Get ready for more local campaign radio ads and lawn signs — most candidates have now received their cash from the state’s public financing program.

The money comes primarily from the check-off on tax forms where taxpayers can donate to a political party or to the general political fund.

Only a few area candidates weren’t on the list of recipients released by the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board.

Absent from the list was Democratic senate candidate Al Kruse of Marshall, who’s seeking to replace retiring Republican Sen. Dennis Frederickson; Democrat Steve Fausch, running against Republican Rep. Bob Gunther of Fairmont; and Republican Glenn Gruenhagen of Glencoe, running for the House seat being vacated by the retiring GOP Rep. Laura Brod.

Kruse’s Republican opponent, Redwood County Commissioner Gary Dahms, is receiving $8,770. Gruenhagen’s Democratic opponent, Mick McGuire of Montgomery, is getting $4,079. Gunther’s take is $4,045.

 There are two criteria for receiving the funds, which also are supplemented with just over $1 million from the state general fund. A candidate must agree to limit their total campaign spending ($32,500 for House incumbents and $35,800 for challengers, with Senate candidate limits roughly twice that amount).

Secondly, they must demonstrate they have some grass-roots support by raising a minimum amount from individual contributors.

Unopposed candidates, including Sen. Julie Rosen of Fairmont and Rep. Paul Torkelson of St. James, don’t receive public financing.

Most Senate candidates received between $9,000 and $10,000. House candidates typically got between $3,600 and $5,000.

The program aims to reduce the influence of special interests in elections and level the playing field between incumbents and challengers.

Emmer and Trocke

Republican senate candidate Peter Trocke of St. Peter is going to be supplementing his public subsidy at a fund-raiser on Sept. 18, getting help from the top of the GOP ticket. Candidate for governor Tom Emmer is the featured speaker at Trocke’s Mankato fund-raiser/rally at the Blue Earth County Republican Headquarters in Mankato Place that afternoon.

Trocke is running against Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato.

Brochures and

bouquets

Along with campaign ads and lawn signs, voters will be seeing plenty of brochures in the next eight weeks.

North Mankato City Council candidate Kim Spears finalized his recently and began passing it out on South Avenue on Friday.

The flier focuses on the first-time candidate’s motivation for running, detailing his decision to investigate the reasons for rising property taxes by attending local government meetings. The city became Spears’ focus, and the brochure details his observations after religiously attending council meetings after that first visit late in 2008.

“My default answer to spending issues will be NO,” Spears promises, opposite of what he said he sees on the present council.

And two local lawmakers may be revising brochures after receiving awards from the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities. Of the 201 state lawmakers, 13 received awards from the group.  Sheran was named First-Term Legislator of the Year, and Rep. Terry Morrow, DFL-St. Peter, was named Legislator of Distinction for his work on transportation policy.

A budget and a dare

Anyone looking for a taste of what the winning legislative and governor candidates will be facing early in 2011 can go to www.MyMNBudget.com and try tackling the projected $5.8 billion budget deficit.

Created by the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, the slick website allows users to either raise different types of taxes, make cuts to the various state spending categories or do a combination of both. With each decision, the program adds or subtracts from the $5.8 billion in red ink that must be erased — congratulating the user when they get the budget balanced.

It isn’t easy, even when attacking the spending with a hatchet and sticking a lot of Minnesotans with big tax hikes. Which is the point the Coalition is trying to make.

The organization is challenging the candidates for governor to take a crack at it and has gotten no takers yet. But CGMC also sees it as a way to help voters recognize the scale of the problem.

“Let me tell you, after I spent 5 minutes on the site, I have a real awareness for how significant a nearly $6 billion deficit is,” said Glencoe Mayor Randy Wilson when the site was launched.

Debates but no dates

Congressman Tim Walz, DFL-Mankato, announced Friday night that he was accepting invitations to three debates, including one in Mankato.

The Mankato debate, to be held at Minnesota State University, will be sponsored by DebateMinnesota — a nonpartisan debate organization that typically insists on 90-minute events.

The others will be in Rochester, sponsored by the Minnesota News Network and AARP, and at the St. Paul studios of KSTP-TV, sponsored by the station and the League of Women Voters. Times and dates are still being worked out.