Our review of issues in state and national news, with a rotating cast of political people in the know.

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.

**UPDATED** The president of VOICES of Conservative Women wants an apology from the individuals behind a flyer suggesting that she supports Ron Paul's presidential campaign.

In the 2010 gubernatorial contest, independent expenditure groups played a crucial role in Mark Dayton’s narrow victory.

Forces on both sides of the move to ban same-sex marriage will be scraping for votes in the run-up to Election Day 2012. But thanks to a 19th century constitutional amendment, those backing the push are likely to find themselves struggling just a bit harder.

Republicans pummeled DFLers in the suburbs and greater Minnesota on Tuesday night to take control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since the modern partisan era started in the early 1970s.

A YouTube video tribute to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is making the rounds, backed by the song by the band Cake-Short Skirt/Long Jacket.

The new political action committee Voices of Conservative Women has bought $5,700 in radio ads to support GOP legislative candidate Mary Franson.