For DFL Rep. Alice Hausman, next year’s bonding bill is a take-two proposition. The House Capital Investment Committee chair from St. Paul pushed for an $800 million package of construction projects last year, but watched it fail by five votes the day before session adjourned.

This will be a second attempt at winning over the strongly conservative district for Krinkie, who ran for the GOP endorsement in 2006.

Minnesota DFL leaders say they expect to pass an $850 million bonding bill next year after Democratic and Republican leadership reached an agreement on the size of the construction project package during the waning hours of the 2013 legislative session.

Ingebrigtsen, first elected to his Alexandria-area Senate seat in 2006, says he's been getting encouragement from supporters to run for the state's highest office and plans to make his decision final in "a month or a month and a half." He would join a growing field of GOP candidates seeking the office, including Rep. Kurt Zellers, Sen. Dave Thompson, Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson and Orono businessman Scott Honour.

State Sen. Dave Thompson registered a campaign committee to run for governor on Monday. Thompson becomes the fourth GOP candidate seeking to take on DFL Gov. Mark Dayton.

When Republican members of the Legislature return to St. Paul next year and compare notes on what they did during the interim, a growing number will say they launched campaigns for Congress.

Anoka County Commissioner Rhonda Sivarajah has joined the field of GOP contenders seeking to replace U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in the 6th Congressional District. Sivarajah announced her plan to seek the seat at an event in Ham Lake on Wednesday morning.

**UPDATED** Less than a week after U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann's surprise announcement that she will not seek re-election, the field for the GOP nomination in the 6th Congressional District is beginning to emerge.

In mid-May, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign bought roughly $80,000 worth of television advertising in the Twin Cities market. But just two weeks later, Bachmann stunned seemingly everyone by announcing on Wednesday that she would not be running for re-election.

**UPDATED** U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann's surprise decision to not seek re-election has produced a frenzy of speculation about who might seek the GOP nomination in Minnesota's most conservative congressional district. At least a dozens names have been floated as possible successors to the four-term incumbent.