Well we've been talking about na for much of the hour tonight.

We're going to add legislative p to the mix with this week's vers of the political panel.

DFLers up first.

Javier Morillo is a longtime union and party activist and for national committeeman.

Joining him is Abou Amara, forme legislative staffer turned attor Republicans on the couch tonight Amy Koch is a former state Senate majority leader, now lobb And we welcome back Austin Altenburg, former press secretary for former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Wiscon Senator Ron Johnson.

Amy Koch, let's talk about that last KSTP Survey USA poll has Kamala Harris up by eight po Now, if that holds true, I'm won how will that then raise Democratic votes down ball What's the magic margin?

And likewise, if Trump wins.

- Correct.

So so you know I never look at just one poll, I look at the average.

In Minnesota, it's about a four point gap with Vice President Harris winning.

R She's up about 3 to 4 points on the average.

And that is enough to have a positive impact for GOPers.

If Donald Trump keeps the margin within 3 or 4 points in Minnesot that is going to help in the dow ballot races for the GOP.

And could possibly mean flipping the control of the Minnesota Hou If it is eight points, if that KSTP poll holds, eight points is a heavy high far That's where, Biden I think won And that will mean that Republic are going to struggle in the dow Javier, what's your thought on the effectiveness of the DFL ground game versus what the Republicans have?

Well, I think I think across the count there is a big imbalance there in to to our favor.

I think there's an extremely str ground game in Minnesota.

It's it's actually the my friends who are working on the campaign are saying, like, they've had volunteers going through the roof, for, for a good since Kamala ann And that's true, I think, across the country.

Whereas, you know, the Trump campaign has outsourced to Elon And there's a robust operation.

That's what that's what the money raised has been u Austin, why have the have the De been able to build such an advan financially for their, their par and their get out the vote effor The Democrats really outraised R here in the state.

In the state or nationally?

I mean, nationally, - Well, in the state.

In the state, well, I think that statewide are struggling and lag And I think they're they're not the highest quality candidates that we could have put out there And that's a huge a huge factor.

You know.

Well, I mean, when you're running Republicans running on k litter, and running on it's taking away women's right to cho They're just very unpopular.

And that's why they've been gett consistently since 2006.

Back to the party point, which I think is really essentia - Please.

The Democrats, that four point l you talk about, Amy, actually is probably 6 or 7 because of the infrastructu The Minnesota Republican Party last year reported having $57 on Right.

You contrast that with a party, the Democratic Party, that has m the bank, has thousands of volun At the end of the day, that infr is going to make a difference.

And it's not reflected in the po There's so much money.

I mean, I saw an ad on local TV I didn't even know who it was.

It was like some small little ra I thought, that means there's just too much money out there.

I mean, what about the ads that everyone's swimming in?

Well so one, it's a lot of money because for really in the state, The Klobuchar Royce White race i That's over.

Donald Trump was coming into the And then when, Kamala Harris was then when the switch happened an went on the ballot, they really all their resources here in the So what else is there to spend money on but state House races?

Also, if you have the, the, you know, the big battles in the and to buy TV, this is the thing Like you have to buy into a bigg because we have such a large met And so you have to kind of buy i So I'm seeing Chanhassen ads.

I'm seeing you know, you see all these districts, you're like, oh St. Peter.

Jeff Brandon, St. Pet I saw an ad.

You saw, yep yep.

- In the Twin Cities.

Yeah, I got Caleb Steffenhagen Lucy Rehm stuff, so.

And in today's so we have a very atomized media market tod And so people get their news from a lot of different sources.

And you also have the ability to people to to the individual leve Right?

I've spent a lot of this this past week resourcing work with Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico, talking to Puert in the United States about about their vote.

Because, yes, I know we're talking about state but we're not going to have a Pu on the panel and not talk about what happened at Madison Square Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I have the flag, like most Puert No, but where we have the abilit to reach people very, very speci you can target ads so that indiv see them when they turn on their their phone and, and, and turn o So and that's where, that's where a lot of the money is goin What's the thought about early v 990,000 ballots as of this morning in Minnesota.

