What to watch for in tonight's gubernatorial debate

Looks like looks like Boyce is ready to go. So let's bring him in now. Boyce, Good to see you again. How you doing? I'm good, Rob. Pacing myself. How are you? Same. Busy time of year for you. And as we head to this debate tonight, What is, as we look at this now, the second of, I believe it's just the two debates here. I mean, the last one focusing on business, the economy. Of course, it went into other areas that were sort of tangential to that. But tonight, we'll see a far more open table of topics. Yeah, I think you're gonna see fraud, probably more questions about fraud. Healthcare, I think will be on it. I think mining and agricultural issues, things that tie in to kind of quality of life. I think probably more questions about public safety. And I think overall, I think this format with multiple people asking questions will make it less predictable in the way the questions are asked. Well, explain that format, what we expect to see. There'll be three questioners, including our own Fareed Farooq, asking questions of the candidates. And I'm sure they'll coordinate their questions pretty closely. But the idea that the way a question is worded, the way a candidate hears it will be different when it's just not a solo moderator. I also think if this is the last and final debate, Lisa Dymuth is gonna be motivated to try to make news, to try to show real differentiation, while Senator Klobuchar is gonna try to play it safe and make it not newsworthy, not exciting. And so I think that will be there. And lastly, without a moderator per se, sometimes candidates can go over the time limit. They can kind of throw the moderators off or the panelists off. And so it's the interplay in the studio that kind of determines how people's reactions are. My sense is both candidates will be standing and last time they were sitting. And so that also can change body language as well. Sure, again, and we would expect this, and you've said fraud will be a big topic here. That was brought up to, again, as I said, sort of tangentially to economic issues last week. The big attack angle here from Lisa Dymuth is saying that Amy Klobuchar is just a continuation of a DFL system in Minnesota. How effective are those attacks towards Amy Klobuchar, who of course is a US Senator, not part of the administration here, but some voters might still make that connection. How effective do you think that's been? I think it works, but I think there's two things to think about there, Rob. One is Lisa Dymuth's line of attack. She used it Monday, saying that Senator Klobuchar put out thousands of news releases after feeding our future, not one of them criticized the state for fraud. Amy Klobuchar answered simply by saying, I'm not Tim Walz, I know you wish you were running against Tim Walz. I expect tonight that Senator Klobuchar will further distance herself from Governor Walz. Behind the scenes, Democrats, especially Amy Klobuchar and Senator Tina Smith, have been very frustrated with Tim Walz. And the closer we get to the election, I think the more comfortable they are going to be to say how frustrated they are. Because they wanna differentiate themselves and it is the major line of attack from Republicans. How do you think voters are seeing Amy Klobuchar in her statement saying I would have caught it sooner and I will do these things on day one to make sure that we attack it. And she uses her standing as a former prosecutor. It's been years since before her US Senate tenure, but how effective do you think her response has been in the minds of voters? Well, she started her campaign with a fraud plan. So she led with it, and she's led with it the whole way, which was smart. And I think it was effective, a top to bottom out of the state government on day one. That's her punchline. And she says it over and over again, and she's largely trusted by the public. But I think whoever the next governor is will have a fresh start. I think even if people don't vote for him, they just want Minnesota to not be in the headlines for the wrong reasons. And I think voters will look at that. I also say this, they've known Amy Klobuchar the longest and if they're undecided, and they've known Amy Klobuchar the longest, most of those undecided voters are likely to go to Lisa Damon. And so if we've been talking about Amy Klobuchar's plan for this many months, And people don't and ultimately the undecided margin is essentially the margin between these two candidates. And this is the time in which these elections break last week and this week. And then next week will just be a sprint of getting your voters to the polls. You mentioned public safety will be another big topic that you would expect to hear. We've seen Lisa Demuth running ads to that point recently too with some of the recent gun violence in the Twin Cities. How effective of an attack is that against Amy Klobuchar? Again, a US Senator. Yeah, I mean, I think it's, and so public safety has been on our radar in our polls for over a year as a top three issue. And then it's been amplified in the last few weeks. Public safety is also a feeling issue, and it's how people feel. And those are the toughest issues to anticipate how people are thinking in the weeks leading up to the election because it becomes emotional. And so I think that for Democrats, the issues they wanna talk about are healthcare. And I think that that's what Amy Klobuchar will try to talk about. And I think Lisa Damon will try to talk about public safety. And I think it'll be interesting to see how those two play off of each other. And what about the economy? We'll certainly hear more about that as they focused on that last week. But that'll be a big part here too with concerns about cost of living or taxes. And they both were asked about taxes last week too, both saying that they have no intention of raising taxes. Yeah, and Monday they both said no new taxes, which is a different view than our previous two governors who both supported raising income taxes on Minnesota's highest earners. Here's what I think you've heard from both of them with related to the economy and specifically the the Minnesota economy, Rob, is growth. They both know we have to grow it. One of the things Minnesota ranks really high in is quality of life. And they're both kind of making their case to keep Minnesota's quality of life and get there. However, 68, 69% of Minnesotans say we have a great quality of life, but only 41% of them say we have a good or excellent economy. And what I would say to that is we can't have the quality of life we've enjoyed for so long without a good economy. And so both, I think, candidates will tie the need for Minnesota to grow its demographics, its jobs, its revenue to the state, and tie directly to the, we need to do it to keep our quality of life here. Okay, and one other thing I wanna ask you about, not debate related before we let you go, and that is with the US Senate campaign between Michelle Tafoya and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan, in which there's a Washington Post article this morning that you alerted us to here. Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal, pardon me, thank you, Wall Street Journal. About Peggy Flanagan saying something 10 years ago, 2016, in which she apparently misstated or exaggerated her academic record saying she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. This is a little bit of an October surprise. Think about all the vetting that's been done, all the questions that have been done. Flanagan, I think, has an interview later today. She has a public appearance tomorrow. Rob, it's one thing to have the article out there. It's now on the Star Tribune's front page. This is kind of the ping pong ball effect. Look, I think how she handles this, how she answers it. There's a lot of questions that the Walls Flanagan team has avoided for eight years. They haven't wanted to take tough questions. And this one will go straight to the character and to the authenticity of Peggy Flanagan. And look, I don't know that it's a make or break moment, but it could be the one strand that somebody pulls that keeps Peggy Flanagan in reaction mode for the last two weeks of the campaign. And no campaign wants to be in that situation at the end of the campaign. What's the significance here that this is something she said 10 years ago? Wasn't something she said this year or last year, that it has been a decade since she made this. I mean, and still in the eyes of voters, this is something that appears to be, can we trust what you're saying? But again, decades past, I mean, does that play into the psychology of this at all? Look, I think it is newsworthy and valid of questioning, but it's not like a bombshell. It's another dent in the car that Peggy Flanagan is trying to drive over the finish line. And we all know if you have a few dents, sometimes you don't make it over the finish line. Interesting. We will chat with her coming up at about 12:30. We'll ask her directly about this as well. Blois, thank you for your time. Sounds good. I'll talk to you soon, Rob. Rob, talk to you again.