urbanMSP

Good luck to him though. I'm nowhere near as hardcore lefty as many Berners (on economic issues anyways), but I agree with much of what Barnett is saying in this article about the DFL largely being run by moderates, even in our most progressive districts. Like how many of our current state reps or senators actually (and publicly) support legalizing marijuana? None that I'm aware of.

John Marty appeared in Super High Me in favor of medical marijuana, so he's at least not super against it.

EDIT: Link: http://www.citypages.com/news/state-sen ... ck-6533040

The medical marijuana movement was fascinating. Apparently sympathy for the afflicted sells with Minnesotans, but the injustice of marijuana prohibition does not.

Sympathy sells, but only just barely.

Let's remember that we have one of the most-stringent set of medical marijuana laws in the nation. And it's a big reason why the number of users is so low.

And even getting that was a struggle. Cops are powerful, and they really like having "marijuana possession" as a pretext to arrest people (primarily of color).

What's interesting about this whole pot debate is that the many Indian Tribes in the state could very likely fully legalize it unilaterally on their reservations. It would probably provide a good-sized economic boost, and yet they haven't done it.

1. Rod Skoe facing a stiff challenge in Senate District 2: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/10/24 ... -challenge

I'd be ok with losing Skoe, as long as the DFL holds every metro district and Cwod defeats Hann in Eden Prairie. DFL would retain the majority, lose this old-school crony, and gain a new Tax Committee chair. However, if Skoe were to lose, that would mean the DFL probably also loses SD1 and possibly SD4 or SD5 as well. SD1 (NW corner of the state) is entirely GOP territory that was a bit of a miracle that retiring Sen. Leroy Stumpf held on as long as he did.

2. City Pages did a lengthy profile on Daudt: http://www.citypages.com/news/why-nice- ... /397511211

Here's your update on the MN leg races that will decide control: https://www.minnpost.com/politics-polic ... ta-updated

With apologies for the objectification of women, I must say, Erin May Quade is fine as hell. Hoping she comes out on top in 57A (Apple Valley, currently held by the retiring Tara Mack)

OK, I had to look.

These photos from her campaign website are almost comically staged.

And she's also married- to a woman, and clearly has never planted a tree.

I'm seeing most sources saying the Senate is still up for grabs but it appears MPR is calling it, full GOP control of the legislature: http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/11/08 ... e-defeated

GOP control of the MN legislature. David Hann lost as well. O_o

One good thing to come from last night. Ilhan Omar is the first Somali-American ever to be elected to a state level legislature. I'm very proud of my district (to be fair a Somali-American would have won the district anyway, but yeah).

I've rarely been so happy to have an midterm-elected Governor.

I don't understand how 8 years of an improving economy, more rights for more people, and so forth can result in an election of such sweeping change everywhere. I was optimistic about yesterday in all levels of gov't and absolutely everything went the other direction. What the hell happened?

Racism. And an electorate that's legitimately delusional. I'm at an engineering conference, and someone (an engineer, so not like a factory worker that lost her job to a robot or anything) asked a question after a presentation asking how stuff would work if the economy started growing again, since it hasn't recovered at all since 2008. And the presenter answered the question seriously. We got the results we deserve.

The MN Senate results are baffling. Knocked off the GOP leader Hann with a solid candidate and beating Hann up over his opposition to SWLRT. Lakeville Mayor Matt Little looks to have eeked out a tiny win in an even redder district. All while losing Terri Bonoff's old district and Barb Yarusso in Shoreview.

The DFL needed one seat!! One seat!!

Democrats absolutely need to win the Governorship in 2018. And now I'm officially terrified that the DFL is gonna try to run some South Minneapolis liberal and lose.

I don't understand how 8 years of an improving economy, more rights for more people, and so forth can result in an election of such sweeping change everywhere. I was optimistic about yesterday in all levels of gov't and absolutely everything went the other direction. What the hell happened?

Right??

Conspiracy theory (since the right used a shit-ton of their own conspiracy theories to eff everything up): Russia hacked our election systems such that a tiny percentage of votes flipped all over the place—just enough to screw everything up, not not enough to make anyone look into it. There aren't going to be any paper recounts—if there were even paper trails to begin with—so there will be no detection of the tampering.

Or it's because we've ignored farmers and rural America for the past 4-8 years.

The Russians probably hacked into Clinton's polling and saw that she'd lose anyways.