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Range Women’s Advocates to lose staff after state grant loss
State funding cuts from recent years are still impacting communities across the state. In northern Minnesota, Range Women’s Advocates — a nonprofit that helps victims of domestic abuse — learned this week it would not receive a necessary $500,000 grant. This will cause RWA half its workforce, and place a large caseload of clients in…
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The remarkable change of our times
It’s hard to see history through the lens of the present. So it’s easy to see last week’s election results and the preceding years of national political bickering as a continuation of more of the same-old, same-old. Washington Post writer and blogger Ezra Klein, however, sees it differently, and his observations are eye-opening. In the…
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With election over, northern Minnesota must win future
With the election behind us, we can now expel the fantasy that the results on their own will fix the economic challenges facing northern Minnesota. What we do have is a fresh opportunity to reorganize our region’s strategy. And really, leadership can come from anyone. Tuesday’s winners have a role, sure, but so do community…
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Northern Minnesota split shows how amendments went down
Early in the election season I had a conversation with a local organizer for Minnesotans United for All Families, the group fighting the proposed Marriage Amendment that failed Tuesday. Her task was to convince voters on the socially conservative Iron Range to vote against the amendment despite polls showing it running very strong in northern…
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DFL wins big in northern Minnesota
Rick Nolan cruised to a surprisingly strong victory over Rep. Chip Cravaack in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional district. DFLers swept all but a couple northern Minnesota legislative seats, including a sweep of the SD5 “incumb-off” races and key pickups elsewhere. The DFL won the State House and State Senate by convincing margins, bringing a dramatically new…
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LIVE BLOG: Election Night 2012 in Northern Minnesota
You might think this is a liquor store making a strong political endorsement, but no. This is Hibbing DFL headquarters, built inside the bones of a recently defunct liquor store. Polls in Minnesota and across the nation have closed. I’ll report election results and behind-the-scenes information from my sources across northern Minnesota throughout the evening…
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Live MPR, Uptake election feeds at MinnesotaBrown
You can read my live blog with northern Minnesota results, but I’m also proud to partner with two extraordinary news organizations, Minnesota Public Radio and The Uptake, to provide additional live coverage of Election Day and vote reports. I’d recommend you keep this post and the live blog in separate browser windows to get the…
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Election Day in the hot, hot North
Henry made a snowman last week and we had some fun enfranchising it. After the most bruising, scorched-earth campaign season in the modern history of northern Minnesota, it brings me great pleasure to report the following: Today is election day. One side may win. One side may lose. An ambiguous mixture of results is more…
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Nolan holds slight lead in final SUSA poll of MN-8
A final Survey USA poll has been released for MN-8 in northern Minnesota. Rick Nolan leads Chip Cravaack 47-45, a statistical tie but one that shows slight momentum for Nolan. It’s also the fourth consecutive media poll showing at lead for Nolan. I wrote a piece of final analysis for MN-8 earlier today. This poll…
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Northern Minnesota’s role in shaping the legislature
Earlier today I shared my final thoughts on the MN-8 race heading into Election Day. Right now I’m going to share some ideas about legislative races in northern Minnesota. Conventional wisdom is that the DFL has “a good chance” to take back the Senate and “a chance” to take back the House. I haven’t seen…
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Decision time in #mn08’s land of ore, woods, waters & ships
The entire Iron Range political class of these last decades grew in the shadow of Rep. Jim Oberstar. This 36-year-veteran of Congress was the chosen successor to Rep. John Blatnik, his boss and fellow Chisholm native who himself served 28 years previously. The two men epitomized the rise of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party after WWII. They…
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LIVE: President Clinton to speak tonight in St. Cloud, Minn.
President Bill Clinton is slated to make his second appearance in Minnesota in less than a week with a rally tonight in St. Cloud. His return is widely attributed to a renewed Democratic interested in helping Jim Graves defeat U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a conservative lightning rod with a national profile. No doubt his efforts…
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My latest MN-8 analysis on Twin Cities AM950
I’ll be a guest on the Left MN Radio Hour on AM950 in the Twin Cities this afternoon at 2. I’ll talk about the MN-8 race between Rep. Chip Cravaack and former Rep. Rick Nolan. I’ll also add some insight to some of of the northern Minnesota toss-up legislative races. You can listen at AM950…
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Hurricane Bill skitters about Mesabi Daily News endorsements
Based on a scathing editorial against DFLer Jason Metsa written before the primary, I was certain Bill Hanna’s Mesabi Daily News would endorse his Republican opponent in House District 6B before the election. I was proven wrong, as Hanna gave the nod to Metsa today in the race to succeed Rep. Tom Rukavina who retired…
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COLUMN: Wisdom to the victors, comfort to the defeated
This is my Sunday column for the Nov. 4, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Wisdom to the victors, comfort to the defeatedBy Aaron J. Brown As the old saying goes, “Don’t vote, you’ll only encourage them.” Well, OK. You should vote. It’s more than just a civic duty. Important issues are at stake…