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.

Al Franken had been officially sworn in as the newest senator from Minnesota in Washington for nine days. That