Republicans in the Minnesota House introduced three bills on Thursday that would put a ban on same-sex marriage into the Minnesota Constitution. The bill is a companion to the bills offered in the Minnesota Senate on Tuesday. Rep. Steve Gottwalt, R-St. Cloud, liked the idea so much, he’s offered two additional identical bills of his own.

HF1613 would ask the voters in 2012, “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?”

It was introduced by lead author Rep. Gottwalt and Reps. Torrey Westrom of Elbow Lake, Kurt Daudt of Crown, Mike Benson of Rochester, Mary Kiffmeyer of Big Lake, Matt Dean of Dellwood, Kurt Zellers of Maple Grove, Mary Franson of Alexandria, Glen Gruenhagen of Glencoe, Kathy Lohmer of Lake Elmo, Steve Drazkowski of Mazeppa, Debra Kiel of Crookston, Peggy Scott of Andover, Bruce Anderson of Buffalo Township, Sondra Erickson of Princeton, Chris Swedzinski of Ghent, Bruce Vogel of Willmar and Ron Shimanski of Silver Lake.

Gottwalt also introduced two bills that were identical to the first, and he is the only sponsor of those two bills, HF1614 and HF1615.

Republicans in the Minnesota House have included an amendment to the health and human services omnibus bill that would ban the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in the state of Minnesota because legislators believe it to be in violation of the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution. On Wednesday night, Republicans argued that “Obamacare” would “eviscerate” state sovereignty, while DFLers made comparisons to the Confederacy and the arguments used by secessionists during the Civil War. One legislator even proposed changing the state song to “Dixie.”

The amendment was offered by Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe. “This amendment is the Freedom of Choice in Health Act,” he said. “This bill attempts to say that Minnesota is not going to cooperate with imposing a penalty to purchase a particular product without a penalty being imposed.”

In a bid to keep the discussion civil, Gruenhagen urged the Republicans in the body to refrain from using “Obamacare.” “As we discuss this, there are those in the chamber who are offended by the use of the term ‘Obamacare.’ Please use Affordable Care Act, or as I sometimes refer to it, the Unaffordable Care Act.”

But few listened to Gruenhagen’s suggestion.

Rep. Kathy Lohmer, R-Lake Elmo, said, “Republicans have opposed ‘Obamacare’ for the simple reason it will destroy jobs. This [amendment] will allow doctors the freedom to practice the way they see fit.”

Rep. Doug Wardlow, R-Eagan, said the Affordable Care Act would “destroy the fabric of our system.”

“The Affordable… whatever it’s called, is a terrible piece of legislation that will eviscerate the private health insurance industry in America… It will push us past a tipping point where the federal government will come to usurp any meaningful role for state governments in our dual sovereignty system,” he said. “That’s why this amendment is so very important.”

Later he said, “For decades our country has been walking down a road to a cliff. What is the cliff? The cliff is the end of state sovereignty. The cliff is turning the 9th and 10th amendments into meaningless recitation that are ignored wholly.”

He added, “This is unconstitutional and the Supreme Court will find it unconstitutional, but we don’t need to wait for the Supreme Court to tell us what we know is true.”

But, the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act is very much an undecided issue. Republicans on the House floor offered court decisions in Florida and Virginia as evidence to back their claims about the unconstitutional nature of “Obamacare,” but did not mention the two cases that did rule it constitutional: Thomas More Law Center v. Obama and Liberty University v. Geithner.

DFLers made that point clear at several moments in the floor debate, but their strategy seemed to be to tie the ban on the Affordable Care Act to the 10th Amendment battles waged during the Civil War and Civil Rights Eras.

Rep. Steve Simon, DFL-St. Louis Park, compared the amendment offered by Gruenhagen to those arguments used by the South during those periods of American history.

“Reasonable people can disagree with the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “But what this amendment proposes is crazy, I just have to tell you.”

“We have a tradition in this country that we don’t just opt out of laws that we think are unconstitutional,” he added. “We had this debate in the 1860s with the Civil War. We had it in 1960s with civil rights.”

Simon said he didn’t want to assert that Republicans were arguing those same issues — that of slavery and discrimination — but that the 10th Amendment argument had been used in those cases as well.

