MN political drama and a federal school desegregation update
Greetings from Minneapolis, where I’m spending the summer. Hoping for a lot of lakes and bikes! And to report on some Minnesota-specific stories while I’m here.
(^that’s from yesterday)
Minnesota Democratic politics decided to go crazy just in time for my arrival, so I’ve been able to chronicle some of the chaos for The Intercept. On Saturday, Minnesota’s attorney general Lori Swanson, who has served in that post since 2006, lost her party’s endorsement for re-election. The endorsement instead went to a progressive newbie who graduated law school in 2012. I wrote about that unexpected drama on Sunday.
Then today, in even more surprising news, Lori Swanson announced that rather than continue on to the primary, she’ll be jumping into the already crowded Democratic gubernatorial race (where the filing deadline for new candidates is tomorrow.) The assumption had been that Swanson would still run for attorney general, largely because her primary opponent is so unqualified and relatively unknown. But today changed all that, leading to a whole new set of MN political musical chairs.
This immediately created new questions about the attorney general race, and whether anyone else would jump in. Turns out progressive Congressman Keith Ellison is now strongly considering a bid. (He has to decide by tomorrow.) I wrote about all of this here today.
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In civil rights news, I have a story up at Next City about an effort among 50+ civil rights organizations to get Congress to overturn anti-school integration provisions that have been in every federal appropriations bill since at least 1974. The provisions, also known as riders, bar any federal $$ from being used to fund transportation for school desegregation purposes. That means a jurisdiction couldn’t use federal money to help bus kids across school district lines. These riders have gone under the radar for decades, and now there’s a new push to get them removed. I have the story on why that’s happening now.
(Speaking of busing for desegregation, I’m gonna take this opportunity to recommend one of my favorite education history books,Why Busing Failed. It came out in 2016 and will very likely challenge what you think you know.)
Speaking of books, my Intercept editor Ryan Grim recently co-founded a small progressive publishing house and they’re out with their latest title, “How To Democrat in the Age of Trump.” Can get it here and read more about Strong Arm Press here.