By J. Patrick Coolican | Editor-in-chief
Good morning, Reformers,
Sleepy-eyed lawmakers and staff return to the Capitol today to listen to retirement speeches, but the legislating is all done.
The 2026 Legislature receives a minimum passing score this year. They solved a problem many of us didn’t know we had until recently (financial crisis at the county hospital); solved a problem years after it was obviously a problem (fraud in our social service programs); and solved lots of smaller problems that truly mean a lot to folks around the state (a $1.2 billion infrastructure bill).
Thanks to Michelle Griffith, who stayed until the bitter end and gives you this roundup.
The voters will give their verdict in November, though the election will likely be determined by national political and economic dynamics like rising inflation, President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and his obsessive profiteering off his public service.
Still, control of the Legislature has often hinged on a handful of close races, and state issues can swing enough voters to decide them. Republicans are banking on Minnesotans’ dissatisfaction with the Democrats’ shambolic governance these past few years, which has seen the theft of hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars from social programs, as well as a slide into academic mediocrity. This was an easier case to make when Gov. Tim Walz was running for a third term.
Democrats will point to Republicans’ refusal to support any gun control measures even after the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting, and the GOP’s willful blindness to the harms of Operation Metro Surge.
Democrats have something else going for them. I’m referring to my Coolican Theorem of Minnesota Politics, the one that will help you win millions on prediction markets — if they’re still legal; we’re waiting to see if Walz will sign the bill outlawing them.
Let me consult my Professor Actual Factual Quantitative Theory:
There are more Democrats and DFL-leaning independents in Minnesota than Republican and GOP-leaning independents.
Some other Reformer news:
House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, gavels the body to order on May 19, the final day of the 2025 regular session. Photo by Andrew VonBank/House Public Information Services.
By Madison McVan
A woman alleged to have threatened Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, had her guns confiscated by way of a 2023 “red flag” law, which allows for the temporary removal of firearms from people deemed to be a risk to themselves or others.
Demuth voted against the red flag law when it passed in 2023.
In February, the Minnesota State Patrol requested an extreme risk protection order — the legal term for the gun confiscation procedure — to protect Demuth and Rep. Patti Anderson, R-Dellwood, from a woman who is alleged to have left the lawmakers multiple threatening voicemails less than seven months after a man shot and killed Demuth’s predecessor, Melissa Hortman.
Interesting, as we say around these parts.
By Jonathan Shorman
When the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Texas’ gerrymandered congressional map to take effect in December, its conservative majority wrote that a lower court had “improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign” when it blocked the map more than three months before the election.
Now, the Supreme Court is the one upending elections.
For the past two decades, the Supreme Court has advanced the idea that federal courts should not order major changes close to an election to limit voter confusion. Over time the doctrine, first articulated in the 2006 case Purcell v. Gonzalez, became known as the Purcell principle.
But election law experts and one of the court’s liberal justices say the Supreme Court is wielding — or disregarding — the principle unevenly in ways that aid Republicans.
IN OTHER NEWS
These 4 things are driving up housing costs, says Minneapolis Fed president Kashkari | MPR; note, zoning is in there
Trump’s approval sinks into uncharted territory, darkening GOP prospects | New York Times gift link
OH BY THE WAY
On the final day of the legislative session, the Star Tribune published an important story about the Feeding Our Future scandal, which is the Minnesota fraud origin story.
It relies on confidential FBI and IRS interviews with state employees in the wake of the Feeding Our Future and gives us a window into the lackadaisical response on the part of the Minnesota Department of Education, which was supposed to be overseeing the food program.
“Jenny Butcher, a 25-year veteran of the Minnesota Department of Education who retired in 2024 … told federal investigators in May 2022 that abuse in the meals program was an ‘open secret.’
She said that her supervisors repeatedly stopped her from digging into suspicious reimbursement claims and discouraged her from visiting sites that seemed ‘unbelievable’ to her.
‘No one at our agency was allowed to go to the sites — not even a drive-by,’ Butcher said in an interview with the Star Tribune.
In her interview with FBI agent Jared Kary, Butcher said her efforts to dig deeper were thwarted throughout 2020 and 2021. If she defied her bosses and investigated, Butcher told Kary that she got her ‘hand slapped.’
‘At every turn, she was told to stop,’ Kary reported. ‘Butcher was told by management at MDE to stop digging into things because it will appear as if she was targeting certain groups.’
Butcher also said she was ‘warned not to do anything that would be considered targeting or discriminating against certain diverse communities.’ Butcher, who is married to a Black immigrant from Barbados, said such insinuations were ‘offensive’ to her.”
This won’t be surprising if you’ve been a close reader of the Reformer over the years. Kayseh Magan, a Somali American former investigator for the Office of Attorney General, raised the issue of politicized, racialized interference in 2024 in a Reformer commentary:
“Fraudsters have also sought to exploit the burgeoning political power of the Somali community, and the feckless fear that establishment politicians and state agencies show when confronted with charges of racism or Islamophobia.”
That MDE feared allegations of racism shouldn’t be surprising — recall the Derek Chauvin murder trial was going on. Minnesota was receiving well-deserved scrutiny of its vast racial disparities in everything from income and housing to education and criminal justice.
Certain politicians were quick to accuse the bureaucracy of racism.
As we reported last year, Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman told a crowd celebrating a 2021 legal victory by Feeding Our Future over MDE: “I’m one of those people that push back and call it what it is. Which is racist tactics.”
(Also: Osman has personal ties to Feeding Our Future.)
In December 2021, just weeks before the FBI raid, Sen. Omar Fateh said that MDE, the Minnesota Department of Health and the Department of Human Services were “consistently targeting” immigrant businesses.
A song for retirement speeches: The Beatles “In My Life.”
Have a great day all! JPC
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