With big piles of money and high stakes, candidates for governor, Congress and the U.S. Senate have so far absorbed most of the attention when it comes to fundraising. But they aren’t the only politicos who turned in fundraising disclosures in January after clamoring for donations in 2013.

The latest conventional wisdom points to chief of staff Tina Smith as the odds-on favorite.

Greta Bergstrom’s campaign strategy to win the DFL endorsement for the House seat being vacated by Rep. Michael Paymar is simple, according to her campaign co-chair. “Get out in front and get people backing you right from the start,” St. Paul City Council member Amy Brendmoen said.

Bergeron works as a committee administrator on the House Health and Human Services Policy Committee.

Bergstrom said Sunday she will seek the DFL endorsement to run for House District 64B next fall, which covers the Highland Park and Macalester-Groveland neighborhoods of St. Paul. She joins three other candidates in the race, including former House staffer Melanie McMahon, St. Paul mayoral aide Matt Freeman and longtime activist Gloria Zaiger. Paymar recently announced he would not seek re-election to the seat.

Dayton's and Franken's relative unpopularity does not seem to have hurt their party.

Minnesota House seats like one now represented by St. Paul DFL Rep. Michael Paymar don’t open up that often. Like many urban districts, it’s a safe haven for Democrats — and the sort of prize that is rarely put up for grabs. Paymar has represented House District 64B for 17 years, winning re-election with margins around 70 percent or higher in the last four cycles.

On the night that House Republicans voted to place an amendment prohibiting gay marriage on the ballot in 2012, Sen. Scott Dibble stood outside the chamber and vowed that Minnesota would become the first state in the country to defeat such a proposal.

Despite the continuing legal drama surrounding the two constitutional amendments headed for this fall’s ballot, the groups formed to support or defeat the amendments to outlaw gay marriage and mandate voter ID are in something of a holding pattern

Despite the continuing legal drama surrounding the two constitutional amendments headed for this fall's ballot, the groups formed to support or defeat the amendments to outlaw gay marriage and mandate voter ID are in something of a holding pattern.