This is a statewide contest (it will be on everyone’s ballot) since it’s for the State Supreme Court. On the ballot:

Karl Procaccini (incumbent)
Matthew R. Hanson

Karl Procaccini was appointed fairly recently (August 2023) by Tim Walz. At the time he was appointed, there was some concern about the fact that his former client included 3M, Polymet, and Flint Hills Resources. At the time he was appointed, he assured everyone that he would recuse from any future cases involving former clients (and I found nothing suggesting that he hasn’t.) He was also Walz’s former general counsel, which meant that he was involved in various executive orders Walz issued during the pandemic.

That seems to be the main reason Matthew Hanson is running. (“[Procaccini] led the legal team that drafted the governor’s executive orders during the COVID-19 lockdowns” is basically the only case he makes on his website to vote either for him, or against the incumbent.)

Hanson ran in 2022 in Scott County, and my father helpfully researched that race for me. He noted two years ago, “The challenger graduated from [Mitchell Hamline] and passed the bar in 2018. Other than as a student, he has had little, if any, courtroom experience (his website says that he worked with a small firm doing commercial litigation). He’s had three jobs since graduating from law school and it’s not clear what he’s currently doing (https://hansonforjudgemn.com/issues/).” That’s a thoroughly underwhelming resume for a potential judge (let alone a potential State Supreme Court justice).

ETA: holy hell Hanson’s Twitter is SURE SOMETHING. Retweets of Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, a lot of failed Minnesota Republican candidates, a whole lot of fearmongering about non-citizens voting, and that’s … five minutes of scrolling down. YIKES.

I will be voting for Procaccini and would encourage everyone else to do likewise.

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I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi but instead encourage people to donate to fundraisers I can then see fund. Usually I do teacher fundraisers (and I found one for this year, Ms. Pierce at Lucy Craft Laney school in North Minneapolis who would like donations to buy snacks for her students and supplies like Lysol wipes — stuff that schools with wealthier families just have the parents send in).

But I’m also fundraising for something slightly more personal to my family this year: YMCA Camp Northern Lights. Camp Northern Lights is a family camp, which is a camp that whole families attend together. My family went to Camp Du Nord (the other YMCA family camp) for many years, and my daughter Kiera has worked as a counselor at Camp Northern Lights for the last two summers. One of the things that makes Camp Northern Lights unique is their serious commitment to inclusion of families from communities that have been underrepresented at YMCA camps.

Last summer, Camp Northern Lights had a serious fire early in the summer — no one was hurt, but they lost their commercial kitchen and the housing for the counselors-in-training. They are hoping to raise enough money to rebuild an expanded kitchen. I have set up a fundraiser towards that goal. If you’d like to express your appreciation for the usefulness of this blog, you can show your love by donating to my fundraiser! (9/23 note: the images aren’t loading on their pages — any of them, as far as I can tell, it’s not just me — but the fundraiser still works.)