme Court officially welcomed its newest member yesterday. Associate Justice Theodora Gaïtas took the oath of office Monday, formally joining the Minnesota Supreme Court during a ceremony in St. Paul. Dana reports that colleagues and friends said Gaïtas brought compassion and empathy to the bench and they lauded her appointment. Chief Justice Natalie Hudson had this to say about the new associate justice: “She understands that behind every case there are real people with real lives, and she is committed to ensuring that every Minnesotan, regardless of their background, receives the fairness and dignity that they deserve,” Hudson said. The addition will again make the state’s highest court female-led. And her placement will make the seven-member court entirely appointed by DFL governors.