While this November’s legislative elections might still seem far off, the scene in east-central Minnesota’s House District 11B is marked by immediacy on both sides of the aisle.

While legislative leaders haggled in private regarding the 2012 session’s marquee legislation, rank-and-file legislators spent long hours on the floors of the House and Senate processing members’ pet bills.

On the hot-button subject of the state insurance exchanges mandated by the 2010 federal health care law, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) has put itself at odds with a broad swath of conservatives who oppose what they call “Obamacare” in all its manifestations.

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) has joined the ranks of traditional Republican allies who are supporting the push to create a state-based health insurance exchange system.

Since winning control of the House and Senate on Election Day, Republican legislative leaders have repeatedly stressed that resolving the state's $6.2 billion budget deficit and growing jobs are their top two legislative priorities. Contentious social issues, they've vowed, will only surface once the Legislature's finished its financial business.

After decades of very public clashes between anti-abortion and abortion-rights advocates, the issue has had a notably lower profile in recent state campaigns. And ostensibly at least, 2010 is likely to continue that trend. But it hardly means that abortion politics is a forgotten matter.

Followers of state election law are well aware that a bill that would have substantially altered the way in which district court judges are selected in Minnesota failed to make it through the 2010 legislative session.

Here's today's news gem: Sen. Michelle Fischbach (R-Paynesville) and her husband, Minnesota Citizens for Life top dog Scott Fischbach, got pulled over by police in Cancun. The charge? Going a mile over the speed limit and possibly drinking and driving. Teetotaler Fischbach (Scott) was given a breathalyzer test, Cancun-style, and fined $300.

In last week’s Weekly Report,we wrote that Sixth Congressional District DFL candidate Elwyn Tinklenberg is pro-life, which is what his campaign told us. We quickly ...

In last week’s Weekly Report,we wrote that Sixth Congressional District DFL candidate Elwyn Tinklenberg is pro-life, which is what his campaign told us. We quickly ...