Minnesota votes This Presidential election, Minnesota saw an expected decrease in early voting from a Covid-19 peak, with 1.272 million ballots accepted compared to 1.910 million in 2020. Both figures represented a huge increase over 2016, when early votes totaled just 677,000. A change in elections law that went into effect this year—which allowed mailed ...
Follow the money! Publicly-reported independent expenditure funding through September 17 was released this week for #MNLeg races. Read on to find out who’s spending big money in Minnesota to influence targeted House districts, and what this means for the balance of power in the next biennium. Independent expenditures were made in 41 House districts[1] A ...
Situation Report Since Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee for President just over two weeks ago, speculation has swirled about the identity of her pick for the Vice Presidential candidate. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz rapidly began making headlines with media appearances in his role as Chair of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), ...
Deadline is Here The 2024 Legislative Session will end with no time to spare. Legislative leaders have rationed the allotted 120 session days so that every last one will be used, with day 120 coinciding with the constitutionally-mandated last possible date for session, Monday, May 20. The legislature will be in session today, Saturday, and ...
Time’s Almost Up As the House and Senate work towards the May 20 adjournment date, the Legislature is rapidly running out of time. With the conclusion of the House and Senate floor sessions on Thursday, May 9, only five legislative days remain to complete their work. It is unusual at this time of year for ...
Uncertainty Remains at Capitol The Senate avoided the passage of controversial bills again this week in the wake of the arrest of DFL Senator Nicole Mitchell on first degree burglary charges. After being absent last week, Senator Mitchell returned to the Senate Floor this week for the first time since her arrest. In response, Senate ...
Does the Trifecta Still Exist? In the wee hours of Monday morning, freshman Senator Nicole Mitchell (DFL-Woodbury) was arrested for first-degree burglary. As details have trickled out throughout the week, providing a constant stream of gossip and speculation, the key question is whether she will ever return to the legislature. The Senate met twice this ...
Legislature Reaches Third Deadline The Legislature has reached another important deadline this week; Friday, April 19, is the final date upon which committees can act favorably on major appropriation and finance bills. Called the Third Deadline, the House and Senate Finance Committees are required to pass supplemental budget bills to the House Ways and Means ...
Minnesota Revenues Continue to Grow Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) reported this week that Minnesota’s revenue collections for February and March are $241 million more than was forecasted in the February 2024 Budget and Economic Forecast. MMB also reported that the State’s macroeconomic consultant now expects a slightly improved economic outlook in the “near term”. ...
Omnibus Policy Bills on the Move Prior to the March 22nd legislative deadline for policy bills, most committees created omnibus policy bills. Starting this week, both the House of Representatives and the Senate engaged in lengthy floor sessions as they passed many of these bills. It is expected that both the House and Senate will ...
Joint Budget Targets Late last Friday, Governor Tim Walz, along with leaders of the Minnesota House and Senate, agreed to modest joint budget targets for supplemental budget bills. The targets would allow for spending $477.5 million in the current 2024/25 budget, and $62.7 million in future years. Starting with a $3.7 billion projected budget surplus ...
Republicans Retain Daudt Seat Republican Bryan Lawrence of Baldwin Township in Sherburne County won the Minnesota State House Special Election in District 27B to replace former Representative Kurt Daudt, who resigned ahead of the 2024 session to take a new job. Lawrence won by a large margin, garnering 84.5% of the vote, with the DFL ...