Republican candidates for governor are unified in disliking MNsure, but each candidate has taken a different tack in criticizing the exchange.

DFLers hit swing districts to push accomplishments.

DFL Party chair Ken Martin said the current financial state puts the party in one of its strongest positions ever.

The party began this year with just $90,000 in the bank, and total liabilities in the amount of $1.17 million.

The offenses at hand involve more than a dozen DFLers running for the upper chamber in 2012.

The MNsure Board will hold a final pre-launch meeting, which is scheduled to include a progress update from interim CEO Scott Leitz.

Johnson, a Hennepin County Commissioner, and Ortman, a state senator from Chanhassen, placed first in candidate straw polls cast by Republican Party of Minnesota activists gathered at the National Sports Center in Blaine on Saturday. Johnson beat five other Republican candidates for governor with 35 percent of the vote, with state Sen. Dave Thompson coming in second with 27 percent of the vote.

Former U.S. representative and senator Rod Grams, who rose to politics after years as a television anchor, died on Tuesday at the age of 65. Grams, who suffered from cancer, had been in hospice care at his home in Crown, Minnesota for the last several weeks.

Sitting in his St. Paul office overlooking the Minnesota state Capitol, Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Keith Downey says there was a point in his life when, in his “wildest dreams,” he never would have imagined sitting at the helm of a state political party.

Former Long Lake Mayor Randy Gilbert is the only announced Republican challenger