The Senate passed the tax bill on a 37-28 party-line vote in the early morning hours of Thursday. It will now be sent to DFL Gov. Mark Dayton for an expected veto.

The message from Republican legislative challengers on last summer's campaign trail was clear: Farmers are suffering from state lawmakers' recent changes to the Green Acres farmland preservation program.

Lobbyists who have been waiting on pins and needles for the House and Senate to release their committee rosters got an early holiday present on Wednesday, when the Senate GOP sent out a final list of Republican names that will make up the majority in the chamber's 16 committees next year.

As the Minnesota Legislature prepares for a transition that will see 60 freshmen join the rolls of the state Senate and House, PIM continues with our series of post-election portraits of the 2011 class. In this latest edition, we look at seven more members of the incoming Senate Republican majority.

In some political attacks during this year's legislative campaign, the attacking party has been the one that's gotten bloodied.

Political action committees and legislative caucuses have already done mailings assailing the opposition. But now that the campaign has entered the final month, the rough-and-tumble race for the Legislature is kicking into high gear.

DFLer Lisa Fobbe's election to the District 16 Minnesota Senate seat was anything but normal. Running in a 2008 special election occasioned by the appointment of popular GOP state Sen. Betsy Wergin to the Public Utilities Commission, Fobbe faced two Republican opponents - one of them a dispossessed state rep running a write-in campaign - in a heavily Republican district.

Republicans are slated to squared off in a handful of competitive state legislative primary contests on August 10. In most instances, the GOP rivals are vying to take on a DFL incumbent in districts that look winnable.