The five-judge panel appointed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea to handle redistricting issued a scheduling order on Thursday, instructing all legal parties invovled to have their maps to the court by Nov. 18. The court will have a hearing on the plans on Jan. 4.

Democrats in Minnesota have been slow to rise to the redistricting fight this time around. During session, DFL caucuses in the Minnesota House and Senate passed on the chance to produce maps to counter a GOP majority proposal that pitted 26 incumbents against one another, the vast majority of them DFLers.

Forgive the mafia reference, but the best descriptor of the role attorney David Lillehaug currently plays in the Minnesota DFL Party is consigliere — a highly trusted adviser, wizened counselor and brass-tacks troubleshooter for those at the levers of power within the organization.

In the absence of any sign that the GOP Legislature and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton will be able to agree on a plan for the state’s 2012 redistricting, a five-judge panel is preparing to redraw the state’s political map for the coming decade.

Last year I wrote about an exchange in the 2010 session between now retired Rep. Larry Haws, DFL-St. Cloud, and Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan. Haws sponsored legislation to allow students to transfer credits between MNSCU campuses; Buesgens was incensed that it took an act of the Legislature to do something so common-sensical.

By all accounts, the Dayton administration’s shutdown playbook went something like this: Limited to only the most essential, core services, a hard but short-lived shuttering of state government would ramp up the pressure on intransigent Republicans and push the Legislature toward compromise.

Gov. Mark Dayton asked that the court-appointed special master recommend even more state programs be deemed critical services.

In a filing submitted Monday to Special Master Kathleen Blatz, the Dayton administration sought to broaden the definition of critical state services.

As June began to slip away and it grew increasingly likely that the Minnesota budget impasse was headed for a government shutdown, talks around the Capitol began to revolve around the bargaining leverage each side would hold as the full attention of Minnesotans turned to its dysfunctional Capitol.

Dozens of petitions from interest groups around the state will be heard in coming days from beneficiaries of the many state services deemed non-essential earlier this week.