The swift pace at which the Minnesota Vikings stadium bill advanced through the House and Senate this week amounted to nothing short of a legislative resurrection.

After failing in a lower House committee a week earlier, the elite Ways and Means Committee has advanced the publicly subsidized stadium project for the Minnesota Vikings to the House floor on a voice vote.

Barring some unlikely resurrection as part of a close-of-session grand bargain, the long-troubled Vikings stadium bill has apparently drawn its last breath of 2012.

In a defeat that leaves the Minnesota Vikings’ stadium prospects for the 2012 legislative session in doubt, the House Government Operations Committee on Monday night shot down the main Vikings stadium funding bill. The vote was 9-6.

State Rep. Mike Beard barely survived a GOP endorsement challenge on Saturday in House District 55A. Beard faced a backlash for his support for retention elections of judicial contests. There were also DFL conventions in Districts 2 and 4.

If Sen. Dave Thompson has his way, the road to the 2012 election will feature many scenes like the one that unfolded early Monday morning at the Capitol.

For Republican Sen. Dave Thompson, time is running short. The freshman from Lakeville has spent the last six months readying a ballot initiative that would enshrine so-called “right-to-work” language in the state’s Constitution.

For all the fanfare that attended Thursday’s announcement of an agreement among the main players in the Vikings stadium saga, the plan as presented begged as many critical questions as it answered.

The Minnesota Vikings, Gov. Mark Dayton and key legislators have reached a deal on a $975 million stadium from the Minnesota Vikings to be build by public and private sources.

For much of the past decade, state lawmakers have reacted with alarm as volatile financial markets opened up multibillion-dollar shortfalls in the long-term outlook for the state’s pension system.