Mark Dayton

News of note in Minnesota: Center events, initiatives, and policy work.

Digging into the most recent batch of campaign finance reports, I came across this gem: on the last day of the latest reporting period (May 31), a man named Barry…

A massive Minnesota free-food nonprofit listed a curious job description recently. In late May, Brooklyn Park-based Second Harvest Heartland posted an opening for a “voter engagement coordinator,” a temporary position…

In a moment of reflection, Legislative Auditor Judy Randall hit the nail on head when it comes to fraud and mismanagement in the Walz administration. After releasing two scathing audits…

There used to be a longstanding tradition of election policy bills requiring bipartisan support in order to pass. Because election law by definition is so fraught with partisan politics, it…

Support for school choice spans the political, demographic and geographic spectrums — polling shows us this, personal stories show us this — but can become more one-sided among policymakers, legislators,…

Last week, Uber and Lyft, true to their word, announced that they would stop operating in Minneapolis after the City Council passed an ordinance hiking driver pay. Now, WCCO reports: Minnesota House…

Governor Tim Walz received some very good news this week when they announced the state budget survived the 2023 legislative session and in fact is still delivering more money than…

Another election cycle is already underway, and the money is piling up. I’ve been following the money in state Democrat politics in my Minnesota for Sale series. I’ve assembled the…

The Minnesota Legislature is about to build another new office building for themselves, and the Golden Turkey committee is here for it. Without a single vote on the floor of…

Earlier this month a new group called Hunters for Hunters made headlines by holding standing-room-only public meetings to publicize the need to overhaul the Department of Natural Resource’s management of…

Back in late August, Attorney General Keith Ellison (himself a Democrat) announced the indictment of five men in a $9.5 million alleged PCA fraud.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has never enjoyed a high approval rating with many sportsmen and women. But the agency’s hands-off policy on the burgeoning gray wolf population in…

The DFL sold the state’s politics to out- of-state interests — and it was a fire sale.

The first person Tim Walz called after he became governor in 2018 was his real estate agent in Mankato. Since the job of governor includes the perk of living in…

As they say at the bingo hall, hold your cards! A district court judge in Mille Lacs County is telling some felons to hold their voter registration cards despite Minnesota’s…

State Attorney General Keith Ellison charged 18 individuals with a range of crimes related to a $9.5 million scheme to defraud the state’s Medicaid program through a personal care assistant…

The Minnesota legislature mandated many new K-12 education policies this past legislative session but missed the opportunity to enact meaningful changes to better protect teachers and students. Instead, there is…

Why Education Minnesota is the most systemically racist organization in the state.

Digging deeper into the world of “dark money.” We’ve mentioned a couple of times the possibly non-existent Toolbox Fund, which contributed $232,000 to the Democratic party effort last year, through…

A recent dust-up between the Capitol press corps and House DFL leadership exposes a much larger trend of complacency and incuriosity of the media covering the governor and legislature in…

It’s surprisingly cheap to purchase the politics of a mid-sized state in flyover country. Now that all the campaign finance reports are in for 2022, we can add up the…

With the 2022 election behind us, we can now total up the money. In this Part 2 of Minnesota For Sale, we focus on the state Democratic party. Minnesota Democrats…

There is a tradition in the Minnesota legislature that bills dealing with election law achieve bi-partisan support. Governors Tim Pawlenty and Mark Dayton each abided by this tradition and refused…