Can we really get 18 months out of a gubernatorial race? Damn straight we can! The Strib's Kevin Duchschere delivers new names and details in Day Two of what will become a Five Hundred Day story. He and others report that Minority Leader Marty Seifert will step out of that job to ... maybe/most likely ... take a shot at Pawlenty's old gig. Steve Sviggum is supposedly thinking about it. For the DFL, Tim Walz says no. But Steve Kelley is up on the North Shore giving it another shot. But really, Dean Barkley?

The PiPress's Jason Hoppin and a couple others drop Jim Ramstad's name. MPR's Tim Pugmire gets some good quotes out of a few wannabes. "I recall that Tim Pawlenty raised $4 million to win his last election. I think that's probably the floor now," he has Edina Sen. Geoff Michel saying. "And I think one of the things candidates will have to factor in here is probably raising double that. I think you're looking at an $8 million campaign."

The Strib's D.C. guy, Kevin Diaz, has the story of Minnesota car dealers getting closed down by either GM or Chrysler making the rounds in Washington looking for soft shoulders. He gets Rep. Keith Ellison reacting to the big car companies getting billions in bailouts and then stiffing main street businesses: "They should be flowing with benevolence and doing everything they can to keep these people afloat." Yeah, "benevolence" ... and GM.

Tom Scheck at MPR has a reaction story from health care workers as they wait to hear how Gov. Pawlenty plans to "unallot" their budgets. The picture isn't pretty. He talks to one man, a quadriplegic, and reports: "Before the legislative session ended last month, Gov. Pawlenty signed a Health and Human Services budget bill that will cut funding for personal care attendants. Estimates say as many as 1,600 disabled people will lose PCA services altogether. Another 7,000 people, like Tim Benjamin, could lose hours. 'Two hours doesn't sound like much for many people, but for me, I have respiratory problems. Without two hours of care, I can drown in my own secretions.'"

Strib reporter Doug Smith says 187,000 acres of land up north have been set aside under a $45 million deal with the Blandin Corporation. $36 million comes out of the recently passed Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. The PiPress uses a piece from the Duluth News Tribune's John Meyers, who talks to a conservation spokesman and writes, "He said the deal stops what would have been an inevitable sale and breakup of the Blandin land for development into cabins, homes and hunting shacks." Your tax money at work.

And in another government-buys-land story, Smith's colleague Maria Elena Baca tells the tale of Blaine reaching a deal with the family that owns 80 acres up in Blaine, a chunk of which the Vikings were dallying with a few years ago while talking about a sprawling exurban stadium complex. She writes, "The hope is that the city will be better able than a private owner to navigate the complexities of securing permits on a site that's almost half wetlands, but which will be a corridor to another 200 acres, much of which has yet to be developed."

Kathie Jenkins at the PiPress has a piece on fixed-price $30 menus at a handful of better restaurants. She mentions Solera, 20-21 and even The Chambers Kitchen concocting ways to maintain traffic with upscale dining taking a serious whacking in the recession. You have to love the knock on a neighborhood joint in St. Paul. Says Jenkins, "The space could use a decorator, and the crowd's not hip, but Luci Ancora has great Italian food." Not hip? Needs decorator? Sounds like my backyard grilling station.

For those on a $3 dining budget -- i.e. coffee in the morning -- City Pages' Coffee Snob blog has Bradley Campbell picking up an item from Heavy Table, an unsparing critic of the Twin Cities, uh, "dining scene." Of St. Paul coffee hang-outs, Heavy Table writes: "St. Paul is littered with quality roasters and cafes fighting for customers. Kopplin’s Coffee sets the bar, with cafes like Amore, White Rock, J&S, and Cahoots trailing shortly behind. It is a ravenous market with independents battling corporate chains like Caribou and Starbucks. Each offers something different and most claim theirs is the best. This includes Cosmic’s Coffee and Coffee News Cafe. The title for worst cup of coffee in St. Paul is shared by these last two establishments. Each produces a catastrophically bad brew ... " This I think is an example of the kind of genuinely "critical" writing that makes blogs so indispensable ... and amusing.

You want sports news? No, you don't. The Twins pretty much sucked from the first pitch on last night, losing to Cleveland 10-1. But Charlie "Shooter" Walters tosses in a bit on a story that puts any political campaign to shame for sheer longevity ... the Vikings' weaseling for a new taxpayer-funded stadium. Says Shooter this AM: "As for Pawlenty, not running for governor again might provide him some flexibility to become more engaged in the stadium issue. Conversely, with Pawlenty's term ending in 2010 and the Vikings' Dome lease expiring in 2011, the governor simply could leave the issue to his successor." Now THAT, kids, is how you fill a column.