In one of the first shots of the 2014 U.S. Senate race, the Minnesota Republican Party took aim at DFL incumbent Al Franken Tuesday, calling him the "deciding vote" on Obamacare legislation containing a 2.3 percent medical device tax. More telling, the party apparatus compared him to U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen, the Minnesota Republican who has championed legislation repealing the tax, which the GOP says could cost the Minnesota economy $1 billion a year. Paulsen is frequently mentioned as a potential Senate challenger, though he has given mixed signals about his interest. Franken was the 60th vote in the Senate for a while, until the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority. He also supports medical device tax repeal legislation, though it hasn't gone anywhere in the Senate.
