It was one of the first questions a voter asked of two suburban Minnesota House candidates at a recent forum: How were they planning to vote on the two proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot this fall?

David Osmek narrowly prevailed in the state’s most contentious legislative contest.

In the 2010 election cycle the Freedom Club State PAC spent just over $220,000 on political expenditures. But the conservative independent expenditure group is apparently taking a different tack so far in 2012.

Political watchers waiting for a firm ruling on the months-long debate over whether the Republican Party of Minnesota is responsible for 2010 gubernatorial recount debt might still be seeking answers after a key campaign finance board meeting next week.

The race for Republican National Committeewoman at the state Republican Party convention this weekend is not exactly the most-watched political contest of the year.

Leaders and activists in the Republican Party of Minnesota haven’t had much time to think about elections lately. In a whirlwind series of events, the party lost its chairman, deputy chairman and secretary/treasurer in the span of three months amid mounting questions about the party’s finances.

The Republican Party of Minnesota faces numerous lingering questions about the state of its finances heading into the 2012 election season. Last month GOP officials announced that an internal financial review determined that the party has $2 million in debts. That’s roughly four times more than most party activists had been led to believe just a month earlier.

On Saturday, Pat Shortridge was elected as the state party chairman in a statewide gathering of GOP activists in St. Cloud. Afterward the veteran GOP strategist suggested that the party had turned an important corner.

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.