“Everyone here wants equality. I don’t want to criticize anyone’s motives,” he said. “But this is procedurally indistinguishable from the arguments made by southern segregationists.”

“For us on any issue to simply opt our of laws we don’t like, it is an act of rebellion on par with Fort Sumter in the Civil War. To say we are going to essentially break away from the union on this issue I think is shortsighted. It makes us look, as a state, backward and ridiculous.”

Rep. Steve Gottwalt, R-St. Cloud, disagreed with that sentiment. “To call it crazy, Rep. Simon, is to argue that the U.S. Constitution and Minnesota Constitution are are in fact crazy, ridiculous or silly. That, to me, is frankly offensive,” he said. “Members we are not talking about seceding from the union.”

But it was Golden Valley Democrat Rep. Ryan Winkler who hammered home the comparison to Southern segregationists.

“Using the 10th Amendment is really a bogus argument. And it’s obviously very passionately followed by certain members of activist organizations in the United States today, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is legal hogwash.”

He said he had planned to offer an amendment to the amendment that “would make the official state song of Minnesota ‘Dixie,’ and take down that portrait of Abraham Lincoln and replace it with Jefferson Davis.”

He added, “That’s what this amendment stands for, and it has no place in this building.”

The amendment passed by 71 ayes to 60 nays and is included in the health and human services omnibus bill that also passed by a similar margin.

Four bills have been introduced in the Minnesota Legislature to ban a substance known as 2C-E, a “designer drug” that is being blamed for the death of a Blaine teen and the hospitalization of 10 more. Republicans in the House and Senate introduced a bill on Monday that would make possession and sales of the drug a crime. The move follows a similar pair of DFL bills introduced two weeks ago.

2C-E is a synthetic drug in the phenethylamine family, a group of psychedelic substances developed in the 1970s. It’s often sold under the name Europa and is legal to purchase in the United States.

A teen brought the drug to a party last month; ten teens who ingested it became ill and one died. Law enforcement charged the teen who brought the drug to the party with third-degree murder. The law under which he would be prosecuted is complicated.

2C-E is potentially legal, but a substance that is close in chemical structure, 2C-B, is illegal. Drugs with a “substantially similar” chemical structure and similar effects are called analogs, and under the Federal Analog Act, those analogs are illegal. Whether 2C-E is substantially similar hasn’t yet been determined in court as no prosecutions have yet been successfully initiated.

The Analog Act has been declared unconstitutional in some jurisdictions and constitutional in others, making the law controversial because the law is vague in what is deemed substantially similar.

The bills put forward by the Minnesota Legislature would make 2C-E and its analogs illegal. Specifically, the bill bans 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylphenethylamine, also known as 2C-E, and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine, also known as 2C-I.

SF1092 was introduced on Monday by Republican Sens. Dan Hall of Burnsville, Warren Limmer of Maple Grove and Carla Nelson of Rochester.

HF1359 was introduced by Republican Reps. Bob Barrett of Shafer, Glenn Gruenhagen of Glencoe, Diane Anderson of Eagan, Roger Crawford of Mora, Kelby Woodard of Belle Plaine, Steve Gottwalt of St. Cloud, Kathy Lohmer of Lake Elmo, John Kriesel of Cottage Grove, Tim Sanders of Blaine and Tim Kelly of Red Wing.

The lone DFLer on the House bill is Jeff Hayden of Minneapolis.

The video, which compared the “hotness” of women from both major political parties, with Republicans getting far more flattering treatment, included music from Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out?” Universal Music Group, which owns the rights to that tune, had the video removed “on copyright grounds” from YouTube user Factsarestubbornthin‘s page, where the district GOP found it.

However the video remains elsewhere on YouTube; you can watch it embedded at The Week, which dubbed it “the most sexist political ad ever.” (It’s unclear who created the video, but contrary to some media reports, nothing suggests SD 56 GOPers or the Republican Party of Minnesota were involved.)

Last week, the choice to embed the video drew complaints from women’s groups, including EMILY’s List and the Women’s Media Center, and criticism from the district’s two GOP-endorsed women, candidates Kathy Lohmer (who called for the resignation of webmaster Randy Brown) and Andrea Kieffer (who called the video “juvenile“). They feature prominently in the new website targeting SD 56′s GOP chair, Joe Salmon Must Go. A Twitter account called MnGOPWomen declares Salmon “a misogynist who does not represent Republican values!” Both the Twitter account and site give contact information for Kieffer and Lohmer, as well as Salmon, but do not identify who’s behind the oust-Salmon effort.

“We also believe that any individual who so publicly attacks women of this nation and the State of Minnesota as as ‘dogs,’ should never be a BPOU Chair of SD 56 for the MN GOP,” the site states.

“Minnesota women and their families have sacrificed greatly for this nation and do not deserve to be demeaned in this manner by an individual who would demean women in such a way and then claim women need a ‘sense of humor.’”

That last bit echoes webmaster Brown’s comments to the Minnesota Independent about the humorous intent behind the posting of the video. “It wasn’t intended to be fair,” wrote Brown in an email. “It was intended to be funny.”

As for Lohmer’s calls for his job? Apparently unsuccessful: As of Saturday, he’s back posting on the SD 56 site.

Randy Brown

Brown, as MnIndy first reported, posted a video that compares how “hot” women from the Democratic and Republican parties are. The Democrats — represented by Janet Reno (with photoshopped chest hair), a grimacing Hillary Clinton and Rosie O’Donnell’s head fused onto the body of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, among others — are shown atop a soundbed of Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out?” Of the video, Olbermann said: “Just remember it anytime you hear Sarah Palin or anybody else in the GOP complain about sexism or misogyny on the part of the mainstream media or the Democrats. Randy Brown of the Minnesota GOP — plus, I understand the group Baha Men is pissed — America’s worst person in the world.”

In another development, Republican Party of Minnesota communications director Mark Drake demanded a change to our story — one that puts distance between the state party and the local SD 56 party unit. Drake called to say he wanted the headline on our initial report on the video changed to reflect that it wasn’t the statewide GOP, but merely a local district group, that chose to embed a video that one of its endorsed women candidates, Andrea Kieffer, dubbed “juvenile.” (The headline now refers to the “SD56 GOP” rather than the “Minn. GOP.”) The video itself, he said, is “wrong and inappropriate.”

(For the record, Olbermann incorrectly called Brown the “webmaster of the Minnesota state Republican Party.” He’s the webmaster of the SD56 site only — or he was: his byline hasn’t appeared since this story broke and since district GOP-endorsed candidate Kathy Lohmer called for his resignation.)

Apparently, we’re not alone in fielding Drake’s complaints. Mother Jones’ copy editor Adam Weinstein tells the Minnesota Independent that Drake called his publication after it ran a story on the SD56 web video and “berated” the magazine’s receptionist. Drake later emailed Weinstein to declare the story to be “completely false” and demanded a retraction. (Gawker contributing editor Jeff Neumann confirms that he was “hit with the ALL CAPS Drake email assault” too for his story.)

The Mother Jones story now has this addendum:

After he placed several abusive phone calls to our receptionist and a frantic email demanding a “retraction” to this “completely false” story, Minnesota GOP communications director Mark Drake berated me on the phone for a good ten minutes. Besides being unclear on the differences between “retraction,” ”correction,” ”clarification,” ”conversation,” “irate braying,” and “pointless screaming,” he made the point that the video was on a district GOP site, not the state GOP’s site, and that he’d never heard of the webmaster before. While expressing regret over the video’s content, he said the 56th district was one of more than 100 autonomous Republican parties in the state, and his umbrella organization wasn’t responsible. He then refused to answer follow-up questions regarding what action, if any, had been taken by the state GOP to make the local group accountable for its actions. Based on the one or two facts he could assert between loud declamations, I changed the ID of webmaster Randy Brown above. Mark, if you’re reading this and want to explain what steps the state GOP is taking besides abusing reporters by phone, give us a call—and try being nice to the receptionist this time.

