The first major event of the 2024 election year is set for tonight, when the major political parties hold their annual precinct caucuses.
The caucuses are the grass roots beginnings of all political elections. Members of one party gather to hear from candidates for office, elect delegates to the party’s county convention, and discuss the issues they feel are most important and should be a part of that party’s platform.
The people elected as delegates out of the precinct caucuses will then attend the party County Conventions in April. From there delegates will be elected to the Congressional District Conventions. Another group will then be selected to attend the parties’ State Nominating Conventions, where delegates will be selected to attend the National Conventions.
In the past, during Presidential election years, a straw poll has been conducted to determine the state’s nominee for President of the United States. However, last year Minnesota turned to a primary election system. Now, voters will go to their voting precinct next week, select a ballot for one party only, and cast their vote for the person they would like the state party to nominate. This primary is only to determine the Presidential nominee. A second primary to determine candidates for all other national and statewide offices will be held on August 13th.
Tonight’s Republican Northfield precinct caucus will be at Northfield High School. The majority of the DFL caucuses will be at the Northfield Middle School, except for Ward 1, Precinct 1, which will meet at the Larson Meeting Room (Room 236) in the Carleton College Weitz Center, and Ward 4, Precinct 2 which will be in the Viking Theater of the Kelsey Theater Building on the St. Olaf College Campus.
Caucuses will begin at 7pm, but early arrival for registration is recommended.
Pursell promotes farmers ‘Right to Repair’
Representative Kristi Pursell (D-Northfield) of District 58A has had a busy two weeks since the Minnesota Legislature convened. Pursell has presented several bills in committee and gave her first press conference yesterday alongside other legislators and Attorney General Keith Ellison to promote consumer protection.
Pursell, who serves on the House Elections, Environment and Natural Resources, and Education Finance Committees, and is Vice Chair of the House Agriculture Policy and Finance Committee, said she presented a pair of bills in the Environment and Natural Resources Committee last week. One bill, she said, clearly defines what should be considered public waters, and the other would require the disclosure of drainage tile that has been installed in a farm field when that field is sold.
She has a bill that was introduced into the Elections Committee giving college administrators the ability to request a one-day polling place be set up on campus in order to make early voting easier for college students. That bill, she said, could actually make it to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote as early as next week. However the companion bill in the Senate is now different from the bill she introduced, so it will require work in a conference committee before it can go to the Governor’s desk for signature.
Yesterday morning, Pursell, along with two DFL Senators and another DFL member of the House, along with the Attorney General, met the press to promote consumer protection bills that each of them has Chief Authored. Pursell spoke about her Agriculture Right to Repair Bill that would allow farmers to work on their own farm equipment, which is something many manufacturers do not allow. Pursell said it is ridiculous for a farmer to have to wait for a dealer mechanic to change a sensor in a combine when they could do it themselves and save a great deal of money.
“Farmers deserve the freedom to operate their machinery and run their businesses as they choose. We cannot allow corporations to make business decisions for our family farmers and it’s time to push back. We don’t have to wait for federal regulation, and we can help our farmers now by passing this legislation. That’s a priority for my constituents and for the farmers who work the land across Minnesota.”
Pursell’s Right to Repair Bill has a great deal of bipartisan support and is expected to pass sometime during this session.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Representative Kristi Pursell of District 58A can be heard here
St. Olaf Speaker Series free and open to the public
The St. Olaf College Institute for Freedom and Community has announced its Spring speaker series.
Established in 2014, the Institute for Freedom and Community was put in place to help students learn to have civil debate and dialogue. In a time when political lines are drawn sharply and deeply, the institute teaches communication skills for difficult issues.
Professor Christopher Chapp, the director of the institute, said this spring the theme of the speaker series is food and food policy. Chapp acknowledged that food isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of controversial issues, but he said, if you think about food and its fundamental value to every living thing on Earth, of course there will always be differences of opinions, and plenty of things to talk about.
“It’s a policy area that maybe isn’t quite as hot button as some, but it’s still contentious, it’s still important when you think about the different sectors that food touches. You know, we’re in an agricultural community here in Northfield and farm policy is really important. But also, food and culture and food and the role of government. You can think of all sorts of different angles into food.”
The topics that will be discussed within the series range from the high-tech future of food to gender roles in food through the lens of ancient home economics textbooks, to the LGBTQ contributions to food over the past fifty years, to the wisdom of the laws that govern food and how it is produced. Among the speakers is Sean Sherman, the owner and Executive Chef of the James Beard Award winning Minneapolis Restaurant Owamni who will begin the series on Monday.
Chapp said he is still piecing together the speaker series for this fall, but it will, of course, focus on the election this November. True to the spirit of the institute, he said he wants to provide speakers with differing viewpoints.
“What I really want to do is juxtapose speakers in the fall that will have different views on some of the policy issues that are really getting talked about in the campaign and we want to bring in speakers not necessarily left, right, maybe a little bit, you know, like different types of juxtapositions.”
All the presentations are free and open to the public, and they are live streamed as well. For more information visit the Institute’s website at institute.stolaf.edu.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with the director of the St. Olaf College Institute of Freedom and Communication Professor Christopher Chapp can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
