Fearing that next year’s legislative session would be complicated by another budget deficit, Gov. Mark Dayton spent much of the fall pressing legislative leaders to cobble together enough votes to pass a publicly funded stadium for the Minnesota Vikings by Thanksgiving.

Gov. Mark Dayton’s crusade to get a Minnesota Vikings stadium bill passed before Thanksgiving has been turned on its head by a series of objections from legislators about the financing of the project and the timeline for a special session.

A steady downpour didn’t keep Indian gambling workers from flocking outside the state Capitol in St. Paul last April. At least 1,500 people gathered outside on the building’s steps, some arriving by the busload from reservations hours away. Clad in raincoats and shielded by a canopy of umbrellas, workers thrust signs into the air that read, “Rural jobs count too” and “Don’t gamble with my job!”

Flanked by members of the hospitality industry, Iron Range DFL Sen. David Tomassoni helped kick off a "grassroots" statewide campaign at a Capitol news conference on Tuesday to push for electronic gambling in the state's bars and restaurants. It's a proposal he has unsuccessfully tried to pass since 1994, but this just might be the year the three-term senator and former House member gets his wish. With a nearly $6 billion deficit facing the next Legislature and governor, the prospect of expanding state gambling to bring in revenue is starting to look a little sunnier.

Minnesota's three biggest tribal PACs have been big givers to DFL party units and candidates in recent election cycles, but this year they are seemingly on a pace to blow past their previous spending ranges.