DFL-aligned spending groups marshal their forces.

A relative handful of individuals lead the donor pack.

Cristine Almeida brings a packed quiver of arrows to the Capitol as her firm juggles the needs of a dozen and a half clients during a typical legislative session.

It seems if you are wealthy enough and crafty enough, you can flout the rules and walk away.

In a statement released Tuesday night, MN NOW said MN United PAC was focusing only on the issue of gay marriage and not considering the other positions of candidates it plans to support. The political fund is affiliated with Minnesotans United for All Families, the group that led the successful effort to legalize gay marriage last session.

The "Marriage Majority Initiative," launched by the group on Thursday morning, will "work to restore a pro-marriage majority in the Minnesota House in 2014 by supporting legislators who withstood immense political pressure in order to cast a vote in defense of traditional marriage."

Richard Carlbom, chief strategist in Minnesota the gay marriage push, will head a state-by-state campaign.

Carlbom has been hired by national gay rights advocacy group Freedom to Marry as director of campaigns in 37 states to legalize gay marriage. Freedom to Marry, which donated more than $2 million to Minnesota during its gay marriage battle, is turning its attention to individual states after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) last month.

On the same day the U.S. Supreme Court struck struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the Minnesotans United PAC released the full "Minnesota 15" list of pro-gay marriage legislators who will be made "priorities" in their reelection campaigns. That list includes the five legislative Republicans who voted in favor of the bill and 10 rural Democrats serving in the House who could be vulnerable after casting their "yes" votes.

The successful effort to legalize gay marriage in Minnesota this session also turned out to be one of the most expensive lobbying efforts in 2013, with advocates and opponents spending nearly $2 million to try an influence legislators votes on the issue.