By David Swanson

California keeps passing bills for state single-payer healthcare, but Ahhhnold won't sign em, and Jerry Brown who wants to be governor doesn't seem to want it badly enough to make a commitment on healthcare. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania is encouraged that their current governor has said he probably will sign a single-payer healthcare bill, and the legislature just might pass one. But Minnesota has an angle neither of these other states can claim: a serious candidate for governor who is the state's leading advocate for single-payer.

State Senator John Marty was the Democratic nominee for governor of Minnesota 16 years ago and is making another run for it. My friend Vin Gopal, who's working on Marty's campaign, tells me "Senator John Marty is the real deal. If he gets elected Governor this year, which he has a good shot at, it's a whole new ballgame for the single-payer movement. No other statewide candidate in the country is as committed to the movement as he is."