State politicians are digging in their heels with a vote on whether to ban gay marriage less than a year away. Former gubernatorial opponents Tom Emmer and Gov. Dayton are expected to be focal figures.

A new poll reveals that public opinion has shifted in Minnesota, suggesting that state voters might not support a gay marriage ban. If voters rejected a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, it would be a first in the United States. Can the poll results be real?

Freedom to Marry, a national group fighting to defeat the ballot measure to define marriage as solely between one man and one woman, will air its first television advertisement in Minnesota on Thursday. MPR reports the 30-second ad will run on television and cable networks in the Twin Cities and Duluth. It features a Duluth couple who have been married for nearly 60 years. Yvonne and Fred Peterson say gay couples should also be allowed to marry.

The latest: a national group working to ban gay marriage has asked Minnesota's largest corporations to remain neutral on the issue. Meanwhile, the debate is dividing the state's clergy, and Rep. Keith Ellison makes his prediction on the marriage amendment.

The "Prairie Home Companion" star has agreed to be part of a contest that aims to raise money for the campaign to defeat a November ballot measure. The proposed constitutional amendment would effectively ban gay marriage in Minnesota.

Gay marriage advocates, fresh from winning a fight over a constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex unions, is already planning for what they say is the next logical step. State law still does not allow for gay marriage. They aim to change that.

Just two days after another poll found majority support for the Minnesota ballot measure that would ban gay marriage, another new poll shows just 48 percent in favor of it, 47 percent opposed – well within the margin of error and suggesting the vote could go either way.

The group Minnesotans United for All Families, the leading opponent of a ballot measure that would ban gay marriage, has released its first TV ad in the Twin Cities and Duluth. It features a Catholic, Republican couple from Savage who opposes the measure.