Back on my Friday routine and you know what’s great about writing this two days in a row? Not having to constantly refer to the previous day’s work to make sure I’m not duplicating. Presumably, I remember what I wrote yesterday and can focus singularly on Friday, a day I usually don’t mention by name because we know. Oh, how we know.

The polls are open and the entire Minnesota Star Tribune political team (with one notable absence — ehem) is here to help you figure it all out with our voter guide. This took weeks to pull together under the guidance of our detail-oriented team leader Laura McCallum, who was working on it late into Thursday evening. If it seems relatively simple to ask candidates for their positions, it most definitely is not. Some don’t respond at all. Some require heavy editing. It’s an incredible resource so please peruse at your leisure.

We have this companion piece: What’s on my ballot? Our aim is to help you be an informed and eager voter. Call your friends, family and frenemies, let’s set record turnout and show the nation how we do it here in the sometimes Bold North.

If you’d like to spend more time with McCallum, she read and reviewed “Rise to the Challenge,” former Lt. Gov. Marlene Johnson’s autobiography. She was the state’s first female lieutenant governor, serving under the late Gov. Rudy Perpich. There’s political intrigue and personal pain as she cares for her ailing husband. Johnson offers insight into the challenges. One lesson? “Learning to let go of those things I can’t control.” (That advice must have resonated with Madam McCallum. Ha.)

VOTER MOJO: Teammate Josie Albertson-Grove looks at election law changes since 2020 that aim to boost voter turnout. Early voting hours, automatic registration and pre-registration for teen-agers all aim to help Minnesotans get to the polls. Secretary of State Steve Simon says “2020 was the ultimate stress test when it came to the mail and the number of people choosing to vote by mail.” If the postal service was able to handle the mailed-in ballots during the pandemic, Simon said he’s confident there will not be major issues this November. Also, Simon says the glitch in the automatic voter reg system is fixed, the always affable and reliable Steve Karnowski of the Associated Press reports.

NOT COMMITTING: Washington D.C. correspondent Sydney Kashiwagi reports that both nationally and in Minnesota, the pro-Palestine Uncommitted movement is not endorsing the Harris-Walz ticket. Some 46,000 Minnesotans voted uncommitted in the primary and the state sent 11 uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. “Vice President Harris and Governor Walz have not done the minimum we have asked for to earn our endorsement, which is to commit to an immediate and permanent cease-fire, for one, but two, to back that up by committing to an arms embargo to stop supplying the fire that we want to cease,” said Samuel Doten, a spokesman of the Uncommitted Movement in Minnesota and co-chair of Minnesota’s Uncommitted delegation to the DNC.

Harris-Walz campaign spokesman Teddy Tschann reported that Walz met Thursday with families of Americans held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. The governor “emphasized that Vice President Harris, alongside President Biden, will continue doing everything possible to secure the release of their family members and all the hostages, including the remains of those who have been tragically confirmed to be deceased.”

The group discussed the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to end the war and ensure Israel is secure, all hostages are released and the suffering in Gaza ends.

POLL PARTY: If you’re the kind of person, like me, who suffers the Sunday Scaries please allow me to assist you through with the promise of Something Big early Monday. We’ll begin a series of stories with our partners in the Star Tribune/MPR News/KARE 11 Minnesota Poll on the presidential contest, U.S. Senate race, issues and Gov. Tim Walz among other notables.

Under no circumstances should you DM asking what the numbers are. I will absolutely not tell you. Well, I might consider the reveal if you call me Sunday night with a blockbuster scoop on a platter but most likely NO.

SEASONAL HEAT: We need to talk about the wild ride that was Thursday’s news cycle. North Carolina Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson remains on the ballot after the midnight deadline for withdrawal passed because he said he won’t be forced out by ‘salacious tabloid lies.’ Robinson would be the state’s first Black governor and he has a fan in Trump. A CNN report described a series of racial and sexual comments Robinson posted on a pornography website more than a decade ago. Robinson attacked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in “searing terms” and once referred to himself as a ‘’black NAZI.’’

IF YOU know any well-connected political reporters, buy them a cup of coffee because they stayed up too late due to the bombshell news that New York Magazine star political reporter Olivia Nuzzi, 31, is on leave after admitting to an inappropriate relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. She says it wasn’t physical. His camp says he met her once. Also, she’s engaged to another star political reporter Ryan Lizza. Kennedy is married to the actress Cheryl Hines. As one friend said to me this morning, “We’re going to need to see those texts.”

ALSO THURSDAY Trump told Jewish voters that they will be to blame if he loses. Harris campaigned online with Oprah Winfrey and revealed that she owns a gun and will use it. New York City’s COVID czar Dr. Jay Varma is revealed to have attended drug-fueled sex parties while telling the rest of us to stay home and mask up. This prompted a friend/colleague to DM me this morning with: “Is everyone invited to sex parties but me?”

CAPITOL HAPPENINGS:

11:15 a.m.: Communities Organizing Latin Power and Action (COPAL) announces the launch of a sister organization, Somos the Future. Somos will operate as a separate Latina-led political action committee (PAC). The aim is mobilizing voters, endorsing candidates and making sure the community is represented at every level of government.

3-5 p.m.: Members of the State Emblems Redesign Commission (SERC) have a panel discussion at the Minnesota History Center to talk about the new flag, how it was designed and adopted. The event is sponsored by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA), the world’s largest flag and standard scholars’ organization.

WHERE’S WALZ:

Nothing official but he did announce Thursday the appointment of Emily Froehle to the Hennepin County bench.

WEEKEND ACTION: Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz will give the keynote at the Human Rights Campaign Minnesota Dinner at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and U.S. Rep. Angie Craig are also expected at the event.

READING LIST

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s decision to make a plea deal to Husayn Braveheart is coming under heavy criticism again as he was arrested last weekend. Colleague Jeff Day has the story.
Minnesota posted the largest jobs gain in two years in August, Dee DePass reports.
Christopher Snowbeck reports there are no easy answers on whether the University of Minnesota should own a teaching hospital. This is a good primer on an issue that will continue.
Hello there, new Nyala calf born at Como Zoo and I am a sucker for pictures of baby animals.
Let’s have a moment for recently departed Dr. John Clements, who saved thousands of babies. In 1949, he posed the question: “How could the millions of tiny air sacs in the lungs deflate when a person breathes out, but not collapse like a balloon?” He found surfactant in the lungs and a few years later, Harvard researchers determined surfactant was absent in infants with respiratory distress, which, 60 years ago, caused the death of 10,000 deaths annually. Gift link here.
Also, it seems like a good time to re-up this as we wait for the new season of Saturday Night Live whence we will find out who plays Gov. Tim Walz. “Stay inside and listen to some music. OK? Do you have any Allman Brothers?”