Capitol View for March 26

Good morning. The state of the state is slushy.

Apologies to Brian’s former colleague and loyal Capitol View reader Rochelle Olson for borrowing her alliterative newsletter headline schtick.

The Legislature — or at least some members of it — is hopping a bus for Owatonna tonight. Legislators are taking the 72-mile trek down Interstate 35E (it becomes just I-35 by then) to listen to Gov. Tim Walz’s sixth State of the State speech. His field trip is meant to highlight the way Owatonna High School is approaching career training and the community buy-in that got the place built. We’ll have live coverage starting at 7 p.m. on the MPR News live stream, YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Minnesota lawmakers could OK $109 million to pay back property owners who lost out on earnings when their forfeited properties were sold.Dana reports the move comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that Hennepin County violated a Minneapolis woman’s rights when it sold her property for more than she owed in taxes and kept the windfall. The ruling prompted class action lawsuits in Minnesota and beyond as property owners aimed to recoup lost earnings. Last week, Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders put forth their $541 million spending plan for the next three years. The framework includes a line item labeled “Tyler settlement”, referring to the name of the case, Tyler v. Hennepin County. Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy said the funds would help counties pay back property owners for some of the money made on the sales.

A statue showdown could be ahead. House Majority Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, introduced a bill yesterday to swap the Minnesota statue in the U.S. Capitol’s iconic Statuary Hall. It would have the state put up $200,000 to replace the statue of former U.S. Sen. Henry Mower Rice , who served in the 1800s, with one of former Vice President and Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey, who was a mid-1900s figure on the national stage. The money would go for “removal and transportation" of the Rice statue to the Minnesota State Historical Society, the recasting of the Humphrey statue that currently stands on the mall of the Minnesota State Capitol and its placement in the U.S. Capitol. Speaking of statues, MinnPost’s Peter Callaghan has a good read on the discussions about the still-empty pedestal where the Christopher Columbus statue stood on the state Capitol grounds until being pulled down by protesters in 2020.

What’s the deal with the space shuttle? Our colleague Kirsti Marohn has the answers . Marohn spoke to Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud. He said an Apollo High school graduate is interested in bringing a full-size shuttle mockup to downtown St. Cloud. Felicity-John Pederson is a founder of a technology company called LVX System and owns the shuttle mockup, which is currently housed near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but needs to be moved. Putnam said the shuttle was used for training. “It’s the real thing. The toilets even flush. It just never went to space.” The shuttle could be showcased next to a new children’s museum in downtown St. Cloud.

It’s not giving away campaign strategy to say that President Joe Biden needs Minnesota in his column if he’s going to win re-election. It’s baked into his Electoral College math. Now we know who the state advisers tasked with delivering that victory are. Yesterday, the Biden campaign said it had brought aboard Justin Buoen, Ron Harris and Alana Petersen. Buoen is the longtime political adviser to Sen. Amy Klobuchar and managed her 2020 presidential campaign. Petersen has worked for several statewide officeholders, including top roles for Sen. Tina Smith and Sen. Al Franken. They’ll be senior advisers. Harris has the most day-to-day responsibilities as the Biden campaign’s state director. He worked for the city of Minneapolis as chief resilience officer, has been a member of the Democratic National Committee’s executive committee and most recently ran for the 3rd Congressional District seat, although he ended that campaign in late February.

The effect third party candidates could have on this year’s presidential race is a hotly debated topic. There will be several non-Biden, non-Donald Trump candidates on this year’s ballot in Minnesota. One is likely to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent. He’ll announce his vice presidential nominee today in California. Despite some teases that might have been designed more as media catnip than anything, it doesn’t appear as though former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura will get the call. But we’ll know soon enough.

A New York appeals court has agreed to pause collection of Donald Trump’s massive civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175 million. The court agreed to hold off collection of Trump’s $454 million civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175 million in 10 days. If Trump does, it will stop the clock on collection and prevent the state from seizing his assets while appeals are in progress. The development came just before New York Attorney General Letitia James was expected to initiate efforts to collect the judgment.