For weeks, Republican gubernatorial candidate Marty Seifert has been releasing his policy positions on various issues.

He started with his 2010-2011 Budget Balancing Plan and has released seven others since then. The positions outline his general thinking in several areas -- for instance, he says in his Public Safety and Crime position paper that he wants to merge the Department of Public Safety with the Department of Corrections -- but also include some statements that give little specifics -- his piece on Energy says he wants to "appoint the best qualified and knowledgeable candidates to serve on the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission."

Other candidates have also released their positions on various issues -- most of them on their Web sites under a section called "issues" (see: Emmer, Kelliher, Thissen for examples) -- but have been less aggressive about persistently pitching them.

Seifert says he will "continue to release additional policy papers in the coming days." Here are the other papers he's released:
Welfare Reform, Agriculture, Higher Education, Transportation and Health Care.