By J. Patrick Coolican | Editor-in-chief
Good morning, Reformers.
Back from MEA weekend at Afton State Park. Highly recommend.
If you’re in the Mankato area Thursday, join us at 6 p.m. at the Community Room at 1850 Madison Ave., for the final installment of our League of Women Voters’ series “Trusted Elections: Stronger Together.” I’ll moderate a panel.
Lots going on:
Sen. Amy Klobuchar and House Speaker Lisa Demuth are debating as I write, and again Wednesday. Michelle Griffith will have your debate coverage today. Check out her Demuth profile; Klobuchar profile is in the works.
Another challenge to the 1,400-page omnibus bill passed by the DFL Legislature in 2024, for violating the single-subject rule, this time by Central Minnesota Builders Association and Rochester Area Builders Inc., with help of right-leaning Upper Midwest Law Center.
I was distressed to see this story about “suspicious packages” sent to Klobuchar and Sen. Tina Smith along with U.S. Rep. Kelly Morrison and Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. Also, Democratic state Sen. Heather Gustafson talked to Briana Bierschbach about the creepy behavior exhibited by her rival’s campaign manager, who was subsequently fired.
To younger readers: This constant, ambient menace wasn’t a thing in recent American political history until about 10 years ago, especially if we’re talking about state politics. The murder of Melissa Hortman is still unbelievable to many of us. Unfortunately, it’s bipartisan, as Demuth has also been on the receiving end of threats.
I blame the “Flight 93” election framing, wherein the other side winning an election is considered a great, civilizational catastrophe, rather than an opportunity to figure out why voters rejected you.
To the Reformer:
A citizen has found that government agencies are far behind when it comes to analyzing PFAS contamination in the fish in Minnesota waterways. Pictured here: Bigmouth buffalo, right and common carp. (Photo by Frank Bures/Minnesota Reformer)
By Brian Martucci
Hundreds of Minnesota lakes, rivers and creeks lie downstream of industrial sites where well sampling shows significant groundwater contamination.
In most of them, state agencies have yet to sample fish — or at least publish the results of completed tests — for PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals associated with a slew of adverse human health impacts.
That’s according to a suburban Twin Cities resident’s analysis of publicly available data from three state agencies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
By Kevin Hardy
In addition to winning control of the U.S. Congress, Democrats are looking to flip hundreds of state legislative seats this November following years of Republican dominance in statehouses. In addition to controlling a majority of governor’s offices, the GOP has held a majority of state legislative seats and chambers since 2010.
Party control is up for grabs in 15 state legislative chambers across the country as Republicans are increasingly on the defensive this midterm election cycle, a new analysis found.
The nonpartisan newsletter Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics released its final analysis of state legislative races ahead of November. Senior Columnist Louis Jacobson changed projections for 10 chambers — all shifting in favor of Democrats.
By Sheldon Clay
The writer is a recently retired advertising creative who focuses on the kinds of messaging strategies that help healthy brands.
“Politics is binary. Distrust is growing everywhere, but most significantly for the president and his party. If Democrats succeed in talking about the credibility gap, it strengthens their branding by weakening the other brand.
All of this would be especially salient here in Minnesota, where the scars are still fresh from the administration’s lies during Operation Metro Surge.”
IN OTHER NEWS
Global warming’s extreme heat is making us all poorer | Bloomberg gift link
Red Lake tried to transform child welfare. The feds said it failed kids. | Star Tribune gift link
OH BY THE WAY
In The Band song “The Weight,” is it:
“Take a load off Annie”?
“Take a load off Frannie”?
“Take a load off Fannie”?
This was the Afton campfire discussion. Google solved it. Which led to a discussion of our song lyric errors from the days before they were all on the internet, like "Revved up like a deuce" from “Blinded by the Light.”
Was it better when we sat around the campfire belting errors into the night without Google to correct us?
Have a great day all! JPC
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