DFL Party chair Ken Martin said the current financial state puts the party in one of its strongest positions ever.

The party began this year with just $90,000 in the bank, and total liabilities in the amount of $1.17 million.

Johnson, a Hennepin County Commissioner, and Ortman, a state senator from Chanhassen, placed first in candidate straw polls cast by Republican Party of Minnesota activists gathered at the National Sports Center in Blaine on Saturday. Johnson beat five other Republican candidates for governor with 35 percent of the vote, with state Sen. Dave Thompson coming in second with 27 percent of the vote.

Sitting in his St. Paul office overlooking the Minnesota state Capitol, Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Keith Downey says there was a point in his life when, in his “wildest dreams,” he never would have imagined sitting at the helm of a state political party.

With oft-controversial 6th District U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann out of the picture for the 2014 election cycle, national Democratic groups are looking for their next GOP bogeyman in Minnesota.

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.