Star Tribune
PAC money fuels record spending in Duluth mayor’s race
DULUTH — Spending on the Duluth mayoral race has climbed to new heights, thanks to big-ticket donations from political action committees, a rarity in the city of 86,000.
Both Mayor Emily Larson and challenger Roger Reinert are supported by independent interests and, in Larson’s case, the state DFL. Combined with their own fundraising, nearly $500,000 has been funneled into mailers, signs and social media, among other spending.
That’s more than double what was spent in the last competitive mayoral race in 2007.
The amount raised this year is startling for a city the size of Duluth, where both candidates are from the same political party, said a local political science professor.
“The two campaigns are not terribly far off in the amount they have individually raised,” said Kathryn Haglin, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Minnesota Duluth. “That huge boost is coming from these outside sources. And that’s something we haven’t seen as much in the past.”
The latest campaign finance reports show Larson has raised about $116,000 overall, with Reinert at nearly $102,000. Forever Duluth, a political action committee formed to support his efforts, raised more than $130,000, the bulk from a Duluth hotelier and a retired businessman. Both also have given heavily to Republican politicians, including former President Donald Trump and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson.
A climate-focused PAC supporting Larson poured $65,000 into the race, with money from the League of Conservation Voters. The Minnesota DFL spent about $50,000, although some went toward other Duluth candidates, said DFL Chair Ken Martin.
Reinert said Friday that he’s a nonpartisan candidate in the race and that most of the donations to his campaign have been small and local.
“I think the more interesting question is, ‘Why is Emily Larson getting so much money from outside the community?'” he said, noting he wouldn’t feel beholden to those who donated to Forever Duluth.
“I’m grateful to have people out there saying positive things and supporting us,” Reinert said.
Larson said she’s not surprised by the interest in the race, but there is a “major distinction between a known entity standing and investing in their endorsed candidate and a group of individuals single-handedly writing enormous checks.”
She said her campaign has been focused on direct contact with residents, knocking on 15,000 doors.
Both candidates said they have not worked with the PACs supporting them.
Martin characterized some of the donors to the Forever Duluth PAC as “extremist” Republicans, and noted a limited liability company that gave $20,000 but isn’t registered with the state.
“You don’t typically see that type of stuff in local races,” Martin said. “PACs pop up all the time that support candidates. What is unusual is the real imbalance you’re seeing in terms of the ideological donors. …”
Reinert, a former lawmaker, was a founder of the “Purple Caucus” during his Senate days, which was a group of DFL and GOP legislators willing to work together on issues and build relationships.
Minnesota law allows up to $600 in contributions to a candidate for a single year in cities with populations less than 100,000. That doesn’t apply to political action committees.
Former Duluth Mayor Don Ness said there was some outside spending in his 2007 race against Charlie Bell, but it was minimal.
Large amounts of independent money funding local elections seems more like “politics from a distance,” he said, rather than the exchange of ideas with your neighbors.
“When big, dumb money comes in and just kind of sloshes around, everything gets simplified into taglines and billboards. There’s a lot of heat but no light,” said Ness, who for a decade was campaign manager for the late U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, a Democrat.
Former St. Louis County Commissioner Frank Jewell filed a complaint this week with the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings regarding Forever Duluth’s unregistered limited liability company donor.
“Many people who are invested in good government really oppose and want to see, at the very least, if we allow PACs, that we can tell who it is that’s giving the money,” he said.
Pat Mullen, an Essentia Health executive, started the PAC. He said the entity in question was legitimate, but wouldn’t disclose who was behind it.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and her daughter were among the throngs Friday as President Joe Biden delivered the apology that many Indigenous Americans thought would never come.
“I think he really said the things that people have been waiting to hear for generations, acknowledged just the horror and trauma of literally having our children stolen from our communities,” said Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “It’s a powerful first step towards healing.”
Hundreds of boarding schools operated in the 19th and 20th centuries, separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to assimilate to European ways. Many children were abused, and at least 973 died, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Other Minnesotans reacted similarly to Flanagan, saying they welcomed the apology but that additional action is needed to help Indigenous people move forward.
Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, wrote in a newsletter that the apology was “a welcome first step on the journey to healing.”
“There is no way to truly right historical injustices for the children buried at Carlisle, Haskell, and other schools, but these words set a new tone for the country and will help heal the anguish so many Natives have carried for so long,” Treuer wrote. “It gives me hope that we can come together to reconcile and heal our troubled nation.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, called Biden’s apology encouraging.
“This recognition of past wrongdoings is an important step towards healing relationships between the United States and the sovereign nations affected by these past systems,” Kunesh said in a statement. “This dark period of American history must be remembered and taught.”
“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” Moturi wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response. I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, MPD officers had John detained, and despite an HRO and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”
On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at MPD’s failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
Council Members Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley went on to allege that police had failed to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office despite threats being made with weapons, and at times while Sawchak screamed racial slurs. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
The council members also contend in their letter that the MPD told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at MPD’s Fifth Precinct, O’Hara said police had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April, but “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.” The chief pointed out that Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refuses to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
O’Hara put aside the option to carry out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.” The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside his home, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
ROCHESTER – The Federal Transit Administration has green-lighted an $85 million grant supporting the development of the city’s planned Link Bus Rapid Transit system.
The FTA formally announced the grant on Friday during a ceremonial check presentation outside of the Mayo Civic Center, one of the seven stops planned for the bus line. The federal grant will cover about 60% of the project’s estimated $143.4 million price tag, with the remaining funds coming from Destination Medical Center, the largest public-private development project in state history.
Set to go live in 2026, the 2.8-mile Link system will connect downtown Rochester, including Mayo Clinic’s campuses, with a proposed “transit village” that will include parking, hundreds of housing units and a public plaza. The bus line will be the first of its kind outside the Twin Cities — with service running every five minutes during peak hours.
“That means you may not even need to look at a schedule,” said Veronica Vanterpool, deputy administrator for the FTA. “You can just show up at your transit stop and expect the next bus to come in a short time. That is a game changer and a life-transformational experience in transit for those people who are using it and relying on it.”
The planned Second Street corridor is already one of the busiest roads in Rochester, carrying more than 21,800 vehicles a day, and city planners have talked for years about ways to reduce traffic congestion in the city’s downtown. Local officials estimate that the transit line, which will rely on a fleet of all-electric buses, will handle 11,000 riders on its first day of operation and save eight city blocks of parking.
Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people gathered on Friday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the project shows Rochester is thinking strategically about how it handles growth.
“If you just plan the business expansion, and you don’t have the workforce, you don’t have the child care, the housing or the transit, it’s not going to work very well as a lot of communities across the nation have found,” Klobuchar said.
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