State House candidate Tom Heyd doesn't relish the idea of extending the state sales tax to clothing. And from what he's heard door-knocking in the conservative District 16B, voters aren't excited about it either.

After decades of very public clashes between anti-abortion and abortion-rights advocates, the issue has had a notably lower profile in recent state campaigns. And ostensibly at least, 2010 is likely to continue that trend. But it hardly means that abortion politics is a forgotten matter.

Many Capitol habitués with and without election certificates complain that the committee structure of recent years has created a more frenzied process that stretches legislators too thin and is too hard for lobbyists to follow.

Minnesota Republicans have strongly criticized Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner. But the Republicans are also aggressively taking on the IP in legislative races.