For State Auditor, I’m going to make a very specific plea: even if you hate Julie Blaha (I don’t know why you would, but if you do), do not vote for the weed party candidates.

On the ballot:

Julie Blaha (DFL)
Ryan Wilson (Republican)
Will Finn (Grassroots – Legalize Cannabis)
Tim Davis (Legal Marijuana Now)

Julie Blaha (DFL)

The State Auditor audits the spending of county and municipal governments. They have a page explaining what they do and also a FAQ that explains who’s responsible for various kinds of oversight that are outside their domain.

Julie Blaha is the only person running for the job who understands what the job even is. That alone is a reason to vote for her!

Ryan Wilson (Republican)

This is one of the handful of offices where I have at any point in my life voted for a Republican (I voted for Judi Dutcher, probably in 1998. I mean, she switched to the DFL a few years later, retroactively justifying my positive feelings about her). It’s not necessarily a particularly partisan job because “waste and graft” are at least in theory something both parties are supposed to be against. However, at this point, most of the Republican party has embraced lies, fascism, election theft, and science denial, and I have no reason to believe that Ryan Wilson is any better than the rest of his party.

Ryan Wilson wants to audit the schools. The problem here is that my full expectation of any Republican auditing schools at this point is that they’d declare social-emotional learning, sex ed, and any history they disliked to be “waste.”

Will Finn (Grassroots – Legalize Cannabis)

Will Finn’s actual name is Kevin Finander, but he’s running as Will Finn because that’s “how the Libertarians and pro-weed folks know me.” He runs something called the “Taxation is Theft” political action committee. The Grassroots party repudiates him along with everyone other than their 1st Congressional District candidate who’s on the ballot as a Grassroots party candidate. Hilariously, Will’s link goes to a Linktree page that links to the Grassroots Party page saying he’s not a valid candidate, which honestly says about all you need to know about both the Grassroots Party, and Will Finn. They’re a bunch of clowns and no one should vote for any of their candidates in the hopes that they’ll drop back into well-earned obscurity.

In 2018, both weed parties had a bunch of candidates on the ballot who were Republicans filing entirely in an attempt to act as spoilers. This worked, and the main reason we didn’t get the DFL’s really good marijuana legalization bill was that they didn’t have a majority in the Senate due to a handful of seats with these fake weed party candidates who sucked off just enough votes to give those seats to the Republicans. Oliver Steinberg, the party chair, engaged in a bunch of breast-beating about how he was going to try to make sure this didn’t happen again. This year, the treasurer of the Grassroots party, Marcus Harcus, tried to change the party name to Marijuana Advocates with Governing Aspirations, MAGA, in an attempt to siphon votes the other way. This got foiled by Oliver Steinberg.

Tim Davis (Legal Marijuana Now)

Tim Davis at least has a website. He lists four issues: (1) Drug Legalization; (2) Alternative Energy & Resources; (3) Population Reduction; and (4) Right to Die.

The State Auditor’s office has nothing at all to do with three of those things. Alternative energy, they oversee some public pension funds and Ryan Wilson has criticized Julie Blaha for disinvesting from coal; Tim Davis gives absolutely no indication that he’s talking about pension funds here, and I literally think he just doesn’t know what the auditor actually does.

Also, I’m just going to note, seeing “population reduction” and “right to die” back to back is chilling, and it does not help that he provides zero explanation of what policies he’d actually advocate for.

The Legal Marijuana Now folks managed to really impress me in 2020 by offering up Oliver Steinberg’s criminal record when I asked what their US Senate candidate stood for. The LMN party stands for even less than the Grassroots party; they literally just want to continue to be a major party so they can keep acting as a spoiler.

So yeah: vote for Julie Blaha. If you hate Julie Blaha for some reason (maybe she beat you in the Crop Art competition at the State Fair and you hold a grudge?) write in your favorite person who you think would make a terrific State Auditor. Do not vote for the weed candidates. Tell your friends not to vote for the weed candidates. The weed parties have done absolutely nothing useful or helpful with their major party status. They do not need to be providing an endless parade of actual Republicans with a second slot on the ballot.

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In addition to writing political commentary, I write science fiction and fantasy. My book that came out in April 2021, Chaos on CatNet, takes place in a future Minneapolis. It’s a sequel to Catfishing on CatNet and signed copies of both books are usually available from Dreamhaven and the NOW REOPENED Uncle Hugo’s (it’s at 2716 E 31st St in Minneapolis, in the former Glass Endeavors.)