A coalition of women’s groups spent years on the Women’s Economic Security Act, which Gov. Mark Dayton signed it into law on Mother’s Day.

It’s always easier to raise taxes dedicated to some recognizable public good.

On Thursday night the Minnesota House of Representatives gave final passage to the bill establishing a state-run health-insurance marketplace, leaving the long-disputed measure just a Senate vote away from reaching the governor’s desk.

Legislation to establish an insurance marketplace for an estimated 1.3 million state residents cleared its first hurdle on Wednesday. The health care exchange bill passed out of the Senate Committee on State and Local Government on a 7-5 party-line vote.

On the night that House Republicans voted to place an amendment prohibiting gay marriage on the ballot in 2012, Sen. Scott Dibble stood outside the chamber and vowed that Minnesota would become the first state in the country to defeat such a proposal.

Broad coalition led by TakeAction Minnesota won by making the most of modestly funded drive.

Frenetic early-morning celebrations capped an historic Election Day in which Minnesota voters defeated two ballot initiatives that were a hallmark of the GOP-controlled Legislature that swarmed to victory two years ago on a national wave.

On Tuesday night, roughly 100 people gathered at Maplewood City Hall to hear a debate on the proposed constitutional amendment requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls.

As adversaries in the battle over a proposed same-sex marriage ban continue to raise and move around six-figure sums on a regular basis, the forces arrayed on both sides of the voter photo ID ballot question are going begging.

A trio of DFL third-party groups -- comprised of Alliance for a Better Minnesota, Win Minnesota and the 2012 Fund -- are still significantly out-raising a slew of independent expenditures groups on the right. And in the battle of the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment -- the most high profile fight this cycle and drawing the most donations -- groups opposing the amendment are still pulling in conservatively more than pro-amendment groups.