Wednesday a.m. update: Klobuchar gets a super PAC bump
Good morning. Here’s what you need to start your Wednesday.
Cold, clear and sunny. Twin Cities highs around 8 with 5 to 10 mph winds. Statewide, daytime highs between 0 and 10 with nighttime lows down to minus 16. More on Updraft. | Forecast
There’s a bright side to the chilly forecast, though. We’re gaining a half hour of daylight over the next 10 days (!!!).
Kitchen Table Conversations is a very Midwestern name for a super PAC. So it’s appropriate that the group is backing Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s presidential bid, pouring money into her Nevada and South Carolina efforts ahead of the states’ upcoming Democratic presidential primaries, as Politico reports.
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Will the new group’s seven-figure ad purchases be enough for Klobo? Write Politico’s Elena Schneider and Maggie Severns: “While both her popularity and her fundraising have surged, her campaign operation is still under-resourced compared to frontrunners like Bernie Sanders, who raised $25 million during the month of January alone. In Nevada, the new super PAC will start airing an ad focused on Klobuchar’s experience being kicked out of the hospital after giving birth and her subsequent work to change the law about hospital stays.”
A strike has been averted at 30 Twin Cities clinics. HealthPartners and the Service Workers International Union, which represents some 1,800 nurses, lab techs, dental hygienists and other workers, reached a tentative labor agreement after a 17-hour negotiating session.
“Elections are very expensive.” That was Scott County elections official Julie Hanson’s message to lawmakers who are considering a bill that would separate ballots of voters who register on Election Day from all other votes cast, subjecting the same-day registrees’ votes to additional scrutiny.
Republicans say this provisional ballot system is a security matter. Democrats say it’ll only hold up legitimate ballots, and the League of Women Voters says it could disenfranchise younger voters and voters of color. The measure has passed a Senate committee in a party-line vote.
One thing Minnesota lawmakers agree on: robocall relief. Writes Brian Bakst: “Bills to target those unwanted phone calls have been filed in the House and Senate by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, tackling a growing nuisance that in some cases leads to consumer fraud.”
Honeycrisp apples vs. Minnesota state parks. Vote in Round One of our contest for Minnesota’s finest creation in our contest.
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