Daily Digest: Emails, mining and money
Good morning. Welcome to the Wednesday edition of your Daily Digest.
1. Stauber emails released after court fight. In response to a judge's order, St. Louis County officials made public nearly two dozen emails Tuesday that have been a point of contention in the 8th District congressional race. The emails between Pete Stauber and the National Republican Campaign Committee do not provide any political bombshells. Stauber, a county commissioner and 8th district GOP congressional candidate, used his county email address to communicate with the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2017. The Minnesota DFL filed a lawsuit to compel the county to release the material. District Judge Stoney Hiljus ruled the data public and ordered the release. Ken Martin, the state DFL party chair, said the emails show Stauber used taxpayer resources to advance his political career. (MPR News)
2. Mining becomes campaign issue in northern Minnesota. Copper-nickel mining has been a key political issue for the past several years in northern Minnesota, but it's taken on new, broader prominence this year as the state inches closer to opening a proposed mine on the Iron Range, and as concerns over the environmental risks of copper-nickel mining continue to percolate. The controversy has also been inflamed by a recent Trump administration decision to cancel an environmental study on mining near the Boundary Waters. The move breathed new life into a project proposed by a mining company called Twin Metals, which is pursuing a potential underground copper-nickel mine on national forest land within the Boundary Waters watershed. What has long been an issue situated squarely on the Iron Range and in northeastern Minnesota has made its way into the statewide conversation — and onto statewide airwaves. (MPR News)
3. Outside groups keep money spigot open in Minnesota. Democratic candidates running for office in Minnesota have a cash edge over their Republican opponents in the final stretch of the 2018 midterm election, but outside groups are dwarfing them with a blitz of last-minute spending with just one week until Election Day. In the wide-open race for governor, Democrat Tim Walz reported roughly $640,000 still in the bank ahead of the Nov. 6 election, while his Republican opponent, Jeff Johnson, had $321,000 left to spend. Similarly, in the open race to be Minnesota’s next attorney general, Democrat Keith Ellison is leading his Republican opponent with $355,000 left to spend compared to Doug Wardlow’s $155,000, even though Wardlow out raised Ellison in the last month. But in both races, outside groups and political parties are pouring funds into television, radio and digital ads, trying to tip the scales when voters are most engaged. (MPR News)
4. Rep. Steve King loses Land O'Lakes support. Land O’Lakes said Tuesday it will stop donating money to Iowa Rep. Steve King’s congressional campaign after the Arden Hills-based farm cooperative faced pressure on social media over its support of a politician who has consistently appeared to cozy up with racists and white nationalists. In a statement, Land O’Lakes said its political action committee has traditionally contributed to lawmakers of both parties that represent the agricultural communities and serve on committees that oversee agricultural policy, but the company said it can’t support King anymore. “We take our civic responsibility seriously, want our contributions to be a positive force for good and also seek to ensure that recipients of our contributions uphold our company’s values,” the Land O’Lakes statement said. “On that basis, we have determined that our PAC will no longer support Rep. Steve King moving forward.” (Star Tribune)
5. DFL sees opportunity in rural Minnesota. With the 2018 midterms one week away, Democrats at the annual Wellstone-Oberstar Bean Feed in Virginia sent a message that many feel was lost during the party’s 2016 presidential campaign: That laborers and working class voters matter. Republicans and then-candidate Donald Trump capitalized two years ago with a blue collar jobs message that resonated as white working class voters in Minnesota were the president’s largest demographic shift nationally compared to 2012. As Democrats seek to flip the U.S. House and Senate on Nov. 6, with a critical swing seat in Minnesota’s 8th District, they’re looking to take back the working class through the Iron Range unions. “They left the Midwest behind. They left rural Minnesota behind. They left the 8th District behind,” said U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of the 2016 national Democratic campaigns Monday night. “In 2016, we did not acknowledge the dignity of work. There are many paths to success and it’s not just four-year degrees.” (Mesabi Daily News)
Also, regular readers of the Digest may know where the candidates stand on the issues, but to fill in any gaps let me point you to the MPR News voter guides, available in English, Spanish, Hmong and Somali. Feel free to share with folks who don't follow politics as closely as you do.
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