Who wants to run the Republican Party of Minnesota? That’s the question that has been generating a steady stream of rumors and trial balloons since state party Chairman Tony Sutton suddenly resigned earlier this month.

In late November, a group of roughly two dozen Republican activists gathered at a residence in Edina to discuss the future of the state Republican Party. The meeting included a broad cross-section of the GOP’s notoriously fractious base.

On Saturday Republicans will gather in Bloomington for a meeting of the party’s State Central Committee. Among the agenda items for the roughly 350 delegates: electing a new deputy chair and approving the party’s 2012 budget.

In results published Tuesday morning, the MN GOP's straw poll shows Bachmann gaining 2,300 votes of the total 7,731 cast -- or just under 30 percent.