Good morning. Hope everyone enjoyed the legislative intermission.

Gov. Tim Walz will get a judicial parting gift: The chance to pick another chief justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court before he heads for the exit. Chief Justice Natalie Hudson said she will leave in September , a few months ahead of the mandatory end to her tenure when she turns 70 in January. If Walz picks from within the court for the chief, that would give him yet another choice. Already, Walz has put four of the current seven members on the court and tapped Hudson for the chief job in 2023. That’s in addition to the dozens of appellate and district court judges he’s named. All seven of the current justices are Democratic appointees because we’re in year 16 of DFL governorship, highlighting the way the GOP statewide drought has had compounding effects for them. As in the past, expect Walz to not use the judicial selection committee to make recommendations for this choice because he and other governors have tended to treat the Supreme Court openings as a different class of appointments. 

We’ll know soon enough if the time apart for state lawmakers helped cool tensions that have been simmering all year. Dana Ferguson spoke to several people around the Capitol about the mood of a session that has been pretty intense from the get-go. It began with an emotional tribute to colleagues targeted by political violence and has featured plenty of rhetorical skirmishes over hot-button issues like guns, immigration and fraud. As Dana writes , much of it has been rinse and repeat. “Lawmakers spar about the best way to solve the problem, or whether it’s a problem at all. One side casts blame and says the other doesn’t care. Committee chairs gavel members down for questioning the motives of their colleagues. And, often, bills then stall on a tied vote.” Legislative leaders say they’re doing what they can to tamp it down. “I think that we have been through way more than we are able to manage in the last nine or 10 months, and it is spilling in in many ways to our work,” said Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul. House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, added: “The tension you usually feel those last couple weeks has been evident since the first week, and I think it's because of everything that our state has been through.”

 

Fraud will remain a legislative focus from now until adjournment, with clear momentum for a bill to establish a new Office of the Inspector General. That plan has bipartisan buy-in, although there are still some details to sort out. Inclusion of funding for it in Gov. Tim Walz’s supplemental budget proposal gives lawmakers more confidence it would be signed into law. Meanwhile, the Department of Minnesota Management and Budget put up a new public-facing link for people who suspect wrongdoing in public programs. A banner atop the agency’s website says: “Safeguarding tax dollars is our priority. Report suspicious activity .” The link sends users to a menu that lists the proper investigative or jurisdictional entity to look into the different categories of problems, whether its possible wrongdoing by public employees, vendors and recipients or if it’s consumer-oriented fraud or identity theft. An MMB spokesperson said the link went up a couple of weeks ago and said “the goal is to make it as easy as possible for anyone who suspects fraud to report it.” The site might be among the topics of discussion when the House State Government Finance and Policy Committee convenes today to hear from MMB and the Office of the Legislative Auditor about the way recommendations for closing avenues for abuse are being handled.

One sizzling issue in front of lawmakers is the allowable stakes of meat raffles. (I’ll go easy on the puns from here out.) The point is that the value of prizes in local meat raffles could go up if a bill in front of the Legislature gets done. Anyone who has been to the grocery store or butcher shop knows that those per-pound prices have gone and stayed high. Melissa Olson writes that the bill would bump up the maximum-awarded prizes to $200 from $70 now. Charitable organizations that host the raffles could charge $5 per ticket, up from $2 now. Sen. Zack Duckworth, one of the sponsors, described it as “the big, beautiful meat raffle bill.” A House version is ready for some searing debate on the floor.

