Klobuchar Picks Up the Franken Baton

US Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) along with US Senator John Kennedy (R-LA), members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are putting pressure on Chairman US Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to take action and call Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg before the committee. Zuckerberg...

Is Smith’s Campaign Being Scripted by the DSCC?

There is a reoccurring theme being discussed in DFL quarters and it is whether or not the US Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) campaign is being run out of Washington DC by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). This is akin to Central Casting writing formulaic...

Are the RCV Bills Stalled?

As the first deadline of March 22nd rapidly approaches we are still awaiting any action on the two anti-Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) bills HF3690 and SF3325 neither has had a hearing scheduled, but there is still time. Also, if they fail to make deadline there are other...

Murphy Has a Fallback Position

This weekend DFL Senate District 64 holds it convention. An item not on the agenda is an endorsement in the 64A House seat currently held by Rep Erin Murphy (DFL-64A, St Paul). We asked Senate District Chair Elizabeth Werfel if they were holding the seat open for...

Checks & Balances on the Radio

Listen to the Sue Jeffers show on 1130 AM Saturday at 4:00 pm and hear Checks & Balances Publisher Shawn Towle discuss a wide range of political topics with the host. One of the issues we expect will be covered is Ranked Choice Voting…. This content is for...

The Different Faces of RCV

This week has become an interesting one in the history of Ranked Choice Voting in Minnesota. For those of you unfamiliar or who have not experienced an election under this process, it is one where each voter is able to cast a series of votes for more than one...

Is There a Path for Pawlenty?

In our article The Two Realities of Tim Pawlenty, we highlighted former Governor Tim Pawlenty’s (R-MN) perpetual deficits and how this could affect him if he were a general election candidate. Now the question is can he get to the ballot in November? As the...

Divining the Truth in the DFL Endorsement Process

On Wednesday, former Minneapolis City Council member and union organizer Jim Niland (DFL) now Rebecca Otto campaigner made a bold statement, which no one except maybe he, himself even believes. He posted to a Facebook group of DFL Activists claiming the following:...

Defining the Alignments in the DFL Governor’s Race

Our analysis of the DFL Governor’s race to date has Congressman Tim Walz (D-MN01) as the front-runner, which means he has the target of all of the other campaigns squarely on his back. He represents every other candidate’s worst-case scenario. As the leader of the...