Obamacare is here to stay. That is the apparent takeaway from the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month that largely upheld the 2010 federal health care overhaul.

Politics in Minnesota and Capitol Report are proud to announce the winners of our Leaders in Public Policy awards for 2012.

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.

Minnesota would recognize licenses for registered nurses from two dozen other states that are part of a national compact under legislation passed in the House Thursday evening. The bill passed on a 75-56 vote.

The two bills enter a fray that has included tussling over executive authority between Republicans and the Dayton administration and a DFL-backed bill that gained the backing of three key House GOP chairmen.

The Obama campaign in Minnesota said Monday morning that it would unveil a list of participants in a so-called Truth Team.

The DFLers' support of the law puts them at odds with most of their Republican counterparts at the Capitol and a host of other state legislatures, attorneys general and governors around the country.

Nobody knows what the legislative maps will look like in 2012. The politically charged redistricting process will almost certainly be decided by the courts, most likely in February. But that uncertainty over legislative district boundaries hasn’t stopped numerous challengers on both sides of the aisle from declaring their candidacies.

For former DFL Sen. Jim Carlson, it was a matter of a little reflection and time to “lick my wounds” before he knew he was ready to run again for the state Senate. Carlson, who served one term in the chamber, was ousted last fall by Republican newcomer Ted Daley as part of a massive GOP wave that saw the party take control of both the House and Senate for the first time in nearly four decades.

Republicans who received the veto letters say they strike a tone of anything but compromise.