On Saturday Reps. Glenn Gruenhagen and Ron Shimanski squared off in Hutchinson for the GOP endorsement in House District 18B. On the second ballot Gruenhagen pulled within half a percentage point of crossing the 60 percent threshold required for endorsement.

House and Senate races across the state are rapidly shaking out after the release of the 2012 legislative map last month. And with local endorsing conventions set to take place throughout March, incumbents and challengers alike have little time to make decisions about their political futures.

At least three prospective Republican candidates for the Minnesota Senate crowded a gathering of activists in the newly drawn Senate District 39 over the weekend.

The bill, carried by Rep. Ryan Winkler and Sen. Katie Sieben, would close $450 million in annual corporate tax "loopholes" to pay back the shift in just more than five years.

Nobody knows what the legislative maps will look like in 2012. The politically charged redistricting process will almost certainly be decided by the courts, most likely in February. But that uncertainty over legislative district boundaries hasn’t stopped numerous challengers on both sides of the aisle from declaring their candidacies.

Karin Housley is preparing another bid to oust Sen. Katie Sieben. Housley fell 606 votes short last year of defeating the DFL incumbent.

Lawmakers rolled out the first bills of the 2011 session Monday, with Senate Republicans marking their new-found control of the chamber with proposals they pushed relentlessly in the minority.

A public safety issue that's attracted attention at the city and county level will be taken up at the Capitol tomorrow, as Sen. Katie Sieben (DFL-Newport) discusses legislation to illegalize the substance known as synthetic marijuana.

Late last week, three of the principal architects of the Republicans' Minnesota Senate takeover gathered in Sen. Amy Koch's office for one last time to talk about how they'd pulled it off.

Republicans think they have a shot at sweeping a longtime DFL stronghold: District 57, which covers parts of Dakota and Washington counties just southeast of the Twin Cities.