Good morning. Leaf-peeping season has begun.

Governor candidate Lisa Demuth joined a growing number of GOP candidates breaking from Trump in support for the war with Iran. During a campaign press conference yesterday, Demuth was asked what she thought about the ongoing war and the impact it has had on gas, diesel and fertilizer prices. Demuth, who had previously avoided criticizing President Donald Trump’s policies, especially in the run-up to the primary, said the war should end. She pointed to rising prices for Minnesotans. It was a departure for Demuth, who earlier this year, during an interview with MPR News was asked if there are any issues where she disagreed with the president, and said she couldn’t think of an area, before changing the topic to Minnesota again. Earlier this month, she criticized tariffs on Canada. She is among a number of GOP candidates looking to distance themselves from unpopular policies of the president, who has seen his approval rating wane over the last several months. Klobuchar's campaign accused Demuth of making a shift out of political expediency. "For seven months, Lisa Demuth has refused to oppose Donald Trump’s war in Iran, staying silent as Minnesotans face crushing gas prices and rising costs thanks to the president’s war,” a Klobuchar spokesperson said in a statement. “Today, while Lisa Demuth for the first time uttered any concern about this war, Amy Klobuchar was in the Senate taking another vote to actually end this war, which she opposed from the start.”

Lisa Demuth is trying to amp up pressure on Amy Klobuchar to participate in more debates. Demuth has offered five debate options. Klobuchar has agreed to two of those as well as a debate that would be on MPR. "I believe that Minnesotans have every right to view a robust series of debates, televised debates that will talk about our policies and our plan going forward,” Demuth told reporters yesterday, “and we need to make sure that those debates are going to be available to the best statewide, largest amount of audience here in the state of Minnesota." Demuth said she hasn't said yes to the Minnesota Public Radio debate because it's not on TV. In fact, the station's radio towers reach 95 percent of Minnesota, and live video would be streamed and shared in full with TV stations. The candidates have been doing back-to-back issue discussions the groups have hosted. Another is coming Oct. 5 at the Economic Club of Minnesota.

Both candidates have new TV ads that went up this week that assess what are top voter concerns in different ways. Lisa Demuth continues to make fraud the dominant theme of her campaign in a spot that accuses Amy Klobuchar of being an “absent voice” on fraud until she set her sights on being governor. It is airing in some cases immediately after a more-caustic Restore Our Sanity ad that suggests Klobuchar fanned the fraud. Klobuchar went up today with an ad that tracks with what voters are also talking about: high costs. In it, Klobuchar says “prices are spiking” because of actions of Trump that have been blessed by Republicans. Klobuchar said state actions can lower the cost of healthcare, homes and childcare. “That will be my job as governor,” she says.

Minnesota's first absentee ballot numbers are in since early voting began last Friday. More than 12,000 ballots have been marked accepted by local election administrators in the first week since people could cast votes. That's out of almost 385,000 that have been sent out through the mail or issued at county offices for in-person absentee voting. Minnesota will likely see hundreds of thousands of ballots cast ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3. Two years ago, more than 1.3 million absentee and mail ballots were accepted.  

A Feeding Our Future-connected nonprofit is forking over $18.5 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged misuse of public dollars. The settlement is a response to the case filed by Attorney General Keith Ellison, but the payment is only a fraction of what Partners in Nutrition, which operated as Partners in Quality Care, is alleged to have gained through reimbursement filings deemed suspicious. The nonprofit will dissolve. Its representatives didn’t admit guilt. The nonprofit was viewed as making similar claims as Feeding Our Future, the group associated with rampant fraud from child nutrition programs during COVID-19. Many of that group’s operators have been convicted or pleaded guilty. The money recouped from the settlement will be turned over to the federal government, which put out the nutrition money during the pandemic. Ellison said there are criminal referrals still pending.  

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer says concerns over a Russian businessman secretly covering expenses for Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding is a “new Russia hoax.” The Minnesota Republican accused senators of “creating a new Russia hoax” instead of passing bills he’d like the Senate to pass, including the SAVE voting bill and others. On X, Emmer wrote, “Don Jr. is a private citizen and businessman so this unwarranted attack will go nowhere. This partisan distraction is NOT what the American people voted for!” Earlier this month, ProPublica uncovered that Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to help fund Trump Jr.’s wedding, including renting out a private island and a fireworks display. Kremlev, they report, is close with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Just days prior to the May wedding, Kremlev was reportedly in China as part of a delegation accompanying Putin. ProPublica said it is unclear why Kremlev paid for much of the wedding, and said a spokesperson for Trump Jr. did not dispute that he’d covered costs of it. Senate Democrats have been pushing for an investigation into the matter. President Donald Trump said the gift is “totally allowed” but claimed his son paid Kremlev back for the wedding, according to the Washington Times.