Holiday weekend notes: new gubernatorial contenders & a WaPo infant DNA update

It’s shaping up to be a nice Fourth of July weekend, and we’ve updated our 2010 governor’s race grid with the latest new websites and filings. Sen. David Hann (R-Eden Prairie) has filed, and Sen. Joe Gimse (R-Willmar) is his campaign chair, according to the filing. Also, former GOP U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman is no longer listed as "recount pending;" Recent commentary (like from Eric Black, for example) has thrown cold water on the idea that Coleman will launch a gubernatorial campaign. Of course, if the election process hadn’t dragged on for so long, he would have been in a far better position to run!

We’ve also added new contender, Sen. Mike Jungbauer (R-East Bethel), and filled in Rep. Paul Kohls’ (R-Victoria) website and campaign finance info. (By the way, Kohls’ campaign chair is Rep. Joe Hoppe (R-Chaska).)

Speaking of Victoria, a Washington Post story (carried in the Pioneer Press) discussed the nationwide controversy over infant DNA testing and data policies; some of Kohls’ constituents aren’t happy with the state policy. On May 29th, PIM was the first news source to release the actual legal contracts between the state Department of Health, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota. As we noted, the clauses about who owns the "intellectual property" of the DNA samples and their derivative works are quite significant. If you want PIM’s special 105MB multi-file PDF of newborn screening documentation, get it here [Acrobat 8+ required to view, full text-searchable].