Does that change campaign strate or tactics?

So it does in two ways.

One is as you people vote, you can bank those votes and you change the universe of v you're actually targeting.

Are you just cannibalizing voter from Election Day?

Well, so that's the second point And I think this is actually goi to be a deficit for the Republic I think there's a substitution e Essentially lots of Republican v are voting early as opposed to what they didn't do in the past.

But these are not fundamentally new voters.

How do we know this?

If you go back to voter registra rolls, the voter registration ro for Republicans in Minnesota, if you assume demography and where you are, doesn't fundamentally change.

And so I think it's a net benefi for the Democrats.

Austin, what do you think?

- The Trump campaign would still They're they're very confident that they're going to have a goo on election day.

And they're very excited about the early voting numbers.

I mean, it's yes, it's a hard be because 2020 was a different ele Early voting wasnt as popular among Republicans at tha but they're seeing really strong That's what we were hearing last What we're hearing this week is at the gender breakdown of what of the early vote that is actual like everywhere, consistently ac states, women are voting early in higher And this election is expected to have like a historically big gen Does the early voting processes, does it add to people's skeptici about the legitimacy of the voti I think that when it happens, it needs to be handled like it needs to be handled with like to ensure the utmost s So we had the incident in Edina, actually, where I voted early th An unoccupied vehicle left open.

It was a courier.

The courier was fired.

They were able to know what those boxes were.

And they were able to know that that were there were not tampere So but but when that happens, it does send a ripple.

We're already at high alert, when it comes to election integr and when things like that happen Or the woman in Nashua that mail order voted her mother and voted for Trump, right?

Her mother had died.

And there were some ballots that - Pardon me.

And there were some ballots that are incorrect.

Exactly.

So all of this contributes to sort of the public skepticism And so we just have to get that It's imperative.

Well, and what do you think?

I mean, do voters, are they more now than they have ever been about voter integrity?

So I don't think so.

I do think there are going to be examples like no system is I mean, if they've if we're looking for perfection, you look to the Almighty cause you're not going to find it anywhere in anything humans do.

What I think we do is a combination of two things.

One is we immediately point out when there is an individual prob we have a process in place to re that problem, to restore confide And we explain what we're doing to make sure that it never happe And I think Secretary of State Steve Simon and others in the el system have done exactly that.

And that was a perfect example.

Have these things always happene or is there a spotlight on them I was just going to say, because I do think we can't unde the power of we have now years of not just disinformation, but a deliberate effort to just Like so the situation, the situa in Edina there, you know, you have chain of custody.

There are all these things, there are all these checks and b like if, if, if something had ha and someone taken a box that would have been discovered when the boxes were, were brough because because these things are are checked strictly.

But what you have now is, is a media ecosystem where everything gets blown up a in the in the worst possible lig So that has an impact on people' There's a double edged sword, ri And there's a double edged sword talking down these methods of vo People are voting more and more They're voting absentee.

They like the convenience, they like the flexibility.

And when you talk that down and when you instill fear of tha it doesn't actually it it it suppresses your vote.

And so either party why would you want to do that?

You just have you have to suppor You have to because it's how people are wanting to vote.

But you have to make sure there's integrity in the system.

Post-election maneuvering is a t to speculate on what might be pr points for legal challenges?

Democrats or Republicans.

I mean, yes, I think we don't kn where the states are going to la So I think, you know, I think both campaigns have obvi it clear that they're staffing u they're staffing up their legal and we're going to see where it We have Republican counties like in, in Wisconsin, for examp their elected officials have alr that they will not certify.

And so you have counties that will they will not certify their pro-Trump votes if the state goes for Kamala Har Well would the Democrats bring up challenges to decertifi if they feel there's some monkey business goi Look, I think the litigation is, I say this as a Democratic lawye I think the litigation is going to focus on when it's trying to suppress or deny the ability to fairly vo And that's the focus.

As long as people can fairly vot who are eligible to vote, if there are challenges to that, we're going to fight that.

You guys have been great during the campaign, and you have to get ready for th revenue forecast and the session Well, actually enjoy next week.

Enjoy next week.