Republicans and DFLers have this week to finish their suggestions for how to draw new Minnesota's new Congressional and legislative maps. They'll turn them in to a court-appointed panel that's expected to finish the redistricting process in a couple of months.

The five-judge redistricting panel appointed by the Minnesota Supreme Court released an outline Thursday. All parties must have their proposed maps to the court next month. The court will then have a hearing on the plans in January.

When Minnesota's political parties were unable to agree on new political boundaries, they went to court ... and now the bills are coming due. Democrats, Republicans, and citizens who joined the lawsuit are seeking reimbursement of $628,000 in legal costs. A panel appointed by the state Supreme Court eventually handled the redistricting.

Forum Communications reports candidates may be raising some money now, but are ultimately waiting to see how districts shake up after the new political maps are completed in February before tossing their hat into the ring.

State lawmakers had until Friday to file their proposals for the state's redistricting. A key feature of the DFL plan is a pairing of current representatives, Democrat Betty McCollum and Republican Michele Bachmann, into the same district.

With the new state House and Senate district lines in place, MinnPost has mapped the political leaning of each district based on average precinct results from the three most recent elections: 2006, 2008 and 2010.

A special court panel will likely have to decide how to redraw the districts because Dayton and Republican legislators probably won't agree on a plan. Every 10 years the state redraws the boundaries to account for population changes in the Census.

Some residents are telling a panel that it makes no sense to lump both cities in the same legislative district. The population of the St. Cloud area and the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities have grown much faster than most of other parts of the state in the past decade, which means political districts in the area must be redrawn.