Star Tribune
Minnesota voters favoring renewal of dedicated lottery funding for environment
Early returns from Minnesota’s only constitutional amendment question on the November ballot showed voters favoring renewal of dedicated lottery funding for the outdoors, a system that has delivered more than $1 billion to environmental projects since it began 36 years ago.
For the measure to pass, more than 50% of voters must say “yes” to the continued flow of Minnesota State Lottery cash into the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund.
Since voters first adopted dedicated lottery funding for the outdoors in 1988, the pipeline of money has pumped tens of millions of dollars a year for clean water, wildlife habitat, environmental education, trails, land acquisition and other projects beneficial to natural resources.
If the final vote is a “yes,” the system will be in place at least until 2050. If the measure fails, lottery money will continue to flow to the trust fund unless the Legislature changes it.
The money is shepherded by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). The yearly recommendations must be approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor for the money to be released. In the current fiscal year, the trust fund generated $76.6 million to underwrite 101 projects. Next year, the withdrawal from the fund will surpass $100 million for the first time.
Previous statewide votes in 1990 and 1998 overwhelmingly supported constitutional dedication of lottery funds for the preservation and restoration of wild places. To keep it going, a broad-based coalition of outdoors-minded groups has campaigned for yet another victory. The group, known as Minnesotans for Our Great Outdoors, has been reminding voters that leaving the question blank counts as a “no.”
The system for distributing the annual proceeds wouldn’t change if the amendment passes. That process, starting with projects selected by LCCMR, is governed by the Legislature. But this year’s proposed constitutional amendment would increase the maximum allowable annual draw from the trust fund from 5.5% to 7%. To address the additional 1.5%, the Legislature created a new community grant program for underserved organizations and communities. To be overseen by the Department of Natural Resources, it would dole out money in consultation with an advisory council for projects consistent with the constitutional purpose of the trust fund.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz were poised to win Minnesota’s electoral votes on Tuesday, but there was little to celebrate as a path to nationwide victory looked narrow.
Neither Harris-Walz nor former President Donald Trump and running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, spent much time campaigning in the state. Republicans had pledged to turn Minnesota red for the first time since 1972, but polls consistently showed Harris-Walz with a slim but steady lead.
Late into the evening Tuesday, the returns looked far less promising for the Democrats.
If elected, Harris would be the first female president and Walz would be the third Minnesotan elected to the vice presidency.
Harris and Walz ran a compressed campaign as she tapped him for the ticket in early August shortly after President Joe Biden stepped aside and just before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Walz sought to join Minnesota’s favorite sons, the late vice presidents Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey, who served, respectively, with former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Lyndon Johnson.
Voting in north Minneapolis Tuesday, Joseph Thomas, 39, said he chose Harris and cited equality, help with housing and taxes as issues he cared about most. He also liked that Harris could be the first female president: “That was a big deal, too,” he said.
At Martin Luther King Recreation Center in St. Paul, Kate Kulzer walked her dog, a Catahoula leopard dog named Rhubarb, and dropped her fiancé off to vote about an hour before polls closed. Kulzer had voted for Harris earlier in the day – but she considered it a vote against Trump.
Less than half of the results in the presidential race in were reported in Minnesota just before 11 p.m. The first race call in Minnesota — Seventh District Rep. Michelle Fischbach’s re-election — came after 10 p.m., two hours after polls closed.
So what caused the delay in reporting results? In 2023, the deadline for receiving absentee ballots was extended from 3 to 8 p.m. That change is causing results to be posted later, said Cassondra Knudson, the spokeswoman for Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon.
“Most counties are expected to process the absentee ballots received by 8 p.m. before reporting any election results,” Knudson wrote in a statement about the deadline changes.
So far, some state races have almost all of the results posted, while others have a long way to go to be called. Nearly 1.3 million absentee ballots had been accepted, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office. There are nearly 3.7 million registered voters in Minnesota.
PARK RAPIDS, MINN. — In western Minnesota’s deep-red Seventh Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach easily won a third term.
Democrat A. John Peters challenged Fischbach, a Donald Trump loyalist from Litchfield who was first elected in 2020 when she ousted DFLer Collin Peterson, who held the seat for 30 years. Fischbach, 58, has since amassed one of the most conservative voting records in Minnesota’s delegation.
She won in 2022 by about 40 percentage points and nearly 30 percentage points in the August primary. She was ahead by similar margins in early returns.
Fischbach said in a statement before the victory that “the election will validate the work I’ve been doing on behalf of the good people in western Minnesota. I am honored to be their voice in D.C. advocating for decency, common sense, and our rural way of life.”
Audrey Brasel, 37, a nurse practitioner in Park Rapids, voted for Fischbach after her shift Tuesday night at Essentia Health-Park Rapids Clinic. She cast an all-Republican ballot.
“Those leaders are the people that align with what I believe and just want to preserve, I guess, the standards of our country and preserve our freedom,” Brasel said.
Peters, 76, of Browerville, twice ran unsuccessfully for Minnesota Senate. He was hoping to get 35% of votes. Polls gave him a 1% shot at winning.
The Seventh Congressional District is Minnesota’s largest by land area, spanning 38 counties from the Canadian border nearly to Iowa.
