Rising GOP tide lifted some lobbyists’ boats
Members of the Capitol lobbying corps could have been excused for thinking they were in the wrong building at the start of the 2011 legislative session. A new administration and 60 new legislators took...
View ArticleWhy gambling expansion remains a long-shot bet
A steady downpour didn’t keep Indian gambling workers from flocking outside the state Capitol in St. Paul last April. At least 1,500 people gathered outside on the building’s steps, some arriving by...
View Article‘Amazon tax’ on online sales to get push in ’12 session
Brian Steinhoff has his agenda set for the upcoming legislative session. As the president of the Minnesota Retailers Association (MRA), which represents 2,000 businesses ranging in size from major...
View ArticleSutton resignation puts focus on state GOP debt, discord
In late November, a group of roughly two dozen Republican activists gathered at a residence in Edina to discuss the future of the state Republican Party. The meeting included a broad cross-section of...
View ArticleState GOP campaign ops: Just the basics
Leaders and activists in the Republican Party of Minnesota haven’t had much time to think about elections lately. In a whirlwind series of events, the party lost its chairman, deputy chairman and...
View ArticleAdjournment fever pandemic strikes Capitol
The conventional wisdom from the start was that Session 2012 would be a short one. A healthy budget surplus plus newly redrawn legislative districts meant less work to be done at the Capitol and more...
View ArticleSession endgame stumps most observers
DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican leaders of the Legislature spent the week fielding questions about their close-of-session priorities, and lawmakers shuttled between news conferences and marathon...
View ArticleDayton weighs would-be Supremes
There are a few rites of passage Gov. Mark Dayton has yet to undertake since entering office two years ago, and appointing a justice to the Minnesota Supreme Court is one of them.
View ArticleThe Capitol Note: House and Senate moving on borrowing bills
The Senate passed its bonding plan -- like the House it also includes $200 million in cash projects -- onto the Finance Committee, which will hear the bill on Wednesday. Sen. LeRoy Stumpf, DFL-Plummer,...
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