Here’s who applied for the University of Minnesota’s open Board of Regents seats

The wife of a former Biden-appointed U.S. attorney, a law professor well-known for excoriating Democrats and Republicans, a former third-party gubernatorial candidate, a former spokesman for Gov. Tim Pawlenty and a former Obama-appointed U.S. ambassador to Norway have all thrown their hats in the ring to serve on the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents.

Now Gov. Tim Walz gets to pick four new regents from among a pool of 25 applicants to appoint to the 12-member board that governs a $5 billion annual budget for the land grant university.

Walz announced last month that his office was officially accepting applications for three at-large seats and one seat representing the Fifth Congressional District.

That responsibility fell into Walz’s lap after the legislature failed to hold a joint convention to elect new regents this spring. The July 2 application deadline came and went. And now two dozen Minnesotans are vying for the governor’s appointment to a board that has a lot more power than most people realize.

Among a list of two dozen applicants, a few names are familiar to those in political circles. Some notable applicants include:

Ellen Luger

• Luger is the wife of Andrew Luger, who recently stepped down as Minnesota’s U.S. attorney after the election of Donald Trump. Andrew Luger was appointed to two stints as U.S. Attorney, in 2009 by President Barack Obama, and in 2021 by President Joe Biden. Ellen Luger was a senior advisor to Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s 2020 presidential campaign. She then helped Klobuchar stump for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Ellen Luger was appointed by the Biden administration to serve as “minister counselor for agriculture” for the United States Mission to the United Nations.

Sam Heins

• Heins is an attorney and longtime Democratic Party supporter, who in 2016 was appointed as the U.S. ambassador to Norway. That followed his efforts to raise more than $1 million for Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

Peter Hutchinson

• Hutchinson is a former Independence Party candidate for Minnesota governor, who currently owns a political consulting firm. Hutchinson ran for governor in 2006, where he garnered more than 6 percent of the vote in an election that Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty won by less than 1 point.

Richard Painter

• Painter is a longtime professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and a self-described centrist, who in 2018 challenged (and lost to) Tina Smith for the DFL primary for U.S. Senate. Painter once served in the George W. Bush administration as a chief ethics lawyer, but became a fierce critic of President Donald Trump. Painter also unsuccessfully ran in the DFL primary for the First Congressional District in 2022.

Dave Metzen

• Metzen served on the U of M Board of Regents from 1997 to 2009. He has long been involved in leadership in K-12 and higher education industries, including as superintendent of South St. Paul Public Schools. Metzen served as commissioner for the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, from 2009 to 2011, under then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty

Daniel Wolter

• Wolter is a former spokesman for Gov. Tim Pawlenty and longtime government relations professional. Wolter currently serves as the government relations director for Hy-Vee and is a member of the Lakeville City Council. He also led the media relations department for the University of Minnesota for six years.

Mike Vekich

• Vekich currently serves as chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority (appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton) and also as chair of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees. Vekich briefly ran for governor in 2002 (as a Republican).

The full list of applicants can be viewed here.

Walz to appoint regents after legislature failed its ‘constitutional responsibilities’

Every odd-numbered year, the Minnesota Legislature must elect four members of the Board of Regents. Each regent serves for a six-year term on the 12-member governing body. However, state legislators failed to hold a joint convention of the House and Senate to elect four new regents before the session ended on May 19.

Some Republicans in the state House criticized their DFL counterparts for not making the joint convention a priority of the legislative session, which required a one-day special session on June 9 after a number of major budget bills failed to pass.

Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, was one of the most vocal. She took to social media in May to call on her Democratic colleagues and Gov. Walz to include a joint convention as part of a special session deal. That never happened, and now Walz has sole authority to fill the vacancies.

Last month the board approved a $5.1 billion budget for the university, which spans five campuses across the state, including the Twin Cities, Duluth, Rochester, Morris and Crookston.

In addition to approving and governing over an annual budget, the board makes major hires, policy decisions and strategic partnerships.

One example includes a yet-to-be-finalized partnership the university announced earlier this year with Essentia Health. The Board of Regents has yet to officially sign off on that partnership, which was first announced by university president Rebecca Cunningham in February. The university’s longstanding partnership with Fairview Health Services is also in limbo, an issue that is ultimately governed by the board.

 

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