Why policy design matters: a tale of two St. Paul controversies
Proponents who drafted the rent control ballot proposal made numerous mistakes in their policy design.
David Schultz
The Minnesota legislative process: still crazy after all these years
There are two causes explaining the rise of a new normal. The first is a growing ideological divide over the nature of government. The second is structural.
What the Minneapolis City Council got wrong in trying to defund the police
Refusing to enact evidence-based policy yields public cynicism toward government and sets reform up to fail.
The lesson of George Floyd: A new entity needs to run the Minneapolis Police Department
The department needs to have a major cultural change that can only be effected by either state takeover of it or by merging it with (or having it taken over by) the county sheriff or placed under receivership and operation with another jurisdiction.
What we should or should not infer from Iowa and New Hampshire
It is not clear that one can really extrapolate from less than 2% of the delegate count to infer much of anything.
What’s wrong with a constitutional amendment to improve education?
It is not clear that this approach is desirable, and it leaves policy formulation up to the distortions of plaintiff legal strategy — and not one necessarily based on promoting overall sound educational policy.
Does rent control make sense for Minneapolis? What theory and evidence tell us
Rent control alone is a crude solution to a serious problem. Used carefully and in conjunction with other strategies, it may serve as a partial tool to addressing the problem that a free-market delivery of housing produces.
The 2020 Democratic impeachment strategy and why it makes sense now
The revelations of President Trump seeking to leverage military aid to Ukraine in return for the latter investigating Joe Biden changes the calculus.
Why the Minnesota DFL is pushing marijuana legalization
There are several reasons. The first is polling data that suggest 64% of those surveyed by Gallup favor legalization, including in Midwest states such as Minnesota.
Debates show policy orthodoxy is up for grabs in today’s Democratic Party
The divisions within the party are not new, but trace back to at least the 2016 Clinton-Sanders divide, and they are a lot deeper than policy, but also speak to strategy and tactics.
Minneapolis residential discrimination: Why neoliberal zoning will fail
Fixing segregation demands a metrowide solution. Yet Minneapolis has acted on its own via its 2040 comprehensive plan to address historical discrimination.
Another Minnesota legislative session, another that goes to overtime: reflections on the causes
There are several reasons for the increasing dysfunction in Minnesota politics, and they all played out in the 2019 session.
From ‘One Minnesota’ to ‘Won Minnesota’: Why Walz and the DFL are in danger of losing their agenda this year
It is becoming clearer that “One Minnesota” has morphed into “Won Minnesota” and that the DFL strategy to move its agenda is premised less on consensus than on the belief that it won the 2018 elections and its agenda deserves to be enacted.
Klobuchar for president? She’ll face enormous obstacles
Assuming she’ll announce her candidacy on Sunday, perhaps Amy Klobuchar will defy the odds and win. One can wish her well. But an honest appraisal suggests the odds are against her.
Tax issues could shape the 2019 Minnesota legislative session
While the focus going into the session has been Gov. Tim Walz’s plan to raise the gas tax to pay for long-term infrastructure maintenance to roads, bridges, and highways, four or five other taxes could shape the session and complicate the gas tax debate.
The case for decriminalizing marijuana in Minnesota — and what it means to do so
Is it time to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Minnesota? The answer may be yes, but when and how it is done in Minnesota is a critical issue.
Midterm delivers partial repudiation of Trump, political division, likely gridlock
Moreover, what the election demonstrated was how Minnesota served as a microcosm of national politics.
The Constitution should not protect a right to lie in politics
Once lies have been circulated, especially in a social media era, they are hard to correct, and evidence suggests deception travels more quickly and deeper than the truth.
The irony of Donald Trump: The system works
The Constitution is proving to be able to address or anticipate many of the problems we are seeing. I do not see a constitutional crisis.
Responding to police use of force: What the law says — and what are the alternatives?
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman was correct in not indicting the officers who killed Thurman Blevins. He could never have secured a conviction because the law is on the side of the police.
