Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Republican Rift? State's High-Ranking GOPers Ditch Big Fundraiser.
Monday evening was the Minnesota GOP’s Lincoln-Reagan dinner, the party's biggest fundraising dinner of the year, and guess who was there? "None of the state's highest-ranking Republicans," according to Sydney Kashiwagi and Ryan Faircloth's report for the Star Tribune. Neither Pete Stauber nor Michelle Fischbach were in town, although the U.S. House is not in session; Rep. Brad Finstad didn't make it, and Tom Emmer avoided the question when the Strib asked him about it. Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth and Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson also weren't there (though they have the looming budget deadline to blame).
Sources tell the Strib that there are disagreements about the party's direction under new state chair Alex Plechash and executive director Jennifer DeJournett. It seems their affiliation with far right organizations like Action 4 Liberty isn't sitting well with GOP officials, many of whom have been attacked and antagonized by the group for years. (Faircloth has more on that here.)
Minnesota DFL Chair Richard Carlbom says he's seen the emergence of a "Tom Emmer wing" and an "Alex Plechash wing" in this slow-burning GOP feud. “I think Tom Emmer wants to choke off all support,” he tells the Strib. “As the whip in the House, he's got a lot of sway among donors in Minnesota, and that’s only going to hurt the Republican Party internally.”
For his part, Plechash told reporters that 450+ people were expected to attend: “That’s not the sign of a party in disarray; that’s the sign of a party on the rise,” he said in a written statement. He denied the Strib's request for an interview—also, surely, a sign of a party on the rise.
Tom Crann's Exit (Pivot?) Interview
Last month, we got word that Tom Crann, host of All Things Considered on MPR News for two decades, would be stepping away from his longtime afternoon radio shift. He's not leaving MPR, he'll just be considering fewer things; Crann is replacing Steve Staruch on YourClassical MPR’s 3 to 7 p.m. shift. His last day behind the desk at MPR News was May 9.
Ahead of his time on the air with YourClassical—Crann is still learning the ropes over there—he sat down with MPR's Angela Davis to take a lovely little walk down memory lane. He talks about his love of classical music beginning during his youth in New Jersey (Davis gets a great dig in about how "classical music" and "Jersey" don't exactly seem like they'd go together), his origin story at MPR, and some of the biggest news stories he's guided Minnesotans through over the last two decades. If nothing else, it's always nice to hear Crann's warm, steady voice on the radio.
And, without being too dramatic, this is a big deal for MPR. Here's what Bob Collins, an MPR News staffer from 1992 to 2019, had to say in Racket's big 2022 feature about the exodus of staff talent over there:
They always believe they’re the smartest people in the room, and that they’ll outlive every controversy. And they have! They do a pretty good job of keeping the store window looking about the same. As long as [Cathy] Wurzer and Tommy Crann are doing their thing, both of whom are wonderful people, I think the average donor is none the wiser. It's a brand that’s been built over 50 years—both nationally and regionally—and, ya know, your reputation is usually the last thing to go. But before it does you can milk it a long, long way.
Farm Aid Comes to MN
On September 20, Farm Aid will come to Minnesota for the first time with a 40th-anniversary show at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. It's the kickoff for a yearlong anniversary celebration for the food and music festival, with headlining performances from Farm Aid artists/board members Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews—whose politics, I just learned recently, are generally great—and Margo Price. Also on deck are Billy Strings, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Trampled by Turtles, Waxahatchee, Eric Burton of Black Pumas, Jesse Welles, Madeline Edwards, and, titillatingly, more artists to be announced.
“Family farmers are the heart of this country, and we depend on each other for good food and strong communities,” Nelson says in a statement, which notes that MN was a natural choice for the anniversary kickoff thanks to long-running rural advocacy, sustainable/equitable agriculture, and forward-thinking policy reform. "We’re proud to bring Farm Aid to Minnesota to celebrate the farmers who sustain us and to fight for a food system that works for all of us."
Tickets go on sale here May 16 and will run ya between $101 and $390.
Reminder: WI Lakes Don't Have Shit on Ours
Lest you forget, Minnesotans take their lakes very seriously. The popular Twitter account Midwest vs. Everybody found out as much on Monday, when a post offering a "casual reminder" that Wisconsin has "more lakes" than Minnesota (15,000 vs. around 11,000, it alleged) was smacked with a big ol' community note:
Wisconsin's DNR officially recognizes 15,074 lakes in the state. However, its definition of a lake is much less strict than Minnesota's, which requires a lake to be at least 10 acres in size. If Minnesota's definition of a lake is applied, Wisconsin only has 5,898 lakes.
Have fun paddling around on your glorified ponds, cheeseheads!
