Hot Dish 1.24.24

By Rochelle Olson

Just 286 days until the November election. (Results not certified.) Former President Jimmy Carter is alive and within a month of his one-year anniversary of entering hospice.

We're going to get to the New Hampshire results on this Wednesday morning, but I need to say that I will never, ever get used to Joe Mauer with grayish hair. That's some sort of time warp trick. He's headed to Canton now so all the Twin Cities scribes can stop mocking him as a slow healer who wastes every first pitch. I have a tiny Mauer clubhouse story myself that I'm saving for the freer, looser Friday newsletter. Also, this is a politics newsletter, not sports. Yes, I know it's Cooperstown, but we're all confident, are we not, that had he stuck with football, he'd be Canton-bound because that's our First Ballot Baby Jesus. Just realizing here I missed an opportunity to headline this: Jimmy, Joe and Jesus or Jimmy, Joe and Joe.

U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips is declaring victory in what colleague Ryan Faircloth described as his quixotic run for president. (I know you're smart, but I looked it up myself to double check the nuances: exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.) President Joe Biden wasn't on the ballot in the New Hampshire primary that is not recognized by the Democratic Party so supporters had to put pen to paper and write his name. Good thing he has a short name. Phillips' campaign once had a target of 42%. He dropped his aim in recent days to the 20% he got — 20 points shy of the initial goal, but whatever. "You ready to keep this baby going?" he said to cheers of supporters Tuesday night. Phillips also said he needs to raise money to stay in the hunt.

Faircloth, who has been in New Hampshire since last week with photographer Glen Stubbe, described a sparse crowd at the Phillips' primary-night-declaring-victory party. And then there was this exchange outside a Manchester polling place as Phillips thanked voters for participating.

When Phillips asked an older gal if he could say hello, she responded: "You may not. Biden all the way!"

Not for the thin-skinned this political ring.

Also. former President Donald Trump won New Hampshire, making a rematch with Biden likely. Don't miss this video of former Sen. Tim Scott declaring his love for Trump over Nikki Haley.

FRANS OUT: Former commissioner of the state Revenue and Management and Budget departments, Myron Frans will step down March 1 from his role as senior vice president for finance and operations at the University of Minnesota, interim president Jeff Ettinger announced. Indefatigable higher ed reporter Liz Navratil has the story. Frans has agreed to stay on part-time as a senior adviser to the president through June 1 and he will be paid about $96,000 for four months. Not a bad part-time gig. Julie Tonneson, vice president and budget director, will serve as interim SVP for finance and operations. Mike Volna, associate VP, will serve as interim CFO. Ettinger says the "permanent reporting structure will be determined by the next president." Speaking of which, if anyone has any leads on who that prez might be, please LMK.

The Frans plan caused me to inquire as to the status of his wife, State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Susan Segal. Her term runs through 2028, but she won't serve it out. She hits the mandatory retirement age of 70 in December. Walz put her on that court in November 2019 and elevated her to chief in May 2020. If she retires before her birthday, Walz will have another prominent court appointment sooner rather than later. The Court of Appeals is incredibly busy and consequential. Walz currently has two Supreme Court positions to fill. Any ideas on who they might be? DM me. Let's start speculating. As talented as she is, I was only being cheeky in mentioning Claire Lancaster last week. Not that she couldn't do it, of course, as the daughter of a lawyer and a federal judge.

SCHULTZ-STAUBER II: University of Minnesota Duluth econ prof and former DFL state Rep. Jen Schultz will challenge U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber again in the Eighth Congressional District in northeastern Minnesota. "The gridlock, the attack on women's reproductive rights, the attack on all of our rights and the threat to our democracy by extremists — it has to end. And Pete Stauber is part of the problem," she said. Schultz lost handily to Stauber in 2022, but says she's got more time and money in this round, Christa Lawler reports from the campaign kick-off attended by Gov. Tim Walz and former U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan. Stauber's in his third term and did not respond to Lawler's requests for comment.

WHERE'S WALZ:

9:00 a.m. Visiting Target headquarters. (Some of us call this shopping.)

10:45 a.m. Meeting with Harold Koplewicz, president of the Child Mind Institute.

2 p.m. Spending a day in the life as a home care worker. A day in the life, those are the words from his schedule and maybe I'm nitpicking here, but it appears to be more like a teeny tiny slice of the worker's day. It's like the old joke, "I spent a week there one day."

4 p.m. Phone call with Switchback Medical leadership.

4:10 p.m. Phone call with Nidec-Kato Engineering leadership.

4:20 p.m. Call with North Star Lime leadership.

These ten-minute phone calls are a new development on his schedule that some of us find confounding. What, exactly, can be accomplished in back-to-back-to-back 10-minute calls? What if he needs a, hmmmm, break. Does the whole thing get thrown off?

READING LIST

Keep us posted at hotdish@startribune.com.

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