Why Minnesota’s judicial elections are not like Wisconsin’s
By Briana Bierschbach
Good morning and happy (?) debate night. President Joe Biden and Donald Trump will meet on the stage in Atlanta for the first time since 2020 to try to convince voters to give them a second term. Both men are much more unpopular now than they were back then. Are you excited to watch or dreading it? Let us know your plans: hotdish@startribune.com.
We’re going to look way down the ballot in today’s newsletter, past the race for president, Congress and the Minnesota House to the state’s oft-overlooked judicial contests. Unlike last election cycle, Minnesotans will have more than one candidate for judge in multiple races on the ballot, including two seats on the state Supreme Court.
Nine judicial races out of 103 total have more than one candidate registered to run. Newly-appointed Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson and Associate Justice Karl Procaccini are both facing challengers, but don’t expect their races to be anything like the high-profile Supreme Court races we’ve seen next door in Wisconsin, which saw more than $50 million in spending for a single seat on the court last year.
Why? Minnesota has managed to avoid expensive and contentious judicial contests for decades through a mix of institutional norms, a historically weak bench of challengers and a lack of high-profile cases before the state’s highest court that have spurred opposition. For the column, I talked with emeritus U of M law prof Herbert Kritzer about why the two states take such a different approach to electing judges, and why he thinks Supreme Court races across the country are going to get more attention going forward.
MITCHELL: Police body-worn camera video of Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s arrest on a burglary charge won’t be released early, Becker County District Court Judge Gretchen Thilmony ruled Wednesday. Rochelle Olson reports that conservative website Alpha News had asked the judge to release the police and dash-cam footage of the arrest of Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, on April 22 at the home the senator’s late father shared with her stepmother.
But Thilmony wrote that circumventing these typical proceedings “is an extraordinary measure that the legislature has plainly prohibited in all but the most important circumstances.” Mitchell faces one first-degree burglary charge and an ethics complaint brought by Republicans in the Senate.
TRACKS: More from Olson, who reports that Sen. Michael Kreun, whose district includes the Running Aces racetrack, does not approve of the two appointments Gov. Tim Walz made to the Minnesota Racing Commission last week. Walz appointed Melanie Benjamin, the six-term Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe chief executive, and Johnny Johnson, who was, until recently, the president of the Prairie Island Indian Community. Kreun, R-Blaine, notes that both tribal communities run casinos that are direct competitors to the racetracks and called the appointments “divisive, retaliatory” and “a clear abuse” of power.
