It was one of the first questions a voter asked of two suburban Minnesota House candidates at a recent forum: How were they planning to vote on the two proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot this fall?

On its face, the race for Minnesota’s Senate District 9 shouldn’t be competitive. The sprawling Senate district stretches across four socially conservative counties in central Minnesota that have voted overwhelmingly for Republicans in past races.

The Senate District 49 race has resulted in the largest haul so far with more than $100,000 in political contributions. Campaign finance reports have revealed this and a lot more, including some notable financial mismatches as well as challengers bringing in more than incumbents.

Political operatives who have been crunching the numbers and talking to candidates see no shortage of swing districts in this year’s legislative elections. The new redistricting maps have tweaked the partisan complexion of many districts.

In announcing his decision, LeMieur said his it was a difficult one, but cited family interests in motivating his choice to leave office.

Today's 2010 campaign finance reports indicate some state legislative races were spendy affairs. We survey some of the marquee races.

The message from Republican legislative challengers on last summer's campaign trail was clear: Farmers are suffering from state lawmakers' recent changes to the Green Acres farmland preservation program.

Many Republican frosh have records of local civic service HD 15B: King Banaian King Banaian was surrounded by politics growing up in New Hampshire. The state is inundated with presidential hopefuls every four years, and Banaian was recruited at 15 to put flyers on doors for the George McGovern campaign.

In some political attacks during this year's legislative campaign, the attacking party has been the one that's gotten bloodied.

Fundraising numbers are by no means the end all-be all indicator of a candidate's electoral success, but some recently released campaign finance reports reveal startling numbers that could point to several GOP takeovers in the state House.