Watch the section from Olbermann, who undoubtedly will be receiving a Drake call of his own today.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

“This incident is symptomatic of a larger illness: the widespread sexism and objectification of women in politics,” writes WMC president Jehmu Greene. “Though the video clearly prefers Republican women over Democratic women, it does a disservice to women across the political spectrum by evaluating them solely based on their appearances rather than on their merits or platforms.”

Noting that the video has already been removed from the site, she calls for a public apology by the party. She continues: “Furthermore, the Women’s Media Center urges all political parties to take this opportunity to pledge to avoid in similar sexist attacks, and encourages media to continue to actively fight them in the future.”

SD56 GOP chair Joe Salmon tweeted yesterday, presumably about the incident, which is being reported nationally by Gawker, Mother Jones, The Hollywood Reporter and others, as well as local papers like the Stillwater Gazette today. “It really unfortunate [sic] to relearn that the other side is severely lacking a sense of humor,” he wrote.

SD56 chair Joe Salmon's Aug. 17 tweet

But it’s not only the “other side” that thought the video crossed the line. The only women endorsed by the GOP for District 56 races reacted negatively.

Kathy Lohmer, who’s running for the state House seat in 56A, said she doesn’t “want to be connected in any way to that type of behavior,” and told the Minnesota Independent she’d be asking for the resignation of the SD56 webmaster. Andrea Kieffer, GOP-endorsed House candidate for 56B, said she doesn’t condone the video and asked for its removal from the site, calling it a “juvenile attempt at ‘marketing.”

Like SD56 Chair Salmon, the site’s webmaster, Randy Brown, suggested women and offended Democrats should lighten up.

“I do realize that there are groups of people who lack such capability [for humor], but fortunately that is their problem,” said Brown, who posted the video. “…Is it fair? Does that matter? It wasn’t intended to be fair. It was intended to be funny.”

Update: Rachel Rose Hartment at Yahoo’s The Upshot reports that WMC isn’t alone in calling for an apology. DFL party chair Brian Melendez:

“This video is sexist and offensive. Just what kind of ridiculous point were the Republicans trying to make with this video? I call on SD56 Chair Joe Salmon and State GOP Chair Tony Sutton to apologize for this sexist video. The day when a woman was judged by her looks rather than her competence and intelligence should have passed three generations ago. But apparently Republican leaders in the year 2010 still think of that bygone era as the good old days, and want to bring it back.”

Now EMILY’s List, the national women’s political group, is weighing in, linking the district GOP’s use of the video with state and national politics:

“If Republicans in Minnesota, like Michele Bachmann and Tom Emmer, and national leaders like Sarah Palin – who has endorsed both of those candidates and predicted a ‘rising tide’ of women voters this cycle – think that this disgusting video is an acceptable way to treat women and women leaders in the state and across the country then their silence will speak volumes. However, if they believe as we do, that women voters and women in office deserve to be respected, then they should join EMILY’s List in denouncing this video.”

Bachmann is the only Minnesota politician featured in the video.

The SD56 site prior to the video's removal Tuesday afternoon

While the GOP in Senate District 56 recently removed from its website a video I highlighted earlier — which compared the relative attractiveness of women in the GOP and Democratic Party — reactions are still coming in, including, most notably, from district Republican House candidate Kathy Lohmer, who’s calling for the resignation of the SD56 webmaster.

District 56 Sen. Kathy Saltzman (DFL-Woodbury) says she was sent the video by an angry constituent who decried the “offensive ‘beauty contest’” characterization of women in politics. The video showed elegantly clad Republican women, serenaded by audio of Tom Jones, followed by an unflattering series of images of Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Janet Reno, set to the song, “Who Let the Dogs Out?”

Saltzman dismissed the video as a distraction during rough economic times.

“As a state, we are facing a number of serious and difficult issues, not the least of which is a $5 billion deficit,” she said in a statement to the Minnesota Independent. “I don’t see how this is beneficial or helpful in anyway.”

But Lohmer had harsher words about the video.

“I just heard about this within the last 1/2 hour — and immediately called for the resignation of our web site manager for the BPOU [Basic Party Operating Unit],” she wrote in an email. Lohmer, who is running against DFL Rep. Julie Bunn and independent Jim Martin in 56A, acknowledges she hasn’t — and likely won’t — watch the video. But she says she took swift action.

