Days Until No Excuse Absentee Balloting Begins:  235 (September 23, 2016)

Days Until Election Day:  280 (November 8, 2016)

Events today

• 11 a.m. – MNsure will hold a press conference to announce enrollment numbers for the 2016 open enrollment period, Nov. 1, 2015 – Jan. 31, 2016…CEO Allison O’Toole will be joined by MNsure Board Chair Pete Benner, as well as navigators and brokers who assisted Minnesotans in the enrollment process.
• 11 a.m. – TakeAction Minnesota releases report reviewing earned sick days access rates for workers in Saint Paul – TakeAction Minnesota and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research hold tele-conference to release report reviewing earned sick days access rates for workers in the city of Saint Pail. The report breaks down access rates by gender, race/ethnicity, geography, occupation, and earnings level.
• Noon – Bakk and Daudt preview the legislative session at the Humphrey School.
• 7 p.m. – Iowa Caucuses get underway. There are 900 sites for Democrats and 1,100 sites for Republicans.
• On the campaign trail: Almost everyone is in Iowa, no surprise. Here’s each candidate’s route for the day.
  • Trump: Waterloo, Cedar Rapids (Sarah Palin joins), West Des Moines (party)
  • Cruz: Jefferson, Marion, Des Moines (party)
  • Rubio: Clive, Urbandale, Des Moines (party)
  • Sanders: Des Moines (party)
  • Clinton: Des Moines (party)
  • O’Malley: Des Moines, Ames, Des Moines (party)
  • Rand: Waukee, Des Moines, Ames, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines (party)
  • Santorum: Urbandale, Johnson (party)
  • Carson: Spencer, Decorah, Cedar Rapids, West Des Moines (party)
  • Huckabee: Des Moines (party)
  • Christie: Urbandale, Des Moines, and then off to New Hampshire.
  • Jeb has a midday event in Des Moines and then flies to New Hampshire for a 6:30 p.m. town hall in Manchester.
  • Kasich is in New Hampshire for town halls in Rochester, Greenland and Loudon.d

Mark your calendars

• Feb. 2 – Minnesota’s state candidates, parties and political groups will release 2015 spending and fundraising reports.
• Feb. 3 – The Democratic candidates for president will appear in a town hall meeting in New Hampshire.
• Feb. 6 – Nurses employed by Allina Health will rally Saturday as they go into contract negotiations. Other nurses and supporters are expected to participate in the solidarity rally that will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ramada Plaza, 330 Industrial Boulevard, Minneapolis. The rally is organized by the Minnesota Nurses Association.
• Feb. 6 – Republicans debate at St. Anselm College on ABC the Saturday night before the New Hampshire primary.
• Feb. 9 – Worker Voice Regional Summit with US Secretary of Labor Tom Perez and local leaders 11 a.m., MLK Park Building, 4055 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis. Join United States Secretary of Labor Perez and local leaders for the first Regional Worker Voice Summit. Regional Summits are focused on bringing together seasoned and emerging leaders from across the country who are lifting up workers’ voices to be active participants in this conversation. Learn more and RSVP here.
• Feb. 9 – The New Hampshire primary.
• Feb. 9 – Senate District 35 special election. Roger Johnson is the DFL-endorsed candidate.
• Feb. 9 – House District 50B special election. Andrew Carlson is the DFL-endorsed candidate. 
• Feb. 9 – North Metro Chapter of the DFL Senior Caucus will meet at 11:30 at the Little Venetian Inn, Little Canada, to hear a presentation on the Compassionate Care legislation that is currently pending in theMinnesota legislature. Sen. Chris Eaton, the Senate bill author, and Dr. Rebecca Thoman will speak at the event.
• Feb. 11 – Democrats debate in Wisconsin, to air on PBS.
• Feb. 13 – Republicans debate in South Carolina on CBS.
• Feb. 26 – Republicans debate in Houston on NBC. The co-sponsors are Telemundo and National Review.
• Feb. 25 – Secretary of State Steve Simon will host the “Secretary’s State on the State of Elections” at noon at the Wellstone Neighborhood House, St. Paul. After the speech, participants can attend one of two workshops, “What happens at a precinct caucus,” or “Building the next generation of poll workers.” For more information, click here.

