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.

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.

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.

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.

The restructuring of the caucus and its chairs by a new leadership team is widely expected to produce a decidedly conservative shift on the part of Senate Republicans, who in recent years have built a more centrist track record than their increasingly conservative House colleagues.

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

By the standard political barometers, Paul Gazelka should be a runaway favorite to win the Senate District 12 seat. The former state House member took the GOP primary by 14 percentage points in a district that's seemingly firm Republican turf.

A negative mailing arrived in Republican state Senate candidate Dan Hall's district last weekend that caught him by surprise.

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.