If the Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton fail to agree on a redistricting plan by Feb. 21 of next year, the panel will then draw the lines itself.

Over the years, Minnesota leaders in the governor’s office and Legislature have frequently gone against political type when they believed circumstances required it.

Not since 1999 — the first year of Jesse Ventura’s single term as governor — has a budget session of the Minnesota Legislature ended on time without a special session, partial governmental shutdown or red-letter controversy.

Tempers flared and debates grew heated around the Capitol over the past week as Republicans in the House put their controversial legislative redistricting map on the table. The map carves up a new political landscape that pits 26 incumbents against one another - 20 in the House and six in the Senate - and all but one of the matchups put a DFLer, or two, in peril.

In a trend that has persisted for more than 10 years, the richest Minnesotans are paying a lower percentage of their incomes in state and local taxes than the rest of the state's residents, according to the biennial Tax Incidence Study prepared by the Department of Revenue.

In the 1990s he served as the state's emergency management director under Republican Gov. Arne Carlson. Aasen then joined the administration of Independence Party Gov. Jesse Ventura as assistant commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. He subsequently served as director of government relations for Ventura during a time of unprecedented tri-partisan control at the Capitol, with Republicans running the House and Democrats controlling the Senate.

Gov. Mark Dayton's cabinet is almost complete. On the week in which he was officially sworn into office, Dayton continued to add to the roster of top agency officials who will help him govern alongside the GOP-controlled Legislature in confronting the state's $6.2 billion budget deficit.

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

At this time of the year many of us are pondering what gifts may be waiting under the tree come Christmas morning. But in Gov.-elect Mark Dayton's case, he's probably thinking more about what gifts he would like to receive from legislators in the upcoming session.

Transportation policy wonks wondering how the new Republican legislative majority will approach the Metropolitan Council can find a hint in the state GOP platform. The party's position is succinct and seemingly unambiguous: