Pam Wolf is not easily deterred. She first ran for the Legislature in 2004, losing a House race to incumbent DFL Rep. Connie Bernardy by 13 percentage points. Two years later, Wolf took on DFL Sen. Don Betzold, losing that time by 9 percentage points.

Johnson will challenge first-term GOP Sen. Pam Wolf, who in 2010 won in the current Senate District 51 with more than 52 percent of the vote.

For former DFL Sen. Jim Carlson, it was a matter of a little reflection and time to “lick my wounds” before he knew he was ready to run again for the state Senate. Carlson, who served one term in the chamber, was ousted last fall by Republican newcomer Ted Daley as part of a massive GOP wave that saw the party take control of both the House and Senate for the first time in nearly four decades.

Here's a rundown of the year's top 10 political stories.

Kathleen Lonergan has been kicking around the Capitol for 18 years, one of those behind-the-scenes staffers who quietly keeps things humming. On any given day she could offer up insight and institutional knowledge to any lawmaker, reporter or constituent ready to seek it.

In many cases, DFLers simply got caught in an undertow in districts that are fundamentally split in their political allegiances; in some, like rural Senate District 16, they handed back control of districts no one had expected them to win in the first place; in others, it appears, they failed to take steps to protect incumbents who faced discernible pockets of Republican opposition.

Republicans pummeled DFLers in the suburbs and greater Minnesota on Tuesday night to take control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since the modern partisan era started in the early 1970s.

At some point this year, everybody who's anybody in the state GOP and the Senate Republican Caucus has stepped to a podium to proclaim 2010 the year they will finally take over the chamber.

During floor debate on the omnibus pension bill on May 5, state Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, offered an amendment that proposed to stop offering new employees defined benefit pensions and instead offer to a more market-based form of retirement savings known as defined contribution plans.

Sen. Don Betzold would like to regain the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee. Betzold, who currently is chairman of the State Government Budget Division, was Judiciary chairman from 2003 to 2006.