[I'm writing this largely as a response to a comment on the McCain aide thread, but it got rather long, so I figured I'd post it as a diary.]
The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is the Democratic Party in MN. The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party (unaffiliated with a national party of that name) was founded in 1918, stating that the Democratic Party was too close to the Republicans, representing only the well-off and ignoring the concerns of people like the miners in the Iron Range and farmers. It was largely regarded as socialist.
It enjoyed modest success in the 1920s, electing Henrik Shipstead and Magnus Johnson to the Senate in the 1922 elections (Johnson's election being a special election). Shipstead stayed in the Senate until 1947, but had become a Republican in 1941. Johnson lost his first regular election in 1924, but soon after was elected to the US House.
It really came into its own during the Depression, however. Many more people were listening to what the FL Party had to say, and they held the governorship from 1930 to 1940. But vote-splitting was getting to be very problematic, to the point Republicans actually starting winning.
Finally, the Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties were able to reach an understanding on platform issues and merge to form the DFL. Hubert Humphrey is largely credited with making it happen.
That's the general history-book summation. The characterization that the FL Party was never really powerful is very far from the mark; During the Depression, there were times where the FL Party was the most powerful of the three in Minnesota.
There's more left than just a name, as well... MN politics doesn't tend to favor national parties. Take a look at the Independent-Republicans of Minnesota. The R party here changed its name to that in 1975, distancing themselves from Watergate. The IRs were largely very moderate, fiscally responsible, and open to bipartisanship. Look around on Google for some interesting info about how Arne Carlson was elected governor. Unfortunately, they grew more and more close to the national party, and the IR name had largely become a joke before they changed it back in 1995.
-- Jake Nelson
DFL Precinct Chair, Burnsville P-04