In 2014 as in 2010, it appears that conservative reaction to President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act is helping to drive GOP challengers into politics and to shape the main themes of their campaigns.

. "We have just barely got our head above water now with a positive forecast after we've had these nagging problems," Bakk said.

After rising to speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives in the wake of the 2010 election, Rep. Kurt Zellers was stung two years later by his caucus’s demotion to minority status. The Republican from Maple Grove struck an unassuming profile at the Capitol this past spring.

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.

Catching up with four former GOP legislators.

For Branden Petersen, the past week has been, in his words, “unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.” It all started when the 27-year-old Republican senator from Andover told the Star Tribune that he’s likely to support a DFL effort to legalize gay marriage in 2013, just months after voters rejected a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Democrats had an outstanding night on Tuesday. They won back control of the Minnesota House and Senate, picked up a congressional seat, and defeated two contentious amendments that most political observers expected to prevail.

For better or worse, Michael Brodkorb was back on the campaign trail last week. This time, however, the former GOP attack dog, deputy Republican Party chair and Senate communications guru who helped mastermind the 2010 GOP takeover of the chamber has materialized in a glossy pink and blue mailer that’s being used to attack Republicans.

At least on paper, Rep. Rich Murray of Albert Lea holds the unenviable distinction of occupying the seat that Republicans are least likely to hold this fall in their bid to retain control of the Minnesota House.

The last two election cycles have witnessed wave elections for both parties that tilted the Minnesota House of Representatives in polar opposite directions.