All of a sudden there is a primary

[question everything]

Senate 44 - where the R incumbent is not seeking reelection- appeared to be simple enough: one R and one D: Ann Johnson Stewart

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213392618

But now someone else entered the race: Zina Alston-Fizer. Cannot find anything about her.

I guess I will ask for absentee ballot..

[SheltieLover]

1. Weird, isn't it?

I googled her name & it showed on q lot of sites, until I opened them. Nothing. Nada. Wtf?

[dflprincess]

2. I checked the candidate filings at the Secretary of State's website

and she has no campaign website, no voluntary disclosure form to link to, and no email. Really weird especially in a year where you may be doing more vitual campaining than door knocking.

Link to Alston-Fizer's filing
https://candidates.sos.state.mn.us/CandidateInformation.aspx?county=0&municipality=0&schooldistrict=0&hospitaldistrict=0&level=0&party=0&federal=True&judicial=False&executive=True&senate=True&representative=True&title=State+Senator+District+44&office=0&candidateid=38594

The Republican lists a website on his disclosure form but it apparently is not up yet.

Johnson Stewart has hers listed on filing page and it's up and running:

https://annjohnsonstewart.com/

[Tech]

3. Another Q person?

[Dist44Voter]

4. Zina Alston-Fizer Website

Here you go: https://www.zinaalstonfizer.com/

[RainCaster]

5. Interesting candidate

Her website is a real mess for my tablet, however. I hope her volunteers can get that straightened out.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. I clicked on it and I immediately got a pop up asking me if I had any questions - at 1:45am!

[RainCaster]

7. I got that too, but it felt like a first year AI project

No real interaction.

[question everything]

8. Johnson Stewart is an engineer by training whose goal is to work on infrastructure

She gets my donation and my vote. And a yard sign after she wins the primary.

[progree]

9. "All of a sudden"??? I thought there were deadlines for filing. I got my primaries ballot about

2 weeks ago. Do I have to worry about changes being made to it? I had thought maybe wait a little while before applying for it, but it sure seems dumbass stupid if they allow changes to ballots, and one never knows what the "latest" ballot is until, well, late.

I realize of course that a candidate may drop out or some scandalous revelation, so I don't expect to vote until a little more than 1 week before the Aug 11 date (giving it time to get through the mail, I've been reading horror story after horror story about rejected mail-in ballots being delayed in the mail, and then of course there's the signature-matching crap and filling it out just exactly perfectly correct in all ways or it being rejected, or forgetting to check if I'm registered and have been dropped from the roles without being told, ahh democracy!). Dunno whether this shit or Covid19 scares me more. It has all gotten extremely very confusing.

[question everything]

10. As you can see, this thread started more than a month ago

Johnson Stewart announced early; even on these pages she was predicted to flip the seat, was endorsed by the party - not that this is always an accepted criteria - and after the recent "unrest" in the last minute, Alston-Fizer decided to jump.

And, yes, there is a primary. Both Dean Phillips and Tina Smith are challenged and, on another post here, I have to decide on a County Commissioner.

About mailing: Both of us mailed our applications at the same time. One of us received it with in a week, the other, four days later. And I really started worrying.

And, as you may have heard, Trump appointed a new Postmaster general whose mission, really, is to destroy the postal service.

[progree]

11. Interesting. On June 9, one day b4 the start of the thread, I got a solicitation to apply for an

absentee ballot. It was from "The Center for Voter Information, 1670 S. Robert St. #334, West Saint Paul, MN 55118-3918"

I didn't know if it was a legitimate organization, or some RW trick. There's no such thing as paranoia these days.