Fundraisers

• Feb. 6 – The Brooklyn Park DFL will host a GOP debate watching party. 7 p.m. Kelly’s Ninth Hole, 8432 Noble Ave. N, Brooklyn Park. Suggested donation is $10.
• Feb. 19 – Congressional District 5 DFL will host its Heart of the Party fundraiser. 7 p.m., 301 on Main, Minneapolis. There is free parking adjacent to the building in an open surface lot. Tickets are $35.
• Feb. 27 – SD36 DFL Fundraiser and Elections Pre-Caucus Rally. North Hennepin Community College, College of Business & Technology, Grand Hall, 7411 85th Ave N, Brooklyn Park. Participants will discuss the importance of Elections in Minnesota and your local Senate District. Keynote speakers are Minnesota Secretary of State, 
• Steve Simon and Minnesota Human Rights Commissioner Kevin Lindsey. Suggested donation $20. All donations appreciated. Please RSVP with Reva Chamblis at or call Reva at 763-657-1459.
• March 12 – Senate District 63 DFL hosts its annual Spaghetti Dinner. 5 p.m., Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church, 4120 17th Ave. S, Minneapolis.
• March 12 – The Senate District 16 DFL fundraiser will be held at Jackpot Junction, Morton. It kicks off at 5 p.m. and will feather a buffet meal, silent and live auctions and speakers.

2016 election

Legislature
Brainerd resident announces Senate candidacy, Brainerd Dispatch 

U,S. House
GOP congressional candidates Lewis & Howe offer differing solutions to racial inequity, The UpTake

President
Pro-Clinton PAC has $45 million in the bank, The Hill
Let the voting begin: As radicals arise, gridlock never looked so good, Star Tribune
Republican Jeb Bush tells rival Marco Rubio ‘stop whining,’ Star Tribune
Sanders to receive Secret Service protection, The Hill
New York Times endorses Clinton, Kasich, The Hill
Reality Check: Donald Trump vs. Fox News, WCCO
Chelsea Clinton to stump in Minnesota, Pioneer Press 

The Democratic candidates agreed to participate in a newly scheduled CNN town hall on Wednesday night in New Hampshire. The prime-time question and answer session in Derry will be like the one in Des Moines last week, featuring all three candidates. “Scheduled for 8 p.m. EST, the session is not a head-to-head debate. It will feature moderator and audience questions for each of the candidates separately,” Anne Gearan reports. “It was not clear whether the newly added town hall will affect a proposed debate hosted by MSNBC on Thursday. Clinton, Sanders and O’Malley have agreed in principle to attend that debate, provided it is approved by the Democratic National Committee, and MSNBC announced details Sunday: 9 p.m. EST at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. The DNC issued a cryptic statement Sunday tabling discussion until Tuesday.”Washington Post 

How predictive are Iowa and New Hampshire? MPR

 

2016 session

DFLer Thissen tours ‘Greater Minnesota for All’, Worthington Daily Globe
Thissen outlines DFL’s concerns for ’16 session, New Ulm Journal
It’s time for a Greater Minnesota for everyone, Crookston Daily Times
Ahead of session, House members pre-file more than 200 bills, Session Daily 

2016 special session
Clock still ticking on special session, Mesabi Daily News
On early Minnesota special session, no decision. Here’s where things stand, Pioneer Pres

American Indian treaties
Original intent? History, language blur Minnesota Indian treaty disputes, MPR
Explaining Minnesota’s 1837, 1854 and 1855 Ojibwe treaties, MPR

Black History Month
Unpublished black history, New York Times 

Compassionate Care Act
Forums set on Minnesota bill to give terminally ill right to die, MPR 

Dayton
Gov. Dayton hospitalized after fainting, MPR
Gov. Mark Dayton in hospital after fainting during Woodbury event, KSTP
Mark Dayton to travel all over the state this summer, Pioneer Press 

Debates
Without Trump, GOP candidates debate who despises Cruz the most, MinnPost
Trump-less debate did worse than we expected, Washington Post

Demographics
Can Minnesota survive the baby-boomer retirement wave? Pioneer Press

Economy
The striking power of poverty to turn young boys into jobless men, Washington Post
Jobless rates rise in Duluth, region, Duluth News Tribune
2015 was busiest for Minnesota deals since Great Recession, Star Tribune

Environment
Dayton backs off water-buffer strip plan for private ditches, MPR
Hardball politics forces Dayton to support change in buffer law, Detroit Lakes Online
Dayton drops ditch demands, MinnPost
Flint water crisis reminds us not to take water quality for granted, Star Tribune

Equality

Today in history

February 1, 1865
President Abraham Lincoln approved the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery.

