Republican Lisa Demuth’s campaign is calling for the firings of two Walz officials. The candidate for governor and House speaker, along with her running mate Ryan Wilson, said Gov. Tim Walz should immediately fire Assistant Education Commissioner Daron Korte and Walz’s deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs Leah Montgomery following the Minnesota Star Tribune’s in-depth look at the Walz administration’s response to fraud. The Star Tribune’s Ryan Faircloth sifted through public records and found that these officials downplayed the severity of the fraud issue or hesitated to act due to concerns about racism (many Feeding Our Future defendants were of East African descent). Demuth used the article as a chance to take swings at her opponent, Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. But at a press conference yesterday, Demuth struggled to answer whether state lawmakers like herself or a sitting U.S. senator are more responsible for fraud. Klobuchar also told the Star Tribune she wouldn't hesitate to fire officials found to be negligent when addressing legitimate fraud suspicions. 

Minnesota public safety officials say the state is in a better position to keep elected officials and judges safe than it was a year ago. The Advisory Committee on Capitol Security held its latest meeting yesterday. Chief Justice Natalie Hudson along with House and Senate sergeants at arms credited lawmakers for approving new funding to expand security measures on the Capitol complex and to cover lawmakers and members of the judiciary when they go home. The legislative services unit is getting up and running and has responded to incidents where lawmakers faced threats away from the Capitol, the sergeants said. The Legislature created the unit to help coordinate local law enforcement response to situations off-campus. The broader package of security measures for state officials moved with bipartisan support this spring following the assassination of House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, as well as the shootings of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, last year.

Congress is paying attention to dire warnings from researchers that AI could kill us all, but legislative action is unlikely before the election. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that AI is an “important issue” but “not one that we can rush into.” On ABC’s “The View,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he’s working on the issue with Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who sponsored the AI Research, Innovation and Accountability Act in 2023. Klobuchar's office said she's in discussions with Thune, Cruz and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, and believes the legislation needs to be strengthened. "That includes requiring developers to work with government experts to verify and test models to make sure AI is safe," Klobuchar said recently. "We cannot allow the release of dangerous models, including those that evade the control of their developers.” 

The two major party candidates for Minnesota governor are largely in alignment when it comes to a top issue for voters: data centers. Star Tribune reporter Walker Orenstein and Forum News Service reporter Mary Murphy had stories recently pointing to the call from both Klobuchar and Demuth to allow local governments to make the call when it comes to whether data centers that power artificial intelligence technology should be allowed in their communities. After a proposal to ban nondisclosure agreements between local governments and data center developers failed to pass the Minnesota House this year, Demuth, the House speaker, said she would sign it into law if elected. Murphy also asked the two major-party candidates for U.S. Senate — Republican Michele Tafoya and Democrat Peggy Flanagan — about their data center policy views and both said they’d also support putting the decisions in the hands of local officials.

Speaking of seven weeks until Election Day, today is National Voter Registration Day. Secretary of State Steve Simon, who’s honorary co-chair of this year’s steering committee, is marking the day by visiting high schools and colleges up north in Lake and St. Louis counties. Simon’s office said it was started in 2012 to serve as a nationwide nonpartisan promotion of voter registration. Need to register? Here you go. And here’s our FAQ on what you need to know.

Several candidates are hoping voters will take the time to scrawl a name on the ballot write-in line. At least a dozen candidates have already registered to have write-in votes counted for them in November. Most are in the Senate or governor’s races (and includes their runningmates). Some had been running campaigns earlier in the year under major party banners but didn’t file for the primary ballot. That includes Brad Kohler, an ex-MMA fighter who had been running as a Republican for governor this spring. Steven Patterson has been a prior third-party candidate and now wants voters to write him in for governor. Alycia Gruenhagen was a Senate candidate who sought the GOP endorsement at the party convention. She didn’t file for the primary ballot in time so is now running as a write-in for that office. Candidates have until 19 days before Election Day to request that write-in votes be counted for them by name.