Tom Hauser at KSTP-TV says, “Minnesota Republicans are seeking to break a 16-year losing streak in statewide races, and 2022 could be shaping up to be the year it happens. Republicans lead the races for attorney general and state auditor and remain within striking distance in the secretary of state campaign even though the Democratic incumbent currently leads in our latest KSTP/SurveyUSA poll. However, they trail in the race for Minnesota governor, the biggest prize at stake this year.”
For WCCO-TV Caroline Cummings says, “Despite a national warning, the risk of violence against Minnesota poll workers next Tuesday is ‘low,’ the state’s top elections official said. But leaders are still preparing for the worst-case scenario. The FBI and other federal agencies last Friday issued a bulletin to law enforcement partners nationwide raising concern that those who administer elections could become targets of domestic violent extremists who have grievances about election results. The intelligence memo said that those involved in the election process are ‘attractive targets’ for these extremists, including at publicly accessible locations like polling places, voter registration sites, and ballot drop box locations.”
Deevon Rahming at KARE-TV reports, “Polling locations and election officials are in go mode with just seven days to spare before the midterm elections in Minnesota. ‘We just got fresh numbers as of (Tuesday),” said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. ‘We are at 376,000 absentee ballots — that’s up 90,000 in the last few days since last Thursday.’ Secretary Simon says those numbers are also ahead of where early voting stood at this time in the 2018 midterms. … Three new early voting locations opened Tuesday in Minneapolis.”
For The Center Square, Mary Stroka says, “Minnesota ranks 13th in Truth in Accounting’s latest Financial State of the States report. TIA examined states’ latest annual financial and retirement plan report and gave each state a grade plus a price tag for what it would cost each state to pay off its bills. TIA’s calculations excluded restricted or capital assets. Thirty-one states didn’t have the money to pay their bills, based on their fiscal year 2021 reports. ‘This means that to balance the budget — as is required by law in 49 states — elected officials have not included the true costs of the government in their budget calculations and have pushed costs onto future taxpayers,’ the report said. However, the North Star State had $32.6 billion available to pay $27.6 billion worth of bills, the report said.”
Annalise Braught at the Bemidji Pioneer says, “Minnesota Lt. Governor candidate Matt Birk made a quick stop during a ‘Heal Minnesota’ tour for a meet-and-greet event on Tuesday at Bemidji Aviation Services. … Meanwhile, Minnesota governor candidate Dr. Scott Jensen visited Winona, Worthington and Grand Rapids earlier in the day and would later make a stop in Brainerd at 4:45 p.m.” Birk told the crowd, “We’ve raised more money than any Republican candidate in the history of Minnesota. It’s not from billionaires and millionaires, it’s from everyday people like you.”
This from KMSP-TV, “On the heels of her new album ‘Midnights,’ Taylor Swift has announced a tour that includes a stop at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis next summer. The Eras Tour will kick off in March 2023, and will come to Minneapolis on Saturday, June 24, 2023. The Minneapolis tour stop includes girl in red and OWENN. Tickets for the show will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 15.”
At mlbtraderumors.com Steve Adams writes, “Twins owner Jim Pohlad made clear in a recent interview with Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press that he hopes to see Correa back in the fold next season and is very open to a new contract. ‘I’m totally on board with him coming back,’ said Pohlad. ‘Definitely. Absolutely. I love the guy. He’s a huge asset and benefit to the team. But I don’t know how it’s going to go.’ While some Twins fans have perhaps been holding out hope for an extension before Correa’s opt-out date is due, that’s never felt especially likely, and Pohlad himself suggested that he expects Correa and Boras to test the market.”
At KARE-TV Era Atre writes, “Though no one won the Powerball jackpot on Monday night, Minnesota saw six more $50,000 wins, continuing its lucky streak. The winning Powerball numbers on Oct. 31 were 13-19-36-39-59, Powerball 13 and Powerplay 3. The six winning tickets were purchased at the following stores:
- Cub Foods, located at 14133 Edgewood Drive, in Baxter
- Holiday Stationstores, located at 9700 Betty Crocker Drive, in Plymouth
- Super One Foods #509, located at 1111 – 17th St. S, in Virginia
- Bill’s Superette #8, located at 15299 St. Francis Blvd. N.W., in Ramsey
- Kwik Trip #465, located at 9250 Springbrook Drive N.W., in Coon Rapids
- SFP Liquors LLC, located at 24086 State Highway 15 #104, in St. Cloud.”
This from Paul Huttner at MPR News, “Wind will gust over 30 mph across Minnesota Wednesday. High temperatures will push well into the 70s. The Twin Cities looks likely to top out around 76 degrees Wednesday afternoon. That should be plenty warm enough to topple the record high of 72 degrees set in 1978. … Tuesday’s model run cranks out a widespread zone of an inch of rain across most of eastern Minnesota including the Twin Cities area.”
Polls these days are mostly about modeling. That’s because hardly anyone answers them, so pollsters have to insert results from prior campaigns. An additional problem is that fewer and fewer Republicans answer polls because they see them as biased. Because of factors like that, even the best polls have a Democratic bias, and that includes those from Republican media outlets like KSTP. My guess is that Walz has a narrower lead than this poll suggests, and that Schulz is doing much better than the poll shows.
Ellison lagged the DFL field in 2018, a good year for Dems. This ain’t no Dem year.
Politically, what seems to be happening is that Ellison is going to be the scapegoat for the events of the summer of 2020. That’s regrettable, but I am not an election denier and one of the downsides of that is that I have to accept it when my guys lose.
It is interesting that no one seems to want to think about what Schulz will do once in office. Will he extradite abortion offenders? Will he join crackpot Republican AG suits from other states? Will he helicopter in to high profile prosecutions in Minnesota? Nobody seems to want to know these things.
This is the problem with revenge voting, as seems increasingly popular outside of Hennepin and Ramsey counties. Schultz is not just an empty suit but an inexperienced unknown.
Clearly Republicans are poised to make a big statement, but what that will look like is anybody’s guess. But so far it is not at all pretty. I feel apprehension for our state.
Schultz is not an empty suit. Worse than that, he’s a corporate shill. He’ll do nothing for consumers or workers, but he will do the bidding of corporate elites.
We’ve not had anyone like that in MN in generations. Lefties will learn how important this office is, if Ellison doesn’t manage to survive.
Dear Hiram…I just hope Schulz is not the publicity hound Ellison is . Schulz will do a good job, low key. (Except for prosecuting Walz , Flanagan, Ellison and Blaha…JUST KIDDING. Schulz will do a great job.)
Corporate criminals agree with you.
After all, Schultz told us he wants to defund law enforcement.
Republicans hate Ellison because he is Black, Muslim and willing to prosecute everyone who breaks the law including white Christian corporate executives and police officers. He sticks up for the consumer and crime prevention, busting an egg company caught price gouging and Fleet Farm, who was permitting straw purchases. He lets county attorneys decide when to ask for help. He also supports police reform, at a time when nobody thinks the status quo is working,
Schultz is clearly considering his next job when trying to be tough on the kind of crimes wealthy white men seldom commit. A hedge fund lawyer, Schultz actually has already said he would defund white collar fraud prosecution to pay for more street prosecutions undertaken over the heads of county attorneys.
Frankly, Ellison is tough and effective on crime. He has won every case he has completed, including the most high profile criminal case in the world in recent years. Schulz has never been in the courtroom or supervised a large group of attorneys – another Republican who thinks he is smarter than the experts.
The attorney general job is focused on white collar crime, but someone who protects the financial industry from prosecution is cutting that back. Schultz business donors must be delighted – money buys influence.
Why is Simon v. Crockett even close?