Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk says proposed amendments to the state constitution should need backing from 60 percent of both the Senate and the House.

At 43, Nguyen said he plans to devote this decade to public service. His first major foray into that realm was a hard-fought loss in an effort to join the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. Undeterred, he decided to aim even higher with his next target, and is now the lone declared Republican candidate to succeed two-term DFL incumbent Mark Ritchie as Secretary of State.

At the GOP’s state central meeting in Blaine last Saturday Saturday, Johnson proved himself the most popular candidate among roughly 400 Republican Party activists in an early, nonbinding straw poll for the governor’s race. But Johnson’s appeal among activists has been building for years, most recently through his position as RNC committeeman and as one of the lead players in an audit of the party's post-Tony Sutton finances.

The modern Congress is often faulted for its inability to actually accomplish much. Even still, the members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are as good as ever in at least on area: Raising money toward their own re-election. In keeping with that trend, third-quarter Federal Elections Commission (FEC) reports find Minnesota’s delegation is pretty good at collecting checks, with at least one notable — if predictable — exception.

Tea Party activists are reacting with alarm to Rep. Erik Paulsen’s comments suggesting that he would be willing to break with GOP House leadership in order to end the federal government shutdown.

Following the 2012 elections, it was unclear how much momentum was left in the Tea Party movement, both nationally and in Minnesota. Political analysts blamed the conservative faction for several embarrassing Republican losses in high-profile campaigns, while overall public opinion seemed to have soured on the concept.

The 2014 U.S. Senate contest in Minnesota is looking like it will be an expensive affair.

One potential 800-pound gorilla in the Republican field for Minnesota governor hasn’t even officially thrown her hat in the ring yet: state Sen. Julie Rosen, the four-term lawmaker from Fairmont who was the face of 2012’s successful legislative push for a new Vikings stadium.

**UPDATED** U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann's surprise decision to not seek re-election has produced a frenzy of speculation about who might seek the GOP nomination in Minnesota's most conservative congressional district. At least a dozens names have been floated as possible successors to the four-term incumbent.

During the fall campaign season, the Republican Party of Minnesota sent out mailings in Senate District 4 accusing Kent Eken of voting to raise the “granny tax.”