Minnesota

Last fall Horner explained why this R was voting for Harris/Walz.

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Worry among DFLers over Gov. Tim Walz’s candidacy for an unprecedented third consecutive term has gone from whispers to persistent chatter. The level of angst hasn’t yet reached the intensity provoked by President Biden’s candidacy after his dismal 2024 debate with Donald Trump, but concern is growing.

DFL anxiety ratcheted up several notches in recent days when Minnesota’s fraud scandals became national news and included unsubstantiated allegations that some of the stolen public funds have gone to finance the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab. President Donald Trump, increasingly eager to deflect from his own mountain of bad news, lashed out at Walz, Minnesota and the Somali community in especially strident and offensive language.

The scope of fraud under Walz’s watch is serious, having reached several hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen taxpayer funds. Adding to public outrage is the sheer audacity of the perpetrators and what seems to be willful blindness by government managers to what was happening in plain sight. A housing program, for example, was launched in 2020 with an annual cost projected to be $2.6 million. Within four years, annual costs soared past $100 million. How is it that one program grows to 40 times initial cost estimates before anyone either questions the competency of those making the original budget projections or raises suspicions of fraud?

Through all this, Walz often has seemed disengaged, and sometimes even dismissive of the fraud. “The programs are set up to improve people’s lives, and in many cases, the criminals find the loopholes,” Walz told the New York Times, almost suggesting rampant theft is just a fact of life in government programs.

https://minneapolistimes.com/why-is-tim-walz-running/