Republican

State Sen. Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley, said Friday that he will not vote for the Marriage and Family Protection Act, a bill that would make Minnesota’s marriage laws gender-neutral, allowing same-sex couples many of the rights currently denied by Minnesota statute. Koering, who is gay and a Republican, said he would vote against it because the state faces bigger problems.

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) cannot withdraw his guilty plea in the infamous 2007 Minneapolis-St. Paul airport bathroom sex case, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled today in an unpublished opinion. That means Craig is stuck with having copped in District Court to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct for allegedly signaling an interest in engaging in sex via foot taps from one restroom stall to another in which a undercover police officer was staked out. The decision’s “unpublished” status means the court doesn’t want their ruling used as precedent in future cases — interesting, in view of charges that Craig sought special treatment or was being singled out for preferential or especially harsh treatment because of his status as a U.S. Senator.

As Republican National Convention officials are stocking up on bunting and balloons, booking hotels and ordering canisters of helium, others around the country are equally busy preparing for the Republican nominating committee in the Twin Cites next September. Coming from Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Chapel Hill, N.C., and beyond, their interest isn’t in supporting — or [...]

Cross-posted at Vox Verax.

Two articles came out recently in the Rochester Post-Bulletin stating what many in the 1st Congressional District already know:

Rochester can no longer be counted on to deliver the Republican vote.

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