By Forrest Adams

Before forging ahead with a state bonding bill, Gov. Tim Pawlenty this week urged legislators to come to grips with $1.2 billion budget deficit.

In his budget plan, outlined last week, Pawlenty would fill the deficit hole by making cuts in state aid to local units of government, to the health and human services budget, and to state agencies and other programs. It also relies on money from the federal government.

Gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton will visit Chaska at 9 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 20 as part of his campaign’s “87 counties in 87 days.”

Dayton’s “meet and greet” will be at Dunn Bros, on Second Street in downtown Chaska.

Dayton will “listen to and learn from Carver County residents and share with them his vision for ‘A Better Minnesota’ as he campaigns to become Minnesota’s next governor,” states a press release.

Rep. Paul Kohls (R-Victoria) introduced a bill Feb. 11 to sell the Metrodome to the Vikings for $1.

“We currently face a $1.2 billion budget deficit. I don’t support using tax dollars to fund a new stadium when so many Minnesotans are struggling,” stated Kohls, in a press release.

“We just can’t afford it, and I’ve never supported using taxpayer dollars for professional stadiums. We do want the Vikings to stay, and this is one way to try to keep the team here.”

By Forrest Adams

Precinct caucuses on Tuesday featured non-binding straw polls for governor.

Local Republican activists bucked the statewide Republican trend by choosing state Rep. Tom Emmer over the former House Speaker Rep. Marty Seifert as their favored candidate to run for governor.

In Senate District 34, Emmer received 58 percent of the vote, compared to Seifert’s 34 percent. Statewide, with 95 percent of precincts reporting, Seifert had just more than 50 percent of the vote, compared to Emmer’s 39 percent.

By Richard Crawford

A gubernatorial straw poll will be one of the marquee items on caucus agendas across the state Tuesday, Feb. 2.

In Carver County, Democrats and Republicans will be gathering in the first key step in the 2010 election year.

While caucus attendance isn’t expected to rival 2008 — a presidential election year — local attendees will still have an important role in determining party platforms and who will be on local and statewide tickets come November.

By Forrest Adams

Faced with dwindling income tax revenues and what DFLers and Republicans alike refer to as “a structural deficit” in the state’s budget, state lawmakers will resume work at the State Capitol on Feb. 4.

The last session ended in a budget stalemate between lawmakers and Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty. DFLers proposed a package of spending cuts and tax increases. Pawlenty vowed to veto any tax increases sent to him. Pawlenty used emergency unallotment powers to erase a $2.7 million deficit.

By Forrest Adams, Mathias Baden, and Shannon Fiecke

It took two rows of risers to fit them, but 20 candidates for governor squared off Wednesday in the largest showing yet for a 2010 gubernatorial debate.

Five days remain to gather support from the politically minded. The field will dwindle after the Feb. 2 party caucuses, grassroots gatherings where eligible voters can cast ballots for their top choice for governor. (Debate video below)

Delegates will select party nominees at state conventions in coming months. Twelve of the candidates at the debate plan to abide by the endorsement process and not make a primary challenge.

The Jan. 27 forum, sponsored by media organizations and the League of Women Voters, included Democratic-Farm-Labor, Republican and Independence Party hopefuls who've filed papers with the Campaign Finance Board.

By Forrest Adams, Mathias Baden, and Shannon Fiecke

In one of the first bipartisan debates of the gubernatorial election season, 20 candidates tried to differentiate themselves from other Republican, Democratic-Farmer-Labor, and Independence party candidates.

Another round of Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grants were announced on Wednesday, by the Minnesota Historical Society.

The announcement includes the first 27 recipients of Mid-size and Large Grants for fiscal year 2010.

An additional 56 organizations received $248,787 in Fast Track Grants, for a total of $1,711,287 awarded for projects of enduring value, according to the press release.

More than 50 communities throughout Minnesota will benefit from the grants.

A team of Southwest Newspapers reporters are covering the gubernatorial debate from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Bloomington. The Uptake will broadcast the debate live: