Back in 2007, potential candidates started lining up in Southern Minnesota to run against then-freshman representative Tim Walz. By 2008, FDL/Mercury Rising blogger Phoenix Woman soon identified this as "The Clown Car" Syndrome, a strategy the MNGOP appears to be repeating in the First. Given the anemic fundraising by the candidates running against Walz, it's more of a kiddies' party than three-ring circus. The Republican Party seems to be taking the clown car on the road to Minnesota 's Seventh Congressional District, a seat now held powerful House Agriculture Chair and Blue Dog Collin Peterson. While progressives across the country are dismayed by Peterson's voting record, he remains quite popular in the sprawling rural district. Four potential candidates have hitched a ride.

It is the first day of session and Republican Sen. Mike Parry's footsteps are still echoing down the halls of the capitol building, but he is already thinking of limiting his potential political career in St. Paul. Parry was elected as the senator for District 26 just two weeks ago during the special election that ensued after six-term Republican Sen. Dick Day resigned on Dec. 8, 2009 to take up a career as a lobbyist. Parry carried the election with 43.04 percent of the vote, compared to 36.5 percent for DFLer Jason Engbrecht and 20.32 percent for Independence Party candidate Roy Srp. One of the first bills Parry plans to write will deal with term limits — if he has his way, each legislator will be confined to just three terms.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty presented a supplemental budget Monday morning that outlines how he wants to erase a $1.2 billion state budget deficit. Aid to cities, counties and health and human services took the deepest cuts in Pawlenty's proposal. The governor, who is in his last year in office, pledged to protect programs for the military, veterans, public safety and money for K-12 classroom education. According to the governor's office, the budget proposal cuts $250 million from aids to local units of government; $347 million from health and human service programs; $47 million from higher education funding, and $181 million from state agencies and other programs. . . .

A candidate for governor is calling for an expansion of gambling in the state. Rob Hahn is in the running for the Independent Party nomination. On Sunday, he proposed allowing betting on stock cars at local tracks across the state. In a news release titled, "Ladies and Gentlemen Start Your Betting," Hahn said the state needs to look seriously at every possible new form of revenue. He said money generated through gambling would go to the state's general fund. "Minnesota can really be a leader in this area of betting on local stock car races," Hahn stated in the press release. "The feedback I've gotten from voters, particularly in the past few days while in Mankato and St. Peter, has been very favorable." ...

Payment Reform and Coverage for All a Step in the Right Direction

Austin police have cited a local man who led neo-Nazi rallies downtown for abandoning his pit-bull dog when moving out of a rental home. Samuel James Johnson, 29, is being cited for a misdemeanor count of mistreating an animal and is scheduled for a March 1 hearing in Mower District Court. According to the police report, an Austin community service officer got a report about 4:40 p.m. Feb. 1 of the abandoned dog from the property owner at 304 Third Ave. N.W., from where Johnson had moved. The dog was left behind in a locked cage on the home's front porch with no food or water, the report says. The officer found the male pit bull in the locked cage with feces inside the cage and no food or water. With the dog appearing to be vicious with its growling and barking, two other officers helped tranquilize the animal to transport it to the city pound. . . .