Margaret Anderson Kelliher

Ballot referendum measures in Minneapolis and St. Paul will be decided by voters next week, but the cities’ daily newspaper editorial boards say today how those votes should go. The Star Tribune says to vote yes on eliminating the city’s tax board, and the Pioneer Press says to vote no on instant-runoff voting. So remember: [...]

Former House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, said on Thursday that he would not seek reelection no mater the outcome of his campaign for governor. Seifert stepped down as Minority Leader in June when he announced his campaign to replace Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who announced in June he wouldn’t be seeking a third term.

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome is putting on a clinic for what “multi-purpose” means, with the Vikings game tonight sandwiched between what was supposed to be the Twins’ last game at the Dome Sunday and an added regular-season playoff with the Detroit Tigers Tuesday. That lent an air of error to Sunday’s postgame ceremony marking the [...]

Last week U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar expressed catty concern about whether voices Rep. Michele Bachmann hears are entirely divine. On Wednesday, another Democrat from Minnesota’s congressional delegation worried about the voices Bachmann is not hearing. She “uses her time at financial services to attack CRA,” Keith Ellison wrote on Twitter (referring to her repeated gripes [...]

The results of a DFL-sponsored “practice” election for governor using instant-runoff voting (IRV) would have been the same even if IRV hadn’t been used: The winner was state House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher – who made her run for guv official this morning — with Mayor R.T. Rybak in the runner-up slot.

An already packed gubernatorial field for Democrats just got bigger with the addition of a high-profile DFLer: House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher announced this afternoon that she’s filed to run for governor.

Late results of a very early straw poll in the race for DFL governor show state Sen. John Marty slightly ahead of former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton for the lead, with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman running neck-and-neck close behind. The number of DFL gubernatorial candidates (and near-candidates) who gathered [...]

Five Democrats running for governor have agreed to abide by the party’s nominating process, reports Eric Black at MinnPost, but several others — including some well-funded presumptive front-runners — won’t make such a promise.

A new poll released Thursday by Public Policy Polling (pdf) asked Minnesotans their opinion about former-Sen. Norm Coleman’s chances should he run for governor. The poll found Democrats R.T. Rybak and Mark Dayton out-polling Coleman and that the battle over the recount hurt Coleman’s standing with the public.

Only one thing is certain about the 2010 gubernatorial contest: It will be crowded field. Some three dozen politicians are thinking about climbing into the race. Here’s a look at the crop of DFL contenders.