time in the state legislature and federal government and here to talk about legislative priorities of Common Cause Minnesota we have Ana Belladonna Carrera.

Welcome, let's start big picture, you just heard it from state lawmakers, the federal government is really affecting things that are happening federally, Common Cause is joining some lawsuits and really has some concern, right?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

So something for some of the viewers that may not be familiar with Common Cause, many of the folks tied to, or many of the folks will sometimes call us the watchdog grassroots organization.

- Non-partisan, right?

- Non-partisan, that's right.

I do wanna clarify, we do have a C4 arm.

However, we're the only organization nationally that I'm aware of in state that does not leverage that for any kind of endorsement of any party, any candidate, right?

We only limit that to our lobby.

- Okay, good to know.

- Just wanted to clarify - I'll clarify that real quick.

We do have offices in 25 other states.

I leave the Minnesota, but more importantly to your question about what are the things that we're really getting.

To really meet the moment, we really leverage our ability.

What makes us unique in the space nationally and state is that we leverage our policy experts at both the national and the state level.

We leverage our grassroots statewide, 1.5 million nationally.

I think like 27,000 in Minnesota, multi-partisan.

- So specifically federally, what's the biggest concern?

- Federally, the biggest concern right now is really the overreach, the violate, well, needless to say, there's various points of the constitutionality of some of the things that are coming out of the executive office, right?

Through the executive orders that we see just kind of flying through.

Obviously, the intent is to overwhelm, right?

However, fundamentally, when we look at those lawsuits, we're winning a whole bunch of them, right?

- So there's worth joining.

- There is worth joining that effort.

Absolutely, our most recent action is the one that's before the court with regards to citizenship, and specifically the birth rights.

And again, this is a fundamental constitutional cornerstone, right, that we have as Americans.

That we're born in North America, under the Constitution, we have citizenship that's automatically, and it's not something that's waivable by anyone, regardless of the party affiliation.

- Let's talk another issue you've been weighing in on, voting concerns about changes to voter access federally and do you have any concerns statewide?

Well here's the thing with Minnesota because we do have some amazing voter protection laws on the books and election integrity laws on the books.

And high turnout along with it.

High turnout along with it although with communities of color you know there's still an area that we need to do a little better on with that.

The concerns that we have with regards to what's happening federally with the SAVE Act is the quashing effect that that has for just common sense things.

I'm married.

My name is hyphenated, right?

When I registered to vote in the state of Minnesota, I voted first as my maiden name, then as my married name.

But my birth certificate doesn't have a hyphen anything behind it, right?

I was born in Puerto Rico.

I am a US citizen.

So the complications of that-- in greater Minnesota, we just held two community town halls.

Those were some of the concerns that we heard a lot.

These are folks-- And people showed up.

Oh, my god.

That's the thing, right?

When we do our community town halls, they're not partisan.

So we had Republican folks.

We had Democratic folks.

And the thing about those events that was loud and clear is that this is something that's across the board concerning to folks.

And that issue with what happens to my voter registration now if all these things change in Minnesota, it'll do away with our online voter registration, right?

It'll do away with a lot of things that Minnesotans are just so used, it's part of our culture, it's so used to being able to benefit from in the state.

- Let's talk solely state, because you've been weighing in on ethics issues, and we've had more than one ethics hearing this session, last session, current, you know, the Senate President had to kind of clarify whether there was a conflict.

Talk to us about where you're at on some of those conflicts and ethics.

- Well, I mean, again, our thing is holding power accountable, right?

So transparent and accountable government is one of our key goals, whether it's federally or locally.

In this instance, we've been tracking this since the issue came up originally with Senator Mitchell.

And now you mentioned there was a newer, more recent.

But then we've had other issues bubbling that had to do with, well, what is a conflict of interest?

- Right, and what should it be?

Is it clearly defined enough for you?

- It is not, it is not.

- What should it be in your opinion?

- So for us, we're looking for reforms and we're already working on this, so look out for that.

We're looking for something that provides our elected officials, all of them, right, with clear, concise definitions, not perfect, but enough guidance that they're able to make those good calls.

'Cause we've yet to come across anybody that's really so blatant and flippant about their own standards of professionalism.

- Yeah, a lot of people said it's gray.

- Exactly.

- That was the final word on this was, oh, it kinda was gray.

Finally, how about this divided government and the Senate was tied, now the House is tied.

What do you think about that for democracy here?

- I think it's beautiful.

Check this out, check this out.

It just so happens that because of the election turnout, it's 67-67, right?

But aren't elected officials called to center constituents every day?

Not just when it's forced.

Shouldn't we be cranking those bipartisan compromises Just as part of interesting.

I think we could write the whole rest of the show.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for having a great to have you.