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Capitol View®
Mike Mulcahy

Daily Digest: Cancel those summer vacations

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Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday. About 10 weeks until the primary election, and boy, is there ever a lot at stake. Here's the Digest.

1. Ellison is leaving Congress to run for AG. Attorney General Lori Swanson's decision Monday to leap into the Minnesota governor's race set off a chain reaction of politicians seeking new offices. The biggest political shake-up came when DFL U.S. House Rep. Keith Ellison came to the Minnesota Secretary of State's office to file to run for Minnesota attorney general, throwing a wild card into that race and opening the floodgates to congressional candidates for Ellison's seat. Ellison, as he filed his paperwork, said he chose not to seek the "comfort and security" of a likely political victory and instead pursue an office to protect consumers. "We say the Pledge of Allegiance, and when we say it we put our hand on our heart and we say at the end 'liberty and justice for all.' There's no exceptions," Ellison said. "Nobody's cut out of that. Not based on your religion or race or anything or where you live. All means all." Ellison plans to continue as deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee. He joins five other DFLers in the August primary contest for attorney general. Republican voters will choose among three candidates. (MPR News)

2. Crowded DFL primary for CD5 seat. As the ink dried on Ellison's paperwork, the higher ambitions of others known and less known soon became apparent. Eight Democrats filed to run for the Fifth Congressional District seat, considered safe for the DFL. Among them, his ex-wife, Minneapolis school board member Kim Ellison. Julie Sabo, a former state senator and daughter of the late Congressman Martin Olav Sabo also entered the fray. So did freshman state Representative Ilhan Omar, the nation's first Somali-American legislator.  DFLer Jamal Abdi Abdulahi — who's also Somali-American — filed to run Tuesday. So did Patricia Torres Ray of Minneapolis, a native of Colombia who's been a state senator for more than a decade. "I am running for Congress because the immigration fight is the moral fight of our time," Torres Ray said. "I have been preparing for this fight for a very long time." Other candidates filing Tuesday included Torres Ray's Senate colleague Bobby Joe Champion of Minneapolis and former Minnesota House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher. She lost to Mark Dayton in the DFL primary for governor eight years ago. Kelliher says she's ready to return to politics. (MPR News)

3. Lots of women running for state House seats. Overshadowed by a mad dash of last-minute candidates seeking Minnesota’s top offices, an apparent record number of women have filed to run for the state Legislature this year. When filings for offices closed at 5 p.m. Monday, at least 100 female candidates had officially signed up to run for the Minnesota House of Representatives. The state Senate is not up for election this year. Although the tally was not final, “It feels like a record,” said House Minority Leader Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park. About 90 women ran for the House in 2016. This year, more than half of the DFL House candidates — 68 — are women. Republicans, who control the House by a 77-57 margin, had fewer slots to fill but still landed 32 female candidates. Both Hortman and House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, said their caucuses didn’t set out to recruit more women this year. “But strong ones stepped forward,” the speaker said. (Pioneer Press)

4. Control of the Minnesota Senate could come down to this race. Two familiar central Minnesota faces will be facing off for the state Senate seat held since 1996 by Lt. Gov. Michelle Fischbach. State Rep. Jeff Howe, R-Rockville, and Stearns County Commissioner Joe Perske filed for the District 13 seat. The district is west of St. Cloud and includes Sartell, St. Joseph, Cold Spring and Paynesville. Fischbach resigned from her Senate seat May 25 and took the oath of office as lieutenant governor.  Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty then named Fischbach his running mate in his quest for his old office. Howe, a retired firefighter and lieutenant colonel in the Minnesota National Guard, was first elected to the House District 13A seat in 2012. Perske, a DFLer, is a longtime teacher and a former mayor of Sartell. He ran unsuccessfully for the 6th Congressional District seat in 2014, losing to Tom Emmer. The outcome of the District 13 race will determine which party controls the Minnesota Senate, which is evenly split with 33 Republicans and 33 Democrats. (MPR News)

5. You can't get there from here. Major roadblocks are coming for commuters Friday night when the Minnesota Department of Transportation closes off the entrances from northbound I-35W to downtown streets. The closure, part of the $239 million rebuild of the state’s busiest freeway, will be in place for four months and force 200,000 drivers to find an alternate way into the city, or use the lone remaining ramp at 3rd Street/Washington Avenue to get downtown. The disruption will intensify — but just for the weekend — when MnDOT also closes the segment of Interstate 94 from Interstate 394 to Interstate 35W. "Travel will be difficult,” said MnDOT Metro District Engineer Scott McBride in perhaps the understatement of the summer road construction season. (Star Tribune)