“I also asked my website manager to take the SD56 webpage link OFF of my site,” she continued. “I don’t want to be connected in any way to that type of behavior.  I detest the dirty campaigning, the sign stealing, etc. All of these tactics do nothing to show the clear differences between my opponent and myself. My campaign is about integrity, common sense, fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility, respect for life and respect for the Constitution.”

Earlier today, Andrea Kieffer, the other female GOP-endorsed candidate in the district (for the 56B House seat), called the video “juvenile” and said she didn’t support it. She told the Minnesota Independent she’d request the removal of the embedded video from the SD56 site. She’s running against incumbent DFLer Rep. Marsha Swails.

Lohmer said she briefly considered whether the video had been posted by a hacker. Webmaster Randy Brown told the Minnesota Independent this afternoon that he did post the video and that he found it funny.

“[I]ts only intention was to bring a smile to a few peoples faces, and possibly irritate a few others,” he said. “Is it fair? Does that matter? It wasn’t intended to be fair. It was intended to be funny.”

Lohmer concluded her email, “If there is someone in our BPOU that did this, he or she should apologize immediately.”

Janet Napolitano, dubbed "Dumbass of the Year" in a video featured by the SD56 GOP.

The male webmaster of the official website for the Senate District 56 Republicans says a video comparing the attractiveness of Democratic and Republican women is just a joke. Serenaded by Tom Jones, the GOP women are depicted in bikinis and gowns, while those identified as Democrats — Helen Thomas, Rosie O’Donnell and Michele Obama, among others — are represented in unflattering photos accompanied by the song “Who Let the Dogs Out?” The video, which wasn’t produced by the local GOP, “had only one purpose, humor,” writes SD56 webmaster Randy Brown via email.

A person who seems to think he missed the mark: One of the two female district Republicans endorsed by the party.

“I do realize that there are groups of people who lack such capability [for humor], but fortunately that is their problem,” wrote Brown, who posted the video. “Again its only intention was to bring a smile to a few peoples faces, and possibly irritate a few others.  Is it fair? Does that matter? It wasn’t intended to be fair. It was intended to be funny.”

“I am not an official with the republican [sic] party (other than being a local delegate) and my association with the GOP SD56 website is that of webmaster,” he continued. “I frequently post things that I find interesting or humorous in an attempt to draw new viewers to the sight [sic].”

Andrea Kieffer, the GOP-endorsed candidate for the Minnesota House in District 56B, says she doesn’t support the video, which she called a “juvenile attempt at ‘marketing.” She emphasizes that she has no involvement with the video, which was posted to YouTube by user factsarestubbornthin on May 5 of this year.

“This is not something I would condone, and I am sending a request that the webmaster take it down immediately,” she wrote. Brown has not yet replied to MnIndy’s query about whether he would comply.

The video shows a Photoshopped image of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi grabbing her crotch, a photo calling Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano “Dumbass of the Year,” and a faux Time cover featuring former Attorney General Janet Reno as “Man of the Year.”

The district GOP’s site includes a statement of principles, including the stated belief that “the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person’s dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored.”

The Minnesota Independent has also contacted Kathly Lohmer, the only other GOP-endorsed woman in the district, and is awaiting her comment on the video.

Update: The video has been removed. Here’s a screengrab of it in place.

Update: GOP’s Lohmer calls for resignation of SD56 webmaster over video

Screengrab from the video currently on the GOP's SD56 website

Here’s the kind of discourse that Republicans in state Senate District 56 are interested in: The party website is now running a video about how “hot” Republican women are compared to “Democrat [sic] women.” To the strains of Tom Jones’ “She’s a Lady,” the video runs through a series of photos of GOP women in bikinis, evening gowns and, in Sarah Palin’s case, Spandex. Then the Dems: women like Rosie O’Donnell, Janet Reno (pictured), Nancy Pelosi and Madeleine Albright — set to the song, “Who Let The Dogs Out?”

