49aFormer Rep. Chris Delaforest, R-Andover, will be joining his Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s staff this summer as Director of Legislative and Cabinet Affairs. Delaforest retired from the legislature in 2008 and became a key lobbyist for Minnesotans for Compassionate Care, the main group advocating for medical marijuana in Minnesota.

Delaforest, a conservative Republican, lent his ideological bent to the raging debate over the medical use of marijuana. “To me, this is the ultimate conservative issue,” he told the Star Tribune in 2008. “It’s about keeping the government out of the doctor-patient relationship.”

A bill to allow medical marijuana in Minnesota passed the legislature for the first time after decades of effort. Pawlenty is expected to veto the bill.

While Delaforest and Pawlenty fundamentally disagree on medical marijuana, MPR’s Bob Collins notes that the issue is the only place the two seem to disagree. On abortion, same-sex marriage, voting, gambling and health care, the two have been in lock-step.