The wounds had started to heal by the time Minnesota Republicans faced each other at an annual activist gathering in Blaine over the weekend. Many Republicans had already come to terms with the drubbing that took place on Nov. 6, when both Republican legislative majorities and two GOP-led constitutional amendments were rejected by voters.

The decision marks the second time during the campaign that Cravaack's team has convinced a station to reject an attack ad.

Nolan's camp urged caution in the face of the promising numbers from the Star Tribune poll, while Cravaack's flatly claimed that the results were inaccurate.

Republican 1st Congressional District candidates Mike Parry and Allen Quist may have spent the last few weeks trading barbs in press releases and news accounts, but many of those who actually live in the state’s southernmost district haven’t seemed to notice.

It was supposed to be a show of electoral force, and it was: After filing for office en masse on Thursday morning, several dozen GOP lawmakers and candidates lined the back wall and spilled out the doors of a press room in the State Office Building.

A handful of August primary elections are heating up across the state thanks to the new redistricting map, an uptick in legislative retirements and widespread dissatisfaction with the job lawmakers are doing in St. Paul.

It’s a bit of déjà vu for Republican activists in the 1st Congressional District. Just two years ago, delegates at the endorsing convention had to pick between state legislator Randy Demmer and former legislator and conservative stalwart Allen Quist for the party’s backing in the race.

Minnesota’s reapportioned congressional map yielded one well-publicized surprise by placing the home of Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of the 6th Congressional District into the 4th District, which is represented by DFL U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum.

Freshman Republican Sen. Ted Lillie’s office has all the markings of a seasoned lawmaker’s lair. Display cases along his wall hold dozens of political pins, which he has collected for years. A cluster of photos of Republican standard-bearers like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush line his back wall, and a dilapidated collector’s edition of a volume of presidential biographies rests on a nearby shelf.

It was just a 176-word campaign email, but Sen. Mike Parry hit all the right notes: attacking Gov. Mark Dayton’s child care unionization order; lambasting labor; providing links to news coverage; and taking aim at the next opponent on his political horizon, DFL U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, whose congressional seat Parry hopes to claim in 2012.