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Capitol View®
Mike Mulcahy

Daily Digest: Democrats debate part two

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Good morning, and welcome to the last Friday in June. There was another debate last night, this time without a Minnesotan involved. That's where we'll start the Digest.

1. Rivals take aim at Biden. Democratic divisions over race, age and ideology burst into public view in Thursday night’s presidential debate, punctuated by a heated exchange between former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris. It was one of several moments that left the 76-year-old Biden, who entered the night as his party’s early front-runner , on the defensive as he works to convince voters he’s still in touch with the modern Democratic Party and best-positioned to deny President Donald Trump a second term. “I do not believe you are a racist,” Harris said to Biden before criticizing his record of working with Democratic segregationist senators on non-race issues as “hurtful.” Biden called Harris’ criticism “a complete mischaracterization of my record.” He declared, “I ran because of civil rights” and later accused the Trump administration of embracing racism. The night marked an abrupt turning point in a Democratic primary in which candidates have largely tiptoed around each other, focusing instead on their shared desire to beat Trump. With millions of Americans peeking inside the Democrats’ unruly 2020 season for the first time, the showdown revealed deep rifts eight months before primary voting begins. (AP)

2. State to launch education campaign on hands-free cellphone law. Many drivers haven't gotten the message yet. They need to change their behavior when it comes to using cellphones in their vehicles. And they need to do it soon. Minnesota’s new hands-free requirement takes effect on Aug. 1. State officials announced an education campaign Thursday that will begin next week to stress that holding a cellphone while driving is about to be illegal. Too many drivers are dangerously distracted by their phones, said Mike Hanson, who heads the office of traffic safety in the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. “We’ve heard the word and we’ve used the word epidemic. It is that pervasive in our culture, our attachment and our dependency on those electronic devices. So, it does require that cultural change.” Hanson said the messages will be hard to miss in coming weeks. The media campaign will include radio ads, billboards and social media messages. He said the material will be translated into multiple languages. (MPR News)

3. What does the Supreme Court's ruling on the census mean for Minnesota? Minnesotans prepping for the 2020 census were pleased Thursday when the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the federal government from including a citizenship question on the form — at least for now. But proponents of eliminating the question said there’s still plenty of uncertainty about what’s next, and they fear lingering litigation and administrative actions could still dissuade some Minnesotans from participating next year. “Today is a positive moment, but none of what we’ve been dealing with up to this point is going to go away,” said Bob Tracy with the Minnesota Council on Foundations. “We’re going to be moving forward with the same challenges that we had before the question of adding a citizenship question was put before us about a year ago.” The once-a-decade population count has big implications for Minnesota: the state is on the cusp of losing one of its eight seats in Congress to faster-growing states. (MPR News)

4. Border bill divides Democrats in Washington. Democrats broke into open warfare Thursday over Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s surrender to the Senate’s emergency border aid package, with the caucus’s long-simmering divide between progressives and centrists playing out in dramatic fashion on the House floor. Some lawmakers even resorted to public name-calling, with progressive leader Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) accusing moderate Democrats of favoring child abuse — an exchange on Twitter that prompted a pair of freshmen centrists to confront him directly on the floor, with other lawmakers looking on in shock. Just before the vote, Pocan, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called the Problem Solvers Caucus — a bipartisan group of moderates that pushed Pelosi to take up the Senate bill — the “Child Abuse Caucus.” Reps. Max Rose (D-N.Y.), and Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), both members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, confronted Pocan on the House floor over his tweet. According to sources familiar with the conversation, Rose used expletives, and Pocan said he did not apologize. “I said, how come you can’t stay 24 hours to do your job?” Pocan said of his retort to Rose on the floor. “He said, ‘My mother thinks I’m a child abuser.’ I said, ‘I’ll tell your mother you’re not a child abuser.’” Rose, whom his party considers to be vulnerable in 2020, vented his frustration Thursday shortly after the exchange, calling Pocan’s tweet “crazy, crazy language.” (Politico)

5. Swiss company takes majority stake in PolyMet. Swiss mining giant Glencore is now the majority shareholder of PolyMet, the company trying to open Minnesota's first copper-nickel mine, a move that gives Glencore a substantial say in the direction of the contentious project. PolyMet still needs to raise nearly $1 billion in financing for the project. In a news release Thursday, PolyMet CEO Jon Cherry said that would be easier with its debt cleared. "Clearing our balance sheet of debt with this rights offering puts us in a much stronger position to obtain construction financing for the project," Cherry said. "We could not have achieved either one of these major milestones without Glencore’s longstanding technical and financial support.” By becoming a majority shareholder Glencore now has substantial say in the direction of PolyMet, including the ability to replace corporate officers and hold more positions on the board of directors. That's worrisome to opponents of the mine, who say Glencore's shoddy labor and environmental record would only make the controversial project even more dangerous. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating Glencore for alleged corrupt practices and the Justice Department has subpoenaed Glencore for alleged money laundering and possible corruption. In 2015, United Steelworkers ranked Glencore as the second-worst company in the world for its anti-union behavior and mistreatment of workers at refineries. (Duluth News Tribune)