Update: I’ve emailed the two women endorsed by the SD56 Republicans, state House candidates Kathy Lohmer (56A) and Andrea Kieffer (56B). I’ll publish any comments I receive. I’ve also contacted webmaster Randy Brown for his comment (the post in question was bylined “Randy”).

Update: Candidate Andrea Kieffer, calling the video “juvenile,” says she’s requesting the video be removed. Brown, the site’s webmaster, says he published the video. Why? “[I]ts only intention was to bring a smile to a few peoples faces, and possibly irritate a few others. Is it fair? Does that matter? It wasn’t intended to be fair. It was intended to be funny.”

Update: The video has been removed. Here’s a screengrab of it in place.

Update: GOP’s Lohmer calls for resignation of SD56 webmaster over video.

Update: Mark Drake, communications director for the Republican Party of Minnesota, took issue with this story’s headline, which originally began with the phrase, “Minn. GOP on Dem women.” He said the state party had nothing to do with the video, which was posted independently on the district site. “It’s wrong and inappropriate,” he said of the video. I’ve amended the headline to be more accurate.

Gardner’s victory was particularly noteworthy because of the electoral make-up of the suburban district, which includes Shoreview and Lino Lakes. In 2006 Gov. Tim Pawlenty carried the area by 14 points, while two years earlier President Bush achieved a 53-46 percent victory.

But he was hardly alone in winning a GOP-friendly district. Democrats picked up 19 state House seats in 2006, many of them in tight races in suburban districts that skew Republican. While this electoral success has set the table for the DFL to possibly gain a veto-proof majority in the House by picking up five more seats, it also means that many first-term legislators are facing tough re-election contests.

There are 12 House districts currently represented by a Democrat that voted for both Pawlenty and Bush in the last two election cycles. A recent report by the Humphrey Institute highlighted nine of these races, including Gardner’s, that could prove fertile ground for the GOP this election cycle. “Overall, the DFL will have its hands full and may well lose some seats that it currently controls,” note the report’s authors, Lawrence Jacobs and Eric Ostermeier.

Gardner’s opponent this time around is John Kappler, a former Navy officer and businessman. He overcame a primary battle with former state Sen. Mady Reiter to run as the GOP candidate. (Kappler refused to comment for this story.)

Despite the difficult electoral terrain, Gardner expresses optimism about his prospects. “I am feeling confident, but not overconfident,” he says. “We’re doing everything right that we did in 2006. The prevailing national wind is at our backs. And my opponent doesn’t have the name recognition that Phil Krinkie did.”

Here’s a look at the eight other races that the Humphrey Institute report tapped as potential GOP pick-ups.

House District 12B: Rep. Al Doty (DFL) v. Mike LeMieur (GOP). This should be one of the most difficult seats for the Democrats to retain. The district went for Pawlenty by 11 points in 2006 and backed Bush two years earlier by a 17-point margin. Doty (pictured) initially ran in 2004 as an independent, garnering just 12.4 percent of the vote. But after local DFL’ers successfully recruited him to join the party two years later, he knocked off incumbent Greg Blaine, taking 52 percent of the vote. LeMieur is a Little Falls City Council member who has criticized Doty for voting in favor of the gas-tax hike. Abortion is also a hot-button issue, despite the fact that both candidates are strongly pro-life. Doty received a 100-percent ranking from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, but several letters published in the Morrison County Record have questioned his anti-abortion bona fides. “They’re knocking each other over the head to prove that they’re more pro life than the other one,” says Yvonne Leiser, chair of the Democratic party in Senate District 12.

House District 12A: Rep. John Ward (DFL) v. David Allan Pundt (GOP). In 2006 Ward knocked off incumbent Paul Gazelka by a fairly comfortable 55-45 percent margin. Centered around Brainerd, the district skews slightly less Republican than 12B to its south. Bush carried it by 13 points in 2004, while Pawlenty won the area by less than six points two years later. Ward is a pro-life Democrat and has been a teacher for 34 years. Pundt (pictured) is a Vietnam veteran and the former news director at radio station KLKS (FM-104.3). His web site emphasizes red-meat social issues. “I believe that life is sacred from conception to natural death and I believe that there’s nothing ambiguous in the 2nd Amendment,” he writes. Few political observes believe Ward is in too much danger. “I would be shocked if John wasn’t re-elected,” says Marcia Ferris, chair of the Crow Wing County DFL.

