Gov. Mark Dayton delivers his fifth State of the State speech, and first of his second term, before a crowd of state lawmakers and other officials Thursday night in the House chamber.
Dayton said last week that his 7 p.m. speech would likely run about 30 minutes. He's expected to put a particular emphasis on what's become his signature proposal of the 2015 session, a multimillion dollar spending boost for early learning programs including universal preschool at Minnesota public schools.
Dayton will have a number of guests watching the speech at his invitation, including former Gov. Wendell Anderson, his son Eric Dayton; Ibrahim Mohamed, a Dayton appointee to the Metropolitan Airports Commission who drives a luggage cart at the Twin Cities airport; a father and daughter from Maxfield Elementary whom Dayton met on a visit to the school; a preschool teacher from Newport Elementary School; Worthington Mayor Mike Kuhle, and the U of M and MnSCU chancellors.
Dayton's speech will be streamed live at Startribune.com. Political reporters Abby Simons and Patrick Condon will be tweeting about the speech at @ajillsimons and @patricktcondon. A full story about the speech will be posted online and published in Friday's newspaper.
