(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



The Daily Reformer [1]

[]

Date: 2022-09

Good morning. Met my son’s kindergarten teacher today, and I’m in awe of the talent and patience that are surely required to teach 21 kindergarteners. The campaign of Republican candidate for governor Scott Jensen hit a low point Tuesday, with a bad public poll, a bad ad and an intemperate tweet. On the bad poll: Democrats should learn the lessons of 2016 and 2020 and ignore horse race polls. A DFL operative told me Tuesday they think it’s neither realistic nor particularly helpful, as it could lead to complacency among volunteers and donors. On the bad ad: Jensen is getting pummeled by the Walz camp and outside money on abortion and is so desperate to change the subject he keeps saying abortion isn’t on the ballot this year. So, in his ad, he’s holding a baby and talking about all the babies he’s delivered and then says, “In Minnesota, it’s a protected constitutional right, and no governor can change that. And I’m not running to do that.” To begin with, this is flatly untrue. It’s a protected right according to a judicial precedent, Doe v. Gomez. It is not written in the Minnesota Constitution. The Minnesota Supreme Court could overturn the precedent. The governor gets to appoint Supreme Court justices. Does this sound familiar? Yes, because we all just saw it happen when President Donald Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices, and Roe v. Wade was overturned. Also, surely anti-abortion Republicans must be feeling a little buyer’s remorse that the guy they nominated has no interest in changing abortion law, but maybe they know he’s lying for the greater good. (This is not the main thing: I know he’s a doctor, so he knows what he’s doing, but that’s never how I held our babies.) Finally, the ad just serves to get us all talking about abortion again. Let me summarize his entire campaign: “As soon as I, Scott Jensen, the smartest person in Minnesota, stop talking about (fill in your favorite: abortion/COVID-19 vaxx denialism/COVID restrictions are just like Nazis) then everyone must STOP TALKING ABOUT (fill in your favorite: abortion/anti-vaxx/COVID restrictions are just like Nazis.) On the bad tweet: Jensen running mate Matt Birk pretended that he didn’t know former GOP operative Michael Brodkorb and said some nasty things about him. (For the record, Michael has done countless anti-drunk driving talks; he should be commended for that.) Granted: This is very insidery and in the scheme of things, who cares? But Jensen isn’t running against Michael Brodkorb, and it’s another example of a campaign with no focus. Also, I’ve known of a few politicos that got on the wrong side of Brodkorb. It generally doesn’t end well for them. Still and all: If I told you in 2019 that Gov. Tim Walz would be running for reelection in an environment of high inflation, higher crime and struggling schools, and that a relatively unpopular Democrat is in the White House, you’d say Walz could lose, and that’s still true. Today’s Reformer Chris Ingraham is back with some powerful data reporting on the wide disparities in Minnesota marijuana arrests. Black Minnesotans are nearly five times as likely to be arrested on marijuana charges as white ones despite relatively similar rates of marijuana use, according to arrest and survey data. My two cents here: My fear is that the recent THC edible legalization is not going to improve the situation. We need a more robust (and highly regulated) legalization and expungement program. Our legal commentator Marshall Tanick writes up a U.S. Supreme Court case that didn’t get much attention but should have: Vega v. Tekoh is a civil case but has implications for the status of the longstanding Miranda precedent. New newsletter Our parent nonprofit States Newsroom, which has operations in about half of the 50 states, launches a newsletter today on abortion rights. Sign up here. Correspond: [email protected] Have a great day all! JPC

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://minnesotareformer.salsalabs.org/dailyreformernewsletter_copy2_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1_copy1

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.