House District 56B: Rep. Marsha Swails (DFL) v. Jan Bohlsen (GOP). In theory this should be a close race. Two years ago Swails (pictured) knocked off incumbent Karen Klinzing by less than 500 votes in this district encompassing Woodbury. That same year, however, Pawlenty carried the area by a whopping 17 points. Not surprisingly the GOP, along with interest groups such as the Freedom Club PAC, have their sights set on the district. Some residents have received near-daily mailings over the last two weeks. “I am definitely one of their top targets,” says Swails, an English teacher. “I’m a a moderate candidate and they make me sounds like the biggest liberal since I don’t know who. They really have distorted my votes and how I have represented this community.” Fortunately for Swails her opponent hasn’t proven particularly formidable. Bohlsen, an administrator at Stonewood Bible Church, stammered her way through a recent debate, clearly not up to speed on the issues. “I feel like I embarrassed myself royally,” she announced at the end of the forum.

House District 56A: Rep. Julie Bunn (DFL) v. Kathy Lohmer (GOP). Bunn is another of the female Democrats who two years ago won tight races in suburban districts that lean GOP. The former Macalester College economics professor knocked off incumbent Mike Charron by just over 700 votes. In 2006 Pawlenty won the area by more than 14 points, but two years earlier Bush carried it by only five points. Politics in Minnesota characterizes the district, which includes Lake Elmo and parts of Stillwater, as historically Republican, but “trending to competitive.” Lohmer (pictured) is another candidate that comes from the staunchly social-conservative wing of the GOP. She is a veteran antiabortion activist and founder of a home-school cooperative.

House District 37A: Rep. Shelley Madore (DFL) v. Tara Mack (GOP). In 2004 Madore (pictured) narrowly lost to Lloyd Cybart. Two years later she avenged that defeat, besting the incumbent by 195 votes. The Apple Valley district is staunchly pro-GOP. Bush carried it by eight points in 2004 and Pawlenty won it by 17 two years later. Her opponent is Tara Mack, a legislative aid at the Capitol. I wrote about this race previously here.

House District 29B: Kim Norton (DFL) v. Jason Johnson (GOP). The Rochester area has historically been reliable territory for the GOP, but in recent elections Democrats have been making inroads. Norton first ran in 2004, losing to incumbent Fran Bradley by roughly 300 votes. Two years later, with the seat now open, she won by just 99 votes. Bush carried the area by just four points in 2004, but Pawlently won it by 15 points two years later. Norton is being challenged by first-time candidate Jason Johnson, a 34-year-old technology contractor who was partly motivated to run by the state’s looming deficit. “It’s part of the reason that I got excited about running, because finally we’re not going to have a choice but to cut spending,” Johnson told the Rochester Post-Bulletin recently. “We’re going to have to make priorities.”

House District 17B: Rep. Jeremy Kalin (DFL) v. Don Taylor (GOP). This should be one of the closest races in the state. Kalin (pictured) was handily beaten by Pete Nelson in 2004, but came back to oust the incumbent two years later by roughly 200 votes. The district, which includes Lindstrom and Rush City, skews heavily GOP. Pawlenty won it by 12 points in 2006 and Bush carried it by an almost identical margin two years earlier. Politics in Minnesota describes the district as “socially conservative but still maintains Scandinavian economic populism.” Kalin’s opponent owns a remodeling business and is the mayor of Chisago City. Taylor beat out two other contenders for the GOP endorsement in April.

House District 51A: Tim Sanders (GOP) v. Shawn Hamilton (DFL). This is an open seat being vacated first-term Democrat Scott Kranz. The Blaine district has a slight GOP bias, supporting Pawlenty by eight points in 2006 and Bush by a similar margin two years earlier. Hamilton is an electrical worker; Sanders (pictured) works for Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company. This looks to be one of the nastier races in the state. Mailings have attacked Hamilton for a minor marijuana offense and for mistakenly driving off from a gas station without paying. There is also an Independence Party candidate running in this district, Daniel Sanders.