Even before Franken went public with his letter of concern, the Republican Party of Minnesota was targeting the Democratic incumbent for what it called "broken promises."

House vets join first-timers in Senate GOP fold as Capitol Report continues profiling all 65 of the newly elected members of the Minnesota Legislature.

n the four months since legislative maps were released, political strategists and journalists have been scrutinizing the new House and Senate districts to determine which ones favor Republicans or Democrats and where the key battlegrounds will be in 2012.

After adjourning in the wee hours of Thursday morning, the Minnesota House of Representatives plunged ahead with the bittersweet biennial ritual of retirement speeches from departing members.

Fallout has been almost constant since release of the state's redistricting maps last week, and over the weekend a few more incumbent-on-incumbent match-ups became clear, some House members switched to run in open Senate seats and new candidates emerged to take their place.

Twenty three Republican legislators received perfect scores for their votes during the 2011 legislative session from Minnesota Majority. Conversely 43 DFL legislators voted in opposition to the policies favored by the conservative advocacy group on every vote scored.

When members of the new House Republican majority met last weekend to pick their top two leaders, they selected a slate dominated by the party's suburban strongholds: Speaker-designate Kurt Zellers of Maple Grove and soon-to-be Majority Leader Matt Dean of Dellwood.

Fourteen Republican state legislators, including gubernatorial nominee Tom Emmer, received perfect ratings from Minnesota Majority for their voting records during the 2010 legislative session. Conversely, seven state senators, all Democrats, received zero ratings from the conservative advocacy group.