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.

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.

On the same day the U.S. Supreme Court struck struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the Minnesotans United PAC released the full "Minnesota 15" list of pro-gay marriage legislators who will be made "priorities" in their reelection campaigns. That list includes the five legislative Republicans who voted in favor of the bill and 10 rural Democrats serving in the House who could be vulnerable after casting their "yes" votes.

MN United PAC, the political fund formed by pro-gay marriage group Minnesotans United for All Families, announced its "Minnesota 15" initiative on Thursday, a list of lawmakers who supported gay marriage this spring that will be made "priorities" for the fund in their campaigns for reelection. Minnesotans United named the first five lawmakers on the list, which consisted of all rural Democrats serving in the state House.

Democrats in the House have approved an $11.2 billion health and human services budget bill that would trim $150 million from spending over the next two years while also making first-ever investments in mental health programs in schools.

The DFL Party of Minnesota has filed a complaint with the Office of Administrative Hearings against Republican Rep. Greg Davids for "false political attacks" against a handful of freshman DFL 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.

Paul Marquart knows that when it comes to the gun debate at the Capitol, most of it boils down to matters of region and culture.