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By Nathaniel Minor

Amanda Anderson/The Minnesota Star Tribune

It was the meeting it felt we'd been waiting for all summer. On Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan gaveled in a hearing of the Advisory Committee on Capitol Security — it's first since former DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in June.

"This summer has been deeply painful for many people," Flanagan said as she started the meeting.

The committee's meetings have been sparse in recent years. As its name implies, the panel does not have the authority to direct changes or make appropriations. It was formed to advise the Legislature and governor on those matters, though sometimes lawmakers do not heed those recommendations. Just this spring, the Legislature funded only a tiny fraction of the $40 million in upgrades the committee wanted.

The dynamics, however, have clearly changed since May and early June, when the last bonding bill was being negotiated and Capitol security was mostly left out. 

It seems entirely plausible that big changes are coming to Capitol security. The question now is what exactly those might be, and whether the committee, which is made up of four legislators, Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, and Flanagan can find consensus on what recommendations it will make.

Already on Wednesday, Hudson and Flanagan indicated they wanted weapons screening systems added to the Capitol, while the two Republicans on the panel, Sen. Warren Limmer and Rep. Jim Nash, both appeared skeptical.

“I’d like to caution the committee not to be lulled into a false sense of security by using technology alone,” Limmer told the group.

A gun rights group is already campaigning to preserve the right to carry a weapon with a permit in the Capitol, too. 

Recommendations should come together this fall, Flanagan said. The committee will pick up its pace and meet again next month.

Read more.

Now for a happier topic: the State Fair! A trip to the Great Minnesota Get-Together is the only thing on Gov. Tim Walz's public calendar today. It's an event he's long loved. "Walz is a natural extrovert who looks like a kid at the, well, at the fair," the Minnesota Star Tribune reported of candidate Walz way back in 2018. 

The state Republican Party will still try to sour Walz's lemonade though; they put out a press release this week calling on Minnesotans to challenge Walz at the fair over his record. “Minnesotans didn’t get cookies or corn dogs for their tax dollars — they got corruption and coverups,” Party GOP Chairman Alex Plechash said in a news release.

I would expect Walz to soak up whatever commentary he gets from the public. He's currently weighing whether to run for a third term and says he'll make a decision after the fair.  

Other Minnesota politicos will be roaming around the fair too. And after the political violence in the state in June, expect more security around them as well.

GOP candidate for governor makes her case. Rep. Kristin Robbins of Maple Grove, who threw her hat into the gubernatorial ring this week, took aim at Walz and Democrats for spending a historic budget surplus while also raising taxes.

“I’m in this because I love Minnesota and I want to make sure state government works for Minnesotans, not against them,” Robbins told my colleague Ryan Faircloth.

She serves as chair of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, a platform she’s used to scrutinize the Walz administration. In her first campaign ad, she criticized the DFL governor for what she called an “epidemic of fraud” in state-run programs.

Read more.

Speaking of fraud, KARE 11 has a heckuva scoop.  A new investigation found evidence of taxpayer-funded payments to a company that supposedly provided housing services to people who turned out to be already dead. The station also found the state Department of Human Services was repeatedly warned about the for-profit company's sketchy billing practices for more than a year.  

KARE's report is "further evidence of the need for accountability for state resources," according to a news release from DFL Sen. Heather Gustafson.

Gustafson and GOP Sen. Michael Kreun co-authored a bill last session that would have created an independent Office of the Inspector General. The bill did not, however, get a vote in the House, and some of Walz' cabinet members expressed concerns over it during the session. Gustafson and Kreun want their colleagues to help get the bill across the finish line next session.

The Walz administration has halted payments to service providers in the scandal-plagued Housing Stabilization Services program amid investigations. "I fully expect some of those folks will sue the state of Minnesota, but I think we’re in a position right now [to] trust but verify," Walz said last month.

As mentioned above, Walz will visit the State Fair today.

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Could Minnesota be an early voting state in 2028? Walz may make the case when the Democratic National Committee comes to town next week to rotate the 2028 presidential calendar so other states have a chance to go first, my colleague Sydney Kashiwagi reports.

"I'm going to push to them that I think we rotate this,” the former vice presidential candidate told reporters during a media event this week. “It doesn't need to be the same every year. I think you move states up through this process, especially states that consistently show high voter turnout and high engagement, and a continuously diversifying state like Minnesota is.”

States to bid next week. His remarks come as former DFL Chair and now DNC head Ken Martin said he’s opening up the bidding process to states that want to be considered for early voting slots heading into the 2028 presidential election.

The DNC plans to discuss the 2028 calendar when they meet in Minneapolis early next week after the party overhauled the calendar last year.

Walz, Martin and other Minnesota Democrats pushed to make Minnesota an early voting state several years ago, and some of them have said they’d be supportive of a similar push heading into 2028.

Will the DFL get on board? It’s unclear if Walz or the DFL would need to make the formal pitch to the DNC, but new DFL Chair Richard Carlbom recently told Kashiwagi that making Minnesota an early voting state isn’t currently on the party’s radar.

The Electoral College. Walz also said he plans to have a discussion with the DNC about the Electoral College.

"I think we cannot run presidential campaigns in seven states, and I think every state needs to be relevant,” Walz said. “So, I'll have my discussion again about the Electoral College. I think you have to have a discussion around that to make people feel more engaged."