Franzen plans to challenge longtime GOP incumbent Geoff Michel.

​Target attorney Melisa Franzen is seeking the DFL endorsement to challenge former GOP Senate Deputy Majority Leader Geoff Michel for his Edina Senate seat.

Michel was first elected to the Senate in 2002 and rose all the way to Deputy Majority Leader until the sex-scandaled leadership of Amy Koch. But in the wake of Koch's resignation amid rumors of an affair with former staffer Michael Brodkorb, it came to light that Michel had lied about the timeline of events surrounding Koch's resignation.

The Edina district historically swings between DFL and GOP, but Michel beat his DFL challenger by more than 10 percentage points in 2010. We'll see what impact the Koch scandal and the MNGOP's recent struggles have on Michel's reelection prospects come November.

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Sen. David Hann: Not a fan of the state paying employees to set up the state's health insurance exchange.

​Minnesota Senator David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, is upset about the public dollars being spent on a handful of employees working to set up the state's health insurance exchange.

The health insurance exchanges, which aren't expected to be operational until 2014, are mandated for each state by President Obama's health care reform legislation. Minnesota is currently paying nine employees $787,000 annually to set up the exchange.

"There is still no clear purpose for what these people are doing," Hann said at a news conference today. "I think that's a scandal."

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Romney's F-bomb hasn't prevented him from winning the support of MNGOP leadership.

​Minnesota's Republican vanguard is throwing its weight behind Mitt Romney's bid to be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.

Later today, House Speaker Kurt Zellers and House Majority Leader Matt Dean will reportedly headline a list of Romney's legislative backers.

Last week's polling indicates that Romney has only half as much support as Newt Gingrich among Minnesota Republicans. But since then, Romney solidly defeated Gingrich during the Florida primary. The Minnesota GOP caucus is coming up next Tuesday.

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Repub Senators to Anderson: You aren't down with coal and natural gas? Then get the frack out!

​Are you a supporter of renewable energy? Perhaps you've said a derogatory word or two about fossil fuels in the past? Then, in the eyes of the MNGOP, you aren't fit to serve as chair of the Public Utilities Commission.

The first political eruption of the 2012 legislative session happened yesterday after Senate Republicans ousted former DFL Senator Ellen Anderson from her job as PUC chair in a 37-29 party-line vote. Anderson was first appointed to the position last March and didn't need Senate approval until the start of the 2012 legislative session.

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Brodkorb is considering legal recourse following his firing from the Senate amid rumors he and Amy Koch were having an affair.

​Just over a month after his tenure as communications chief for former Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch's came to an end amid rumors the two were having an affair, Michael Brodkorb is reportedly lawyering up and considering revenge.

In a news release, the Bloomington-based law firm of Villaume & Shiek, P.A. announced they have been retained by Brodkorb to serve as co-counsel in "representing Mr. Brodkorb in potential legal action related to his employment at the Minnesota Senate."

Philip Villaume, founder of Villaume & Shiek, says in the release that "we've been ascertaining details surrounding events leading up to and immediately following Mr. Brodkorb's departure from the Minnesota Senate and our client has been reviewing his legal options." He adds later that Koch will not be the defendant of any litigation.

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Mark Dayton has reason to smile -- his GOP adversaries are about as popular as a kick in the pants.

​Minnesotans apparently haven't held last summer's government shutdown against the governor. Instead, they're blaming Republicans.

14 months after defeating Republican Tom Emmer by less than one percent of the vote, Mark Dayton is now "one of the most popular Governors in the country."

A poll released this afternoon by Public Policy Polling shows that 53 percent of Minnesotans approve of the job the former senator is doing, compared to 34 percent who disapprove. According to PPP, there are only seven governors with higher approval ratings.

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Met Council

Southwest LRT would feature 17 stations along a 15-mile track from Eden Prairie to Target Field.

​The first Central Corridor train won't run for two more years, but Gov. Mark Dayton already has Southwest LRT on his mind.

Yesterday, in his bonding proposal, the Governor included $25 million for what would be the third LRT line in the metro.

While Rep. Mike Beard, R-Shakopee, chair of the House Transportation Policy and Finance Committee, has vowed to stop Southwest LRT "dead in its tracks," the proposed line appears to have strong support from the business community.

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A rendering of the Saints' proposed Lowertown ballpark. The project is one of many in Gov. Dayton's $775 million bonding proposal.

​It isn't $500 million for a new Vikings stadium, but today, Gov. Mark Dayton proposed a bonding bill that would allot $27 in public funds for a new St. Paul Saints ballpark.

The $50 million ballpark would be located in the Lowertown area of downtown St. Paul between the farmers market and the Lafayette Bridge. St. Paul would spend about $13 million in site preparation and land acquisition, with the Saints kicking in about $10 million and the rest coming from the state's coffers.

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Where have all the millionaires gone?

​Our embarrassingly long budget standoff turned up an interesting fact: being a millionaire is apparently a high risk factor for leaving Minnesota.

In the heat of the budget debate, DFL-ers often threw around the fact that of the 7,700 Minnesotans millionaires--defined as people making at least a cool $1,000,000 each year--half don't live here. MPR fact-checked the claim, and it turns out it's true.

What's up with all those rich people leaving?

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America's longest state shutdown could finally end.

​By signing his name 12 times, Mark Dayton could end the shutdown this morning.

It took six months of arguing and 19 days of shutdown, but the legislature's special session finally passed 12 budget bills, with the last of them passing at around 3:30 a.m. this morning.

The bitter end of the longest state government shutdown in modern U.S. history was as partisan and personal as everything that came before it.

As the special session approached, and then soared past midnight, the spirit of compromise captured in yesterday's "handshake agreement" between Dayton and Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers fell away. When they debated the $35.7 billion budget that Dayton will wake up to find on his desk, legislators and political agents took one last chance to lay blame and point fingers.
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