Sometimes the way people respond to direct questions can be more telling than the answers they provide. Case in point: Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen, who was a guest yesterday on Angela Davis’ MPR show . They talked about the state of the farm economy mostly. But toward the end, Davis asked Petersen about the political buzz that he might be under consideration to run with Amy Klobuchar on her governor’s race ticket. They two have had a long working relationship, especially since Klobuchar is the ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee. Petersen, a 60-year-old farmer who has been around Minnesota politics for decades in government relations and leadership roles, has been in his state commissioner post since 2019. His wife, Alana, is also a mainstay in DFL politics. Which brings us to the exchange yesterday. Angela asked if he’d been approached yet. Petersen responded, “ I always say it's nice to be thought of, and I appreciate that people support what I do. But I enjoy being a commissioner of agriculture and it’s always what I'm focused on doing.” Davis pressed, asking if it would be a job he’d consider. Petersen answered that he’s worked with Klobuchar since she got to the Senate and admires her, especially “that she visits all 87 counties.” (That’s one of Klobuchar’s calling cards.) He continued, “I hope to support and work with her in whatever role going forward.” There are your tea leaves to read.

I’ve been told that Klobuchar is an avid reader of this newsletter so maybe she can write in with a response to Petersen’s response. Better yet, I hope she takes us up on our standing invitation for her to come on Politics Friday soon to talk about her campaign and what she would be looking to do if elected governor. The list of invitations for candidates to come on the show is long. You all know who you are. Producer Matt Alvarez is awaiting your call or email. 

Keep an eye on how Minnesota congressional candidates approach the issue of presidential impeachment this year. The Democratic base wants its federal lawmakers to take an unflinching stand about seeking President Donald Trump’s impeachment and removal. Republicans, including Trump himself, are trying to stir their base by casting the midterms as a campaign to preserve his status for two more years. Last week, Politics Friday featured the three DFLers vying for their nomination. I asked them a range of questions on pressing topics (hear or see the whole conversation on our show page ). I asked Kaela Berg, Matt Klein and Matt Little whether they’d join in an impeachment push. All indicated they would, with Berg answering with gusto: “It would be my great honor to participate in that. Yes, there are grounds for it. … I would be thrilled to participate.” Little said it doesn’t matter if there are the Senate votes to convict Trump: “I don't think we get a conviction in the Senate, but I think it's important for the integrity of our country to air out everything that he has done wrong that is an impeachable offense, including the corruption and the self dealing and illegal wars.” Klein said impeachment “will be an essential part of rebuilding this democracy and in our constitutional republic out of the ashes.”

Those are the candidates seeking to replace U.S. Rep. Angie Craig in the House given that she’s running for Senate. Her campaign released topline numbers yesterday for the three-month fundraising period that closed on March 31. Full reports are due on April 15. Anyway, Craig’s campaign said she pulled in $2.5 million for the quarter and has nearly $5 million in the bank. That’s important fuel for a likely primary race between her and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who is laser-focused on winning the party endorsement in May. Don’t expect Craig to sit on the stockpile for long. I’d expect the TV ad reservations to begin soon because she’ll need to attract a wider audience than the probable convention delegates if she’s to win an August primary. DFLers have more history with bucking the endorsement than Republicans, where the GOP convention backing has been rock solid in big races for decades. The endorsements carries access to party lists and other resources, but a decently financed candidate can overcome that. (Govs. Tim Walz and Mark Dayton, who also topped an endorsed Senate candidate before, are recent examples.)

Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber appealed last month to the National Institutes of Health for the research entity to keep pushing for studies into ailments known as long COVID. In that letter, Stauber disclosed that he has struggled with the symptoms himself, including arthritis, vertigo and sight deterioration. The Duluth News Tribune reported on the letter and Stauber’s personal pitch for investments in research. “I shudder to think of those who are still suffering in silence,” he wrote. The congressman didn’t respond to the newspaper’s interview request or answer a list of written questions. The story points out that Stauber was largely critical of the way government leaders, mostly within his state, had handled the pandemic. President Donald Trump delivered a budget proposal to Congress last week that would cut $5 billion, or 11 percent, from the NIH budget.

Meanwhile, fellow GOP Rep. Tom Emmer is mourning the loss of his mother, Patsy. Patricia Emmer died on Easter Sunday, according to the congressman. He announced her death on social media and said his mother passed peacefully. “I can see her right now smiling in the embrace of her love and my father, Tom, and my sister, Bridget,” Emmer wrote. “Our time together never was and never will be enough.” Emmer’s father died in 2020.