Good morning and welcome to Friday after a long week.
Minnesota’s newest member of Congress will be sworn in today. Republican Rep.-elect Brad Finstad will be on the House floor in Washington to take the oath from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Finstad is filling out the remaining term of the late GOP Rep. Jim Hagedorn. Tuesday’s special election results haven’t been officially certified, but House precedent allows for Finstad to become a member. It will put him in a position to vote on a major budget bill that includes tax, climate and prescription drug measures. Finstad told MPR’s Brian Bakst this week that he opposes it. “I would for sure be a no vote for a couple of reasons,” Finstad said. “But one, it definitely adds to the growth of government, it adds to the IRS.” Finstad is also on this fall’s ballot for a full-two year term in a race against DFL nominee Jeff Ettinger and two marijuana party candidates.
Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday the State Patrol will continue a stepped-up presence in the metro area through the State Fair. He also said there will be an increased security presence at light rail transit stations. During a news conference at the light rail station outside of U.S. Bank Stadium, they spoke about the need to have extra patrols and extra visibility. “Our response that has now been ongoing throughout this year especially is totally unprecedented,” Walz said, adding that the Legislature will have to eventually act to sustain the increased staffing levels. "We're targeting the most violent and the most dangerous offenders,” said Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington. “It is dangerous work. We've had troopers shot at, troopers involved in what really could have been horrendous crashes. And we've been lucky and very, very good." The announcement comes shortly after Minneapolis police put out a report on gun violence showing that homicides in the city are up 166 percent so far this year over 2019 numbers, and carjackings are up more than 500 percent in the same time frame.
The governor’s Republican opponent Scott Jensen responded with a statement critical of the governor that touted Jensen’s own 10-point plan on crime. “Every Minnesotan must ask themselves, are you safer now than you were four years ago? We all know the answer is no, which means one thing: Tim Walz needs to go,” Jensen said. On Wednesday Jensen told me that public safety is the “pivotal issue” in the campaign. “I think without issue, without any kind of deep analysis, this election is going to be about public safety, putting more cops on the street, having incarceration be a tool for deterrence, having judges and prosecuting attorneys actually follow mandated minimum sentencing,” Jensen said.
Some far-right legislative candidates prevailed in legislative primaries.Walker Orenstein from Minnpost has the story: Three conservative Republican Senate candidates and a handful of House candidates beat out their more centrist GOP rivals on Tuesday in a primary in which the anti-establishment wing of the party looked to make a mark. That anti-establishment wing — often backed by the far-right Action 4 Liberty or libertarian-leaning firebrands such as Reps. Steve Drazkowski and Jeremy Munson — scored victories in places like Little Falls, Stillwater, Northfield and Red Wing. The insurgent wing of the party mostly won in safely conservative areas and may not play a role in Republican chances of retaining control of the Minnesota Senate and flipping the DFL-led House. But the results are likely to shift the ideological center of the Republican Senate further right and impact the House nonetheless. “The center of gravity or the ideological graphic center, if you will, is going to be further to the right than it is in the current Legislature,” Drazkowski said.
Gov. Walz and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday asked the federal government for $889.5 million dollars to rebuild the John A. Blatnik bridge between Duluth and Superior. The bridge was built in 1961 and more than 33,000 vehicles use it every day. The replacement project will improve safety and accommodate oversize and overweight loads, the governors said in a statement. If the request is approved, the money would come through the bipartisan infrastructure law enacted in 2021. The governors say the federal funding would cover a substantial portion of the project’s budget and streamline scheduling. | 