Weekend Reformer: Klobuchar’s response to the feds spying on us

Good morning, Reformers. 

News broke earlier this week that the federal government during Operation Metro Surge spied on left-wing organizations and labor unions. 

Court documents filed Thursday illustrate how Homeland Security investigators secretly recorded conversations, infiltrated Signal chats and obtained financial records for labor unions and progressive groups as part of a wide-ranging surveillance effort, Madison McVan reported.

I was at a press conference with Sen. Amy Klobuchar Friday, and I asked her about it.

“This was very concerning. I mean, they can’t use their power to just surveil people they don’t agree with. That’s wrong. So, of course I am going to be asking for details on what they did. I don’t care if you are a Democrat or Republican, if you agreed with ICE or you didn’t agree with ICE, you can’t have people surveilled,” Klobuchar said. “This is reminiscent of things in the past, and it’s scary.”

Klobuchar said she will talk to people in the Department of Justice to demand more information about the surveillance effort.

I also asked her what her campaign will look like in the next few months and what she plans to do with the vast amount of money her campaign has received in donations. Lawn signs and more advertisements, she said, and then she took a very Klobuchar-like dig at her opponent, Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth. 

“It won’t be paid for by a Packers fan,” she said in reference to the Wisconsin billionaire who has been funding advertisements in favor of Demuth.

It was a busy week. Here’s a look at this week’s Reformer.

The primary election was on Tuesday. Six Reformer reporters and a photographer went across the Twin Cities metro to talk to voters at the polls. People were often badly misinformed, but we love them.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that it was monitoring polling sites in Hennepin and Ramsey counties for the primary election “to ensure transparency, ballot security and compliance with federal law,” editor Patrick Coolican reported. Secretary of State Steve Simon addressed the presence of the DOJ monitors in what appeared to be an effort to calm the waters.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan defeated U.S. Rep. Angie Craig in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, notching another major victory for progressive Democrats over the moderate wing of the party, Max Nesterak reported.

Demuth beat MyPillow founder Mike Lindell for the GOP nomination for governor, beating President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate as well as Kendall Qualls — the choice of GOP state convention delegates, I reported.

Matt Little won the DFL primary in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, winning a three-way race to face Republican state Sen. Eric Pratt in the November general election, Madison reported.

Most incumbent lawmakers fended off primary challengers, Madison reported. Only one incumbent lawmaker was unseated: Sen. Paul Utke, R-Park Rapids, who lost by fewer than 200 votes to Rep. Mike Wiener, who had earned the Republican endorsement in the race.

Over 1.1 million Minnesotans voted in Tuesday’s primary election, or a quarter of eligible voters, setting the record for most votes cast in a primary, I wrote. Primary election participation is lower than November general elections, where Minnesota has sometimes reached turnout as high as 80% in presidential years and 60% in non-presidential years.

Dozens of people were detained by immigration authorities during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, despite having permission to live and work in the United States because they were victims of a crime and reported it to the police, Madison reported. It’s a great investigation that deserves a read.

Patrick, our editor, had an immediate reaction to the news of the federal government spying on Minnesotans. “This is just like the Church Committee report,” he wrote. (The Church Committee report was produced in 1976 by bipartisan members of Congress and details the extent to which the FBI spied on Americans in the preceding decades.)

Cole Hanson wrote about another tale of mismanagement and injustice at a manufactured home park, this time featuring Katherina Kilbride, who lives at Big Lake Estates in Big Lake.

The former vice chair of the Minneapolis DFL Mike Norton argued that Klobuchar should tell Minnesotans who she plans to appoint to her U.S. Senate seat if she wins the race for governor in November.

Katelynn Rolfes, a conservation advocate at Environment Minnesota Research & Policy Center, writes about a conservation bill with Republicans signed on. It’s called the Great American Outdoors Act 2050.

That’s all. Have a great weekend!

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