Hot dish 100724

By Josie Albertson-Grove

Good Monday morning. If you’ve been missing your governor lately, he’s on TV.

Gov. Tim Walz sat for an interview on Fox News Sunday, his first since last week’s debate. Walz followed up on his debate statement that he can be a “knucklehead” and talked about his gaffes.

“I will own up when I misspeak” Walz said. But he said he thought his misleading statements — about his military service, what kind of fertility treatment he and his wife used, when in the summer of 1989 he visited Hong Kong, and whether he befriended school shooters or their victims — were, on balance, not nearly as problematic or serious as the fact that Sen. JD Vance, his Republican rival for the vice presidency, would not say during last week’s debate that Trump lost the 2020 election.

I wasn’t watching live (I was out for a run instead) so I had to look up video of the interview online this morning, and I was so struck by the funhouse mirror that is an internet headline. To describe the same TV segment, we have:

Fox News: Walz tries to downplay laws he signed granting benefits to illegals in Minnesota

ABC News: Walz tries to do cleanup on falsehoods in Fox News interview

New York Times: Tim Walz Makes First Sunday Show Appearance Since Joining Ticket

Walz will be on Jimmy Kimmel tonight.

NORTH STAR: Enrollment is up at the University of Minnesota and in the Minnesota State college system, and Erin Adler reports that one of the biggest reasons could be the North Star Promise, to make Minnesota public college free for families making less than $80,000. More than 16,000 students are taking advantage of the program this year, including some who started degrees but never finished.

“That’s why I came back to school,” said Domonique White, 35, a senior at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul. “This scholarship gave me a way to finish something I started so long ago.”

Paul Shepherd, associate vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment at Minnesota State, said about 12,990 students received North Star Promise funding as part of their financial aid package; about 12,000 of those students are enrolled in classes now.

SWING: The Second Congressional District is the most competitive in Minnesota this year, but how competitive is it really? Sydney Kashiwagi and Chris Magan looked into what it means to be a swing district when Democratic Rep. Angie Craig has won the last three elections.

Would a fourth-term win for Craig indicate the district is trending blue, they asked? The answer is not straightforward. Political observers think the district will remain a swing seat for the foreseeable future.

“I think we could see that over the past few elections it’s trending blue. It’s just still so close to 50/50,” said State Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley. “It’s not that long ago that we had a Republican member of Congress and some really hard-fought elections.”

Rep. Dean Phillips, who like Craig was elected in the 2018 “blue wave,” said he thinks keeping or flipping the seat has as much to do with the individual candidate as with the district’s demographics.

Another factor? Local Republicans not getting involved in the congressional race.

“We’re more focused on local races” for the Minnesota House, Ditto said.

SOIL AND WATER: You read about the judge’s races last week, but who else is on your ballot this fall? Liz Navratil looked into the races for soil and water supervisor, which are so low-profile that most candidates don’t bother campaigning to tell voters what they stand for.

In the few instances when candidates do knock on doors, Navratil writes, people tend to be confused.

“I’ve lost count of the number of people that I’ve talked to who weren’t even aware that this was an organization,” said Danielle Holder, a candidate for soil and water supervisor within the Anoka Conservation District. “It doesn’t feel political. It almost feels like the most cordial race you could ever run.”

The commissioner offices were created in the wake of the 1930s Dust Bowl, Navratil reports, and help shepherd along conservation projects that range from erosion mitigation and water quality, with some supervisors getting involved in protecting native plants.

WHERE’S WALZ:

Gov. Tim Walz will be on the Jimmy Kimmel show tonight for the campaign, after spending the weekend on Fox News Sunday and at Harris fundraisers in southern California.

“It may feel sometimes to Californians like we view you as a bank, but that’s not how we view you,” the governor said, according to a pool report from San Diego Union Tribune reporter Alex Riggins, getting a laugh.

He said he appreciated the contributions they’ve given.

“And let’s just be clear — California’s next contribution is Madame President,” Walz said.

Keep us posted at hotdish@startribune.com.