ROCHESTER — More than a year after Minnesota adopted a new state flag, the symbol remains for many in the state a source of division and contention rather than a banner of unifying pride.

Signs of many people's unwillingness to accept it are not hard to find. The Republican Party of Minnesota has said it will never be reconciled to the new flag and considers the old 1893 flag as the state’s true symbol.

Republican candidates shun it. Emails sent out by GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen’s campaign all end with old state seal. A petition on change.org, a platform for pressing changes in public policy, has garnered more than 40,000 signatures to reinstate the old flag.

“The new flag has no meaning to a lot of people,” said Steve Patterson, an Austin, Minnesota, small business owne

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