The Eye

State Sen. John Marty already has announced his candidacy and six other Democrats have opened fundraising committees: former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, state Sen. Tom Bakk, state Rep. Paul Thissen, former state Sen. Steve Kelley, Ramsey County Attorney General Susan Gaertner and perennial candidate Ole Savior.

The popular Democratic mayors of Minnesota's Twin Cities -- R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis and Christopher B. Coleman of St. Paul - would be considered favorites in a primary should either of them enter the race.

But both face re-election campaigns in 2009 and are unlikely to decide on the governor's contest until late in the year.

What's more, none of the Democratic Party hopefuls knows yet whether the seat will be open or whether they would be competing to take on Pawlenty, who has not said whether he will run for a third term.

Minnesota does not have term limits for governor.

Even if Pawlenty stays in the race -- reports out of Minnesota say he just revamped his campaign Web site, which could be an indication of his leanings -- Minnesota's Democratic leanings could make it tough for him to hold his seat. Pawlenty won a second term in 2006 by a margin of just 1 percentage point.

The state Republican Party wasted now time in going after Entenza, sending out a release Thursday to remind the press about what it termed a "checkered past."

The GOP pointed to Entenza's withdrawal from the 2006 state attorney general's race after news surfaced that he had hired a researcher to gather information on fellow Democrat and then-A.G. Mike Hatch.

Entenza defended it as typical opposition research, but the scope of the investigation into Hatch spurred controversy.