Monday, Janecek’s former Politics in Minnesota partner (and MinnPost correspondent) Blois Olson noticed Monday that Janecek was no longer on the PIM masthead. (She sold sold PIM to Dolan in 2008 and joined the company.) Janecek has not returned two phone calls and an email for comment, but Scott Fagerstrom, PIM’s editor-in-chief, issued this one-sentence statement: “As soon as we were informed of her candidacy for lieutenant governor, we put her on leave.”

Asked how long Janecek would remain on leave now that Emmer has picked someone else, Fagerstrom said he had “no idea.”

David Strom, Emmer’s communications director, confirms Janecek was in the running. “There were a lot of people considered — five or six names out there, and her name was in the mix.”

(On a political level, this is somewhat mind-blowing since Minnesota Republicans — and especially delegates who meet this weekend to endorse Emmer or fellow State Rep. Marty Seifert — are firmly opposed to legal abortion; Janecek is pro-choice.)

Strom said Janecek was one of the “original 25 names” but he and Emmer would not specify how close she came. Says Emmer, “There were several people, and she was one of the people that we absolutely took a look at.”

The move creates problems for PIM, at least for the balance of the 2010 race. Though that publication (and this one) isn’t shy about employing correspondents with political or ideological affinities, Janecek was apparently in discussions to be on Emmer’s bumper stickers. Though a frequent PIM correspondent without day-to-day management of the site (that’s Fagerstrom’s and managing editor Steve Perry’s job), her corporate perch gives her some responsibility. Dolan isn’t the PIM of the D.J. Leary-Wy Spano era; it’s a major media company that tends to frown on its director of political coverage bidding to become a political candidate to cover.

According to the PIM archives, Janecek hasn’t written about the Emmer campaign since March 19. The question now is whether Dolan will let her near anything involving Minnesota politics, and if it does, when.