Campaigns

When state Sen. Michael Jungbauer announced in August that he was running for governor, he stated that God was calling on him to seek the state’s top office. Apparently God had a change of heart.
The Republican from East Bethel announced today that he is dropping out of the governor’s contest. He cited fundraising struggles as [...]

Gov. Pawlenty’s recent efforts to pander to the conservative GOP base is “Romneyesque,” observes veteran Washington Post political reporter Dan Balz. He warns that Pawlenty is in danger of losing his political compass as he attempts to position himself for a 2012 presidential bid.
In particular, Balz criticizes T-Paw for his awkward refusal to embrace Maine [...]

The furor over the Stupak amendment banning abortion in the House health bill was already highly charged. Now one conservative commentator has dared touch the third rail in the right-to-choose debate: optional knee surgery.

Ousted Maplewood mayor Diana Longrie attributes her loss a week ago to union opposition and the write-in candidacy of Ken Smart, but she hasn’t ruled out a run at the council seat made vacant by Will Rossbach’s win.

So much for states’ rights: Iowa-based American Future Fund wants the Federal Elections Commission to rule against Minnesota’s long-standing ban on robocalls in order to include Minnesota in its national robocall campaigns, the Star Tribune reports. The group, which bills itself as a “conservative and free market” operation, filed a complaint with the FEC arguing [...]

There’s the well-known Sports Illustrated curse that has seen athletes as mighty as Joe Mauer struggle soon after they appear on the magazine’s cover. Now for the bevy of Minnesota politicians hovering around the soon-to-be-open governor’s seat, a hex seems to descend once a “buzz” is detected.

Brian Sullivan is not running for governor. If that news sounds familiar, it’s because the conservative businessman initially announced that he’d be sitting out the 2010 contest in June during an appearance on Minnesota Public Radio.

U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen is one of 33 Republicans in Congress who have “a giant target on their back” after voting against an overhaul of health-care system Saturday. That’s according to the Democratic National Committee, which announced plans to target Paulsen and other GOP reps whose districts voted for President Obama in 2008.

Administrative Law Judge Kathleen Sheehy ruled on Friday that sufficient evidence exists that the St. Paul Better Ballot Campaign violated state statutes to merit a full hearing on the matter.

The Republican Party isn’t big enough to “throw people overboard,” Gov. Tim Pawlenty told GOP activists in Des Moines on Saturday. Jason Hancock of the Minnesota Independent’s sister site, the Iowa Independent, was there.