Political Junkie: When local issues matter; Joyless Jeb; Debating debates

Political Junkie Ken Rudin speaks with MPR News host Kerri Miller about this week's biggest stories from the campaign trail.

Highlights:

Local elections determine what ballot issues bring voters to the polls

Rudin: "On the ballot, there's a lot of things that are below the radar - like the recreational use of pot, or minimum wage - that's the kind of stuff in these local, municipal elections that really set a tone for what the electorate may be thinking."

Can Hillary Clinton gather a coalition of voters of color in swing states like Obama did?

Rudin: "The way that Obama did? Absolutely not. But she could also excite female voters, and she seems to be doing that as well, because either way there is history in the making. Obama was a transformational figure in 2008. We had basically seen nobody like him. He had been in the Senate for all of 15 minutes, and yet the country, the media, and most of the voters seemed to be enamored by this new force that we had not seen perhaps since Reagan or John F. Kennedy."

Do any Republican voters care about Jeb Bush?

Rudin: "It's too premature to say he is dead. He said this weekend, 'When I see that I'm not doing something well, I reset and get better.' But I think with each succeeding debate so far, he's been worse each time. ... There seem to be no joy whatsoever in Jeb Bush's campaign, and I think the donors and the voters are recognizing that."

What will change in the Republican debates?

Rudin: "To be fair, the Democrats have also complained to the Democratic National Committee that they have only had one Democratic debate. Ted Cruz said that if you have never voted in a Republican Primary, you have no business moderating a [Republican debate]. Are we going to ask journalists who they vote for before they could debate? It's just remarkable."