Last week veteran GOP activist Bonn Clayton sent out an email to all the delegates and alternates to this year's state Republican convention announcing the creation of a "voter's guide" for judicial contests. It directed GOP activists to a web site where it stated that challengers Tim Tingelstad, Dean Barkley and Dan Griffith were the party's "recommended" candidates for the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Mark Jenkins knows how hard it is to win a legislative election as an Independence Party candidate: He ran last fall in Senate District 55 against DFL incumbent Sen. Chuck Wiger, earning just a little over 7 percent of the total votes in the North St. Paul and Maplewood district.

Dayton garnered the support of 40 percent of likely voters in the poll, while Emmer reached 30 percent. Horner saw 19 percent among likely voters.

For the Independence Party's Tom Horner, September was a window of opportunity. He reached 18 percent in one gubernatorial poll, setting off speculation about a repeat third-party ascension to the governor's mansion; he lined up an impressive array of Republican endorsements, including those of former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson and 13 past GOP legislators; and midway through the month he was raising money at the impressive rate of $40,000-plus a day.

A slate of prominent Minnesota Democrats gathered at a private home Tuesday evening to appeal to DFLers who are thinking about voting for Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner in November instead of DFL nominee Mark Dayton. The event, hosted by top-drawer DFLers like House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza - all of them one-time 2010 candidates for governor themselves - was billed as question-and-answer session in a mass email sent out to Democrats.

The Independence Party is encouraging former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice James Gilbert to seek the party's nomination for governor. Jack Uldrich, the party's chairman, confirms that he's reached out to Gilbert about a bid for the state's top office.

PIM was asked by the Washington Post to participate in a online question-and-answer session this morning about the Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election, the recount, DFL ...

Two Minnesota DFL lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation that would give Minnesota voters the power to appoint U.S. senators in the event of an ...

Are you heartily sick of the Norm Coleman vs. Al Franken cliffhanger? Can you handle one more perspective on it? New York Times op-ed columnist ...

Are you heartily sick of the Norm Coleman vs. Al Franken cliffhanger? Can you handle one more perspective on it? New York Times op-ed columnist ...