Kalin is the second prominent DFL candidate to cite personal reasons for leaving the contest to replace Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

State Rep. Steve Simon announced on Tuesday that he's running for Secretary of State. The five-term legislator from Hopkins becomes the third DFLer to join the field.

**UPDATED** Dennis Nguyen is seeking the GOP nomination for Secretary of State. The chairman of Shanghai-based investment firm New Asia Partners expects to make an official announcement in September.

Former state Rep. Jeremy Kalin on Tuesday formally announced his 2014 bid for Minnesota secretary of state. Kalin is the third DFLer to enter the race to succeed Mark Ritchie, who isn’t seeking a third term as the state’s chief election officer.

Rachel Larson Bohman wasted no time getting into the race for Minnesota secretary of state. Within an hour of DFL officeholder Mark Ritchie’s Tuesday announcement that he would not seek a third term in 2014, Bohman released a statement putting her name in the ring as a Democrat.

DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie announced Tuesday that he will not seek a third term next fall, and already there's a large field of potential candidates from both parties interested in the office, including activists and current and former legislators.

Sen. Steve Dille will probably not be bored when his 24 years at the Legislature officially come to an end next month. The first item on the 65-year-old Dassel Republican's post-Senate agenda is completing a biography of his grandfather.

The power divide between DFLers and Republicans in the Minnesota House may look daunting on its face, but not so long ago the GOP held a similarly imposing majority.

The filing deadline has come and gone. Candidates for the Minnesota Legislature are hitting the stump. But Democrats in 13 House and Senate districts and Republicans in 10 others will have to win in August to compete in November. Here are 10 legislative primaries to watch.

As Minnesota’s Republican Party was giddily tweeting the news that the party had fielded candidates for all 201 seats in the state Legislature for the first time in 30 years, the Independence Party of Minnesota was quietly celebrating its own milestone: 16 candidates for the Legislature in 2010, seven in Senate districts and nine in House districts.