Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
DFL Chair Promoted to DNC Chair
If you can remember way back to 2017, a prominent Minnesota politician—then-U.S. Rep Keith Ellison—was poised to lead the Democratic National Committee. But, sensing a bona-fide progressive ready to wield power, the DNC establishment, including President Barack Obama, rallied around Labor Secretary Tom Perez instead. “This shows that the Democratic Party didn’t learn their lesson,” Ellison supporter Alexa Vaca told CNN at the time. “They are not going to be in touch with the people and they are not ready to move in a new direction despite the rhetoric.” Bingo!
Fast-forward to this past Saturday: Another Minnesota politician, DFL Chair Ken Martin, won a first-ballot party election to lead the DNC. “The Democratic Party is the party of working people, and it’s time to roll up our sleeves and outcompete everywhere, in every election, and at every level of government," Martin says in a statement.
What can voters expect from Martin, 51, a lifelong Twin Citian who volunteered for Sen. Paul Wellstone as a high schooler? Max Nesterak wrote the definitive profile for the Minnesota Reformer, in which he recaps Martin's herculean fundraising ability, his track record of statewide Ws since 2011, and his tendency to punch left. To that latter point: Martin has mocked online leftists as "losers," clutched pearls over a Minneapolis DFL chair joking about Reagan dying, and called a Twin Cities DSA statement of solidarity with Palestine "appalling." But his "eager to brawl" mindset could be an asset to the national party, Nesterak writes, though his chumminess with monied donors—Martin has raised $200 million for the DFL—"presents its own problems as Democrats aim to stop looking like the party of elites."
There's no disputing the Democrats desperately need help. Over the weekend the New York Times published dire thoughts from 50+ party leaders, with one of them concluding, "We have no coherent message." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tells Semafor he's pinning party comeback hopes on the probability that “Trump will screw up,” which is sorta the absence of a message. Meanwhile, closer to home, Sen. Amy Klobuchar shared a truly baffling anecdote about a bed bug truck with the New York Times. Oof...
“Ken Martin and I have had our differences, but if Democrats want to win more elections we need someone that’s willing to backstab and throw people under the bus running this party,” says ex-Minneapolis DFL Vice Chair Mike Norton.
U of M to Accommodate ICE, Review All DEI Communications
Since 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, as well as Customs and Border Patrol agents, have been prohibited from raiding "sensitive" areas like courthouses, schools, and churches. President Trump's Department of Homeland Security rolled that policy back last month, and now the Minnesota Daily's Jack O'Connor reports the University of Minnesota "will comply with federal court orders and subpoenas" related to ICE immigration orders. "As a public university and employer, we cannot ignore federal court orders or subpoenas,” says U of M PR guy Jake Ricker, adding that UMPD won't assist ICE and the university doesn't volunteer immigration statuses of students or workers to the federal government. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, meanwhile, recently said the city won't be rolling out the welcome mat for ICE. “As for cooperation with ICE, the answer is no," he told reporters last week.
Back on campus, the Daily's Spencer White reported over the weekend that the U is "reassessing its DEI programs," which includes hitting pause on hiring a new assistant DEI dean for the law school. “This is a disappointing development for many, and I know it brings questions and uncertainty for our community,” law school dean William McGeveran wrote Friday in an email to students, faculty, and staff. More broadly, the Star Tribune reports the U of M will now require lawyers to vet "all communications related to diversity, equity and inclusion." Kelly Leaf, who works at the U's school of social work, describes the policy as, "absolutely horrifying... I wanted to make sure that our state leadership understands that the University of Minnesota preemptively crumbled like a cookie.”
Meet Duluth's "Bare Knuckle[d]" One-Man Newsroom
John Ramos, the single reporter at the Duluth Monitor, first came across our radar during his dogged reporting on the saga of ex-Two Harbors Mayor Chris Swanson, whose crypto fantasies and underwater hotel pipe dream spiraled into a shocking, increasingly dark recall election three years ago. More recently, we've highlighted the Monitor's reports that Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert might be giving unelected powers to his girlfriend. (Worth noting: Reinert was cleared of wrongdoing last month.)
Earlier today, Dan Gunderson of MPR News published this colorful profile of Ramos's muckraking endeavors on the North Shore. Ramos, 54, seems to enjoy pissing off powerful people, something he has done with regularity since launching the Monitor in 2019. His wife serves as his “hard, hard, cold, cold editor," and so far 460 Twin Ports news consumers have chipped in to support his work. "The people do seem to be responding to the more aggressive, more in your face, type of really pushing for questions style,” he tells MPR. "I don't want it to be like just entertainment, although I have to admit, sometimes it's fun."
Hell Yeah: Let's Get Some Elk
For 10 years, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has been working to reintroduce elk to Minnesota. The mightily antlered mammals once roamed our state's Arrowhead Region, though they vanished by the late 1800s due to human interference. Now, with the backing of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the tribe predicts a wild elk herd could be repopulated near their reservation as early as 2026, Northern News Now reports. “Many folks here just see the inherent value of elk, just by the fact that they are a native species that was once part of this landscape—that alone makes them important,” says Makenzie Henk, the Fond du Lac Band’s elk biologist. (Kittson and Marshall counties in northwestern Minnesota are already home to three reintroduced elk herds.) Kelsie LaSharr, the DNR's elk coordinator, says similar projects, including a recent one in Wisconsin, have proven to be huge successes. “This has been shown and proven to be a very effective way of bringing in additional tourism through photography and videography, through hunting opportunities,” she says.
