Marsha Swails

Jul 24, 2013

Challengers prepare for House elections

Amid a summer of choreographed campaign roll-outs for the governor’s office and Congress, a number of candidates are quietly preparing for next year’s legislative election, when the House DFL Caucus will look to defend its majority.

Sep 12, 2012

Lillie/Kent matchup targeted by both parties

It’s not hard to see why campaign operatives from both political parties have had Minnesota’s newly drawn Senate District 53 on their radar since day one.

Dec 17, 2010

Teachers union may get schooled

A ferocious pushback by Education Minnesota cast the 70,000-member statewide teacher's union in the role of session bogeyman. The union and its head, Tom Dooher, fought the bill to a standstill in the end; it lost by a tight 68-65 margin in the House, and did not reach the floor in the Senate.

Nov 10, 2010

Meet the freshmen: Minnesota House edition

When the 87th Minnesota Legislature convenes in January, it will seat 60 new members - the third-highest total of the past 40 years. Fifty-four of those new faces will be Republicans.

Nov 3, 2010

Legislature sees a DFL drubbing for the ages

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.

Oct 27, 2010

Party units spend on lege races in late going

A negative mailing arrived in Republican state Senate candidate Dan Hall's district last weekend that caught him by surprise.

Sep 29, 2010

Both parties stress pro-business credibility in eastern metro swing district

Prior to the 2006 elections, the people of Senate District 56, which covers much of Woodbury and north-central Washington County, had an entirely Republican delegation in St. Paul. But when the votes were counted that year, the district's Republicans - two representatives and one senator -had all been swept out of office, victims of a pro-DFL swing that averaged 11 points in each of the area's thr[...]

Sep 24, 2010

Independent spending on lege races heats up

While the governor's race may be the marquee feature in this year's campaign season, the large number of swing districts in play at the Minnesota Legislature are the object of lower-profile but no less intense campaign spending machinations by a number of groups.

Jul 2, 2010

House GOP looks to make up ground in districts they lost narrowly in ‘08

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.

Apr 30, 2010

Public pension fixes headed for the floor

An omnibus bill that proposes to shore up public pension funds by reaching into the pocketbooks of both public employees and retirees is teed up for end-of-session floor debate.

Mar 12, 2010

Pension puzzler: keeping funds alive

Teachers’ union is a lone — but loud — voice of opposition to omnibus bill The words being used to describe this year’s omnibus pension bill are more dramatic than those from previous legislative sessions. Legislators and lobbyists are referring to it as “shared sacrifice,” and one GOP state representative even used the term “bailout.”