Fundraising
George Soros gives $6 million to pro-Clinton super-PAC, The Hill
Here’s how much Minnesota candidates raised last quarter, Pioneer Press
Fourth-quarter fundraising reports, many filed just before a midnight deadline, offer a snapshot of every candidate’s financial health as voting begins: (Washington Post)

• Marco Rubio raised $14.2 million in the fourth quarter, but he spent $14.8 million. He had $10.4 million cash in his coffers a month ago.
• Jeb Bush raised $7.1 million during the last three months of the year, only about half of his take from the quarter before. His campaign spent $9.8 million and started this year with just $7.6 million.
• Trump loaned himself $10.8 million and took in $2.8 million in donations (despite his insistence that he is entirely self-funding his campaign).
• We’ve known for a month that Ben Carson brought in $22.6 million, followed by Ted Cruz, who raised $20.5 million. We learned last night that Chris Christie raised $2.95 million and had only $1 million on hand. John Kasich raised $3.2 million; Carly Fiorina, $2.84 million; Rand Paul, $2.1 million; Mike Huckabee, $703,000; and Rick Santorum got less than half a million.

The leading Democrats did better than all of the Republicans: Bernie Sanders raised $33.6 million to Hillary Clinton’s $37 million. He had $28 million cash on Jan. 1, and she had $37.9 million. Bernie raised more than $20 million in January alone and because almost all of it came in small donations 99.9 percent of his contributors have not maxed out. But Martin O’Malley is in dire financial straits. He had $169,442 cash on hand at the end of the year and $535,477 in debt. He raised $1.5 million in the fourth quarter but spent $2.1 million. He took out a $500,000 loan in December to stay afloat, and several of his staffers were working without pay.

PACS

• Priorities USA Action, the lead super PAC backing Clinton, has raised $50.5 million to date and ended January with nearly $45 million in the bank. The group’s chief strategist, Guy Cecil, saiddonors have committed to give another $42 million. George Soros has given $6 million.
• The O’Malley super PAC received $100,000 from Eliot Spitzer and his mother. Generation Forward only raised $514,000 during the past quarter, including in-kind donations. “Until recently, Spitzer had been dating Lis Smith, O’Malley’s deputy campaign manager,” John Wagner notes.
• The pro-Jeb super PAC Right to Rise raised just $15 million in the second half of the year after taking in more than $100 million during the first six months. Of that, $10 million came from “Hank” Greenberg, former chief of AIG.
• Billionaire hedge fund managers Paul Singer and Ken Griffin each gave $2.5 million to the super PAC backing Rubio, part of the $14.4-million haul the group raised in the second half of 2015.
• Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam have not yet made public contributions to any of the super PACs backing the presidential candidates, but they each maxed out to Cruz with $2,700 checks in mid-November. That’s promising news for the Texas senator since the best-known Super PACs supporting Cruz raised only slightly over $1 million dollars in the second half of 2015, despite heavy spending.

The [Republican] Senate Victory Fund (SVF) will report $426,000 cash on hand heading into the election year, just behind the mark set in 2013 by then Minority Leader and now Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt as he began his campaign to win the House Majority in 2014….Adopting the theme “Building a Majority You Can Trust,” Senate Republicans will make the case to voters in 2016 that Democrats have been more interested in self-interest than the public interest, voting themselves pay raises and building a new unnecessary Senate office building. Many of the Democrat incumbents targeted in 2016 began their careers in the Senate by cheating to win, getting caught up in one of the largest campaign finance violations in state history.” Six districts currently held by Democrats in the Senate are represented by two Republicans in the House (SD 1, SD 2, SD 17, SD 21, SD24 and SD 57)…Nine districts currently held by Democrats in the Senate were carried by Republican Jeff Johnson in the 2014 governor’s race (SD 1, SD 2, SD 17, SD 20, SD 21, SD 24, SD 36, SD 37, SD 57)…Six districts currently held by Democrats in the Senate were carried by Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election (SD 1, SD 2, SD 17, SD 21, SD 20, SD 24).morning take

Pioneer Press 

Immigration
St. Cloud comes to grips with clashes between immigrants, longtime locals, Star Tribune

GOP
Republican self-destruction is fun to watch, but bad for us all, Washington Post
What young Republicans have to say about their party’s candidates, MPR
The GOP’s condemnation of ‘sanctuary cities’ is surprisingly awkward in Iowa, Washington Post

Health and human services
Minnesota developing alternatives to workshops for people with disabilities, Star Tribune
Over 1 million face loss of food stamps over work requirements, Cleveland.com

Iowa Caucuses
On eve of Iowa caucuses, Minnesota Democrats stump for their chosen candidates, MinnPost
Buzz builds for Rubio in Iowa, The Hill
Bill Clinton plays role of closer in Iowa, Washington Post
In Iowa, the first test of a campaign’s ground game is a massive one, Washington Post
Does Iowa really matter? And should it? Washington Post
Can you ace this quiz on Iowa politics? The Hill
The big Iowa test: Can Trump and Sanders turn enthusiasm into votes? Washington Post
In Iowa, final push is on to win flat-out caucus free-for-alls, Star Tribune
Trump overtakes Cruz in final Iowa poll, The Hill
Poll: Clinton stays ahead of Sanders in Iowa, The Hill
The Iowa Caucus: Snow, turnout and consequences, WCCO
What you need to know about the 2016 Iowa Caucuses, KSTP
Candidates court voters in last-minute campaigning before Iowa, KSTP
Democratic, GOP races tight as Iowa kicks off 2016 voting, MPR
Moment of truth for Trump, The Hill
Evangelical influence could shape Iowa caucuses, Star Tribune

On the Democratic side, if turnout looks like 2004’s 124,000, Hillary Clinton almost certainly wins. If it’s closer to 2008’s 239,000, Sanders is the likely victor. For the Republicans, it’s an expectations game. Ted Cruz has turned Iowa into a boom-or-bust state — and Marco Rubio is hoping for a strong enough showing to put his “establishment” rivals in the rear-view mirror. But there are two more big questions that will determine what Iowa’s results mean going forward: Will the losers — especially if Trump is one — react by launching new, harsh attacks? And will poor-performing candidates drop out, opening up new (if small) blocs of voters for candidates like Cruz and Rubio? CNN

Martin O’Malley is the most important Democrat in Iowa. Just not in the way he had hoped. Democratic Iowa caucus rules say that to reach “viability,” a candidate must have support of 15 percent of the caucus-goers in that precinct. If O’Malley isn’t there, the big question is where his small but committed group of supporters will move: to Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton? “In a tight race, as someone starts getting the edge on that second choice pick, it could make all the difference in the world,” said Brad Anderson, a Democratic strategist who led Obama’s re-election effort in Iowa in 2012. So which way are they leaning — and what are the campaigns doing to win them over? CNN

Kochs
Koch network spent nearly $400M in 2015, The Hill

Labor
Union membership rates hold steady in Minnesota, across nation, Workday Minnesota
Teamsters and others fighting pension battle over multi-employer fund, Workday Minnesota
As possible strike looms, wages and workload remain biggest issues for Twin Cities janitors,MinnPost
Being Muslim in Minnesota: Prayer — and controversy — at work, MPR
Holding steady in Minnesota, union density plunges in Right-to-Work Wisconsin, Union Advocate
Trades build ice designs for Winter Carnival, Workday Minnesota

Minnesota Capitol
Sneak peek of Minnesota Capitol as restoration nears completion, Fox 9 

Minnesota politics
Yes, Minnesota politics are polarized, partisan and predictable, Star Tribune 

Polls
Trump overtakes Cruz in final Iowa poll, The Hill
Clinton stays in front of Sanders in Iowa, The Hill

Trump is ahead of Ted Cruz, 28 percent to 23 percent, with Marco Rubio in third at 15 percent, followed by Ben Carson at 10 percent, Rand Paul at 5 percent and Chris Christie at 3 percent. Nobody else tops 2 percent, per the GOP numbers. Clinton tops Bernie Sanders by a narrow margin – 45 percent to 42 percent — among likely Democratic caucus-goers, with Martin O’Malley far behind at 3 percent. It’s all about whether young voters turn out: The poll found a huge age gap among women, with Clinton winning those over age 45, 55 percent to 32 percent, and Sanders winning those under 45, 48 percent to 33 percent. CNN

A CNN/WMUR poll of New Hampshire, published Sunday, showed Trump and Sanders have dipped slightly from two weeks ago, but they retain their leads going into the Feb. 9 primary. But more than 40 percent of Democrays say they have not definitely decided who to support. Washington Post 

Social Security anniversary (Jan. 31)

 

Voting
Dems: Republicans blocking people from the polls, The Hill

State DFL
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