Good morning. Did you watch last night's debate? We start the Digest with a recap.
1. Klobuchar focuses on Trump. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, trailing the biggest names in the Democratic presidential primary polls, directed much of her attention to President Donald Trump during Tuesday’s final debate before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3. The six-way encounter at Drake University in Des Moines — to date, the smallest collection of candidates on a debate stage — also was Klobuchar’s last chance to face off directly with her Democratic rivals in a televised debate before early voting starts on Friday in Minnesota. The Minnesota senator sidestepped her past skepticism over the qualifications of former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a former naval officer, to serve as commander-in-chief. Instead, she opted to train her sights on the president. Star Tribune
2. Klobuchar’s challenge with voters. Ice coated the cars parked outside. Inside, standing on a low, small stage in the corner of the lobby of an events center here, Amy Klobuchar looked through the wall of windows at the spitting sleet and greeted the 50 or so people who still had come to see her with a smile and a boast. “Amy Klobuchar,” she said, “never cancels anything.” Then the senior senator from Minnesota proceeded to begin and end her stump speech by making the pitch she’s been trying to get this state and the country as a whole to hear since she announced her presidential candidacy nearly a year ago in the middle of a blizzard. She can win. She can win because it’s all she’s ever done. About an hour, though, after she wrapped up, as the weather worsened and the sun started to set, out came the latest poll, the first Iowa poll since the last debate, which happened to be her best debate—showing Klobuchar right where she was before. Stuck at 6 percent. If she’s going to keep her streak alive, that number needs to change. Politico
3. Misinformation feeds Beltrami refugee debate. Reed Olson knew some members of his community would actively oppose his attempt as a Beltrami County commissioner to tell the world the county is a welcoming place for refugees. But he didn’t anticipate the level of misinformation that would spread ahead of the vote last week rejecting refugee resettlement — an action that has led some to associate Bemidji and the rest of the county with racism and intolerance. A review by MPR News shows false information about refugee resettlement circulated on social media, in text messages and in flyers mailed to some county residents. Some of it incorrectly claimed Muslim refugees would move to the county and drain public resources, despite the lack of any plans for refugee resettlement in the county. For Olson, the experience showed how local public officials can suddenly find themselves in the middle of a chaotic battle over information. MPR News
4. GOP seeks a few good women. Patricia Mueller, a public school teacher in Austin, Minn., never envisioned running for political office. In 2018, when some women in the Republican Party asked if she’d consider a campaign for state Legislature, she was flattered but surprised. “I was like, you have to have a better candidate than me,” she recalled thinking at the time. With a class full of students and a master’s degree of her own to complete, Mueller turned them down. Undeterred, they asked again last year. This time, the pitch landed. In November, Mueller announced her bid to challenge DFL Rep. Jeanne Poppe for a southern Minnesota seat that President Donald Trump carried in 2016. Two years after a record number of Democratic women ran and won across the country, helping lift their party to victory and make gains for gender parity in politics, early signs are emerging that some Republicans are seeking to replicate that success with a fresh crop of female candidates. Star Tribune
5. Tracker complaint targets Emmer, GOP. The campaign arm of the House Democrats has filed an ethics complaint targeting Minnesota U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer and the National Republican Congressional Committee over the GOP's use of campaign "trackers" to trail Democratic lawmakers inside congressional office buildings during the recent hearings over impeaching President Donald Trump. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee asked the independent Office of Congressional Ethics to look into what it describes as "multiple instances in which the NRCC appears to have had its employees or others on its behalf chase and badger Democratic members of Congress in House office buildings." The complaint stems from the NRCC's use of so-called trackers to follow Democratic lawmakers with cameras and pepper them with questions during the House impeachment debate in December. The tactic is commonly used by both parties on the campaign trail and during campaign events, but not inside the halls of Congress. Emmer was named in the complaint as the elected chairman of the NRCC, the campaign arm of the House Republicans. Star Tribune | 