Three sitting GOP legislators from the western Twin Cities suburbs face tough primary contests next week.

State Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, announced Thursday that he won’t seek a sixth term. Lanning’s announcement comes less than a month after Gov. Mark Dayton signed the Vikings stadium bill of which he was the chief House author.

During the early part of her two-plus decades in the state Legislature, retired Republican Sen. Pat Pariseau remembers being just one of a handful of Minnesota legislators who could call themselves members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Members of the Capitol lobbying corps could have been excused for thinking they were in the wrong building at the start of the 2011 legislative session. A new administration and 60 new legislators took office in St. Paul, and a new complement of Republican leaders and chairs took the place of DFLers in both legislative chambers. The Capitol building itself was just about the only thing that resembled the state of affairs from the prior year.

The House Republican Caucus has hired a raft of new committee administrators who will try to bring order to the chaos of the legislative process as the new majority takes office. Their ranks include veteran caucus staffers as well as political refugees from the administration of outgoing GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Members of Minnesota's next gubernatorial administration could be excused for moving into the west wing of the Capitol under cover of night and locking the door behind them. Besides the small matter of an estimated $5.8 billion budget deficit, there is also the likelihood - if, as expected, Democrat Mark Dayton prevails in a pending recount - that the new governor will face a Legislature controlled by his political opponents. (Both Dayton and Republican nominee Tom Emmer have announced transition team leaders.)

Viewed strictly through the prism of balancing Minnesota's general fund portion of the state budget for the 2010-11 biennium, Gov. Tim Pawlenty's decision to propose ...

Viewed strictly through the prism of balancing Minnesota's general fund portion of the state budget for the 2010-11 biennium, Gov. Tim Pawlenty's decision to propose ...

Viewed strictly through the prism of balancing Minnesota's general fund portion of the state budget for the 2010-11 biennium, Gov. Tim Pawlenty's decision to propose ...

Growing up on his family’s farm near Tracy, state Department of Human Services Commissioner Cal Ludeman says his childhood conjures images from a Norman Rockwell ...