By J. Patrick Coolican | Editor-in-chief
Good morning, Reformers,
I was on a panel yesterday with Rep. Paul Torkelson, co-chair of the House Ways and Means Committee who is leaving office at the end of the year. He’s heading up transition planning for GOP gubernatorial nominee and House Speaker Lisa Demuth.
I surveyed a Democratic member, and a former member from each party, plus a lobbyist, who unanimously said he’s an excellent choice to lead a transition. He’s been a music teacher and farmer and is a traditional conservative with serious policy ideas. Among them, $90 million for technology upgrades for counties that administer the state’s social services.
Torkelson is also one of those great Capitol fixtures. Ask him a question, and he’s unfailingly polite but gives you a wry grin that just screams, I’m not telling you what I really think.
He noted a key challenge for a new Republican governor: Personnel. They’ve been shut out of the governor’s office for 16 years.
Democratic opponent Sen. Amy Klobuchar — and, let’s be real, the likely next governor — may have her own personnel issue, but for entirely different reasons. You can read about it in Michelle Griffith’s excellent profile that we published this week. (And last week: An insightful Demuth profile.)
I reached out to Klobuchar’s campaign and asked about transition planning but didn’t hear back.
Klobuchar appeared Thursday with the parents of Harper Moyski, who was killed in the Annunciation shooting. Her parents, Jackie Flavin and Mike Moyski, endorsed Klobuchar while issuing, as MPR put it, “a sharp rebuke of Demuth” for misleading them about allowing a floor vote on gun control measures.
More: “Demuth has said she didn’t promise an up-or-down floor vote and has taken credit for blocking gun legislation during her campaign for the GOP nod. Her campaign called the shooting a ‘horrendous tragedy’ and said Demuth has supported other steps to reduce school-based violence, including more security and added mental health treatment.”
The DFL is up with an ad on the issue.
Here’s some news:
Jacque Laird sorts ballot envelops at Direct Mail Enterprises in Spokane, Washington Friday October 9th, 2026. (Photo by Rajah Bose for ProPublica)
By ProPublica
A ProPublica data analysis shows that delays resulting from the U.S. Postal Service’s cost-cutting measures have endangered the validity of ballots cast in rural areas, not only in Washington, but across the country.
Over the past three years, as mail volume continued to plummet and annual deficits ballooned, the Postal Service started consolidating the processing of first-class mail at larger regional plants instead of at smaller hubs closer to local post offices. Then, in a little-noted switch that mostly took effect after the 2024 election, the agency cut the frequency of mail pickups in half at many post offices 50 miles or more from these processing plants, from twice daily to once.
The changes often added a day or more to delivery time and, most importantly for ballots, pushed back postmarking, which doesn’t happen until mail reaches the regional centers.
By Tim Henderson
The Trump administration claims its mass deportation efforts have expelled nearly a million people through July of this year, but those include both voluntary returns and people turned around at the border, according to a new analysis by the former chief statistician for the Department of Homeland Security.
The level of deportations is sharply higher than during the Biden and first Trump administrations but well below the level of the 2000s. Deportations peaked at about 1.9 million in fiscal year 2000 as border enforcement ramped up under a sweeping immigration enforcement law in 1996.
Former DHS official Marc Rosenblum did the analysis, using only public records, for the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank for immigration research. Rosenblum resigned in protest in July against what he called the Trump administration’s “war on immigrants.” He had been with DHS since 2016 and executive director of the statistics office since 2023.
IN OTHER NEWS
Why the new progressive Democrats in Congress might unite with the old Dems, for now | Reformer via States Newsroom
Judge blocks Homeland Security from conducting election-related sweeps in 9 states | Reformer via States Newsroom
Cost of employer-sponsored health insurance plans rises again, nonpartisan survey finds | Reformer via States Newsroom
Benjamin Kunkel on Cormac McCarthy | Harper’s
OH BY THE WAY
Thanks to the League of Women Voters of Mankato for hosting our panel last night. And a special shoutout to the League member who assisted my chief of staff, 4-year-old Finn, with a Wi-Fi hookup for Spotify Kids. (And if anyone can identify this hero, please let me know so I can give her a proper thank you.)
The forum was in an event space that also features a hockey rink, where kids were doing skating and passing drills.
We arrived in Mankato a little early and hit a Culver’s. Tables of seniors were having what looked like weekly dinner double dates (at a reasonable 5 p.m., naturally).
I’ll always be #newhere, but I got a nice warm glow from this Minnesota scene: Affordable, high-quality dinner at 5; civic activism; hockey; and a stranger doing something kind for a 4-year old.
That said, a hot bowl of Pho on University Avenue before a Lynx game is also Minnesota.
Have a great weekend all! JPC
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