MNSure Announces Lowest Insurance Rates in the Nation

Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman met with reports today to highlight the insurance rates and carriers for MNSure. In his comments he spent a good amount of time discussing the departure of PerferredOne from the program the impact on rates. Republicans were quick to...

The NFL Moved by the Velvet Glove

People following the saga of Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Vikings, and the NFL, may wrongly believe the decision by Anheuser-Busch was the straw that broke the camel’s back and forced Zygi Wilf to rescind his decision to reinstate Peterson. We believe the real power...

Recent Statewide Polls

We expect the Democratic candidates for US Senate and Governor will prevail and their margins will be in the mid to high 50’s. We make this assessment based on Minnesota’s realignment back to a two-party state where a third party candidate will have at best a nominal...

There Are Fundamental Problems with Any State Run Insurance Program

Any discussion about the problems associated with the Affordable Health Care Act or MNSure seems to be fodder for Republican candidates for office. The reason they argue is that health care insurance should be left to the private sector and the market will provide....

September Surprise in State Auditor’s Race?

Checks & Balances has it on good authority State Auditor candidate Randy Gilbert (R) may end his bid for office. The reason being allegations of an affair with a realtor of which he arranged trysts with under the guise of obtaining for properties...

2014 Primary Results

The participation rate in the Republican Primary was quite pathetic in general and even worse when compared to the DFL. In spite of not having a serious Primary Challenger Governor Mark Dayton (DFL-MN) and Lt Governor Candidate Tina Smith (DFL-MN) scored 177,648 and...

Advanced Analysis of Today’s Primary Elections

In general, this Primary election is a snoozer. We expect the overall turnout not to exceed 200,000 in all of the primary contests combined. In 2010, the total turnout was 292,834. It is interesting to note that with the new rules for non-excuse absentee voting may...

Look at Our Links

Checks & Balances is now working in partnership with a new political directory called PoliDex™. Each time a name of a political person is used in the text of our stories, or the name of a committee or political party is written it will be linked back to a...

Candidate Filings and Primary Challenges

The 2014 campaign officially started yesterday at 4:31 PM, this is when every candidate needed to put their money where their mouth is (pay their filing fee) and officially commence the 2014 campaign season. There were a few surprises, but largely everyone thought to...

Who Does Entenza’s Bid Benefit?

The decision by former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza(DFL) to contend against State Auditor Rebecca Otto (DFL-MN) may have more to do with 2018 than it does 2014. The reason being that Otto, if reelected in Novemberwould be in her third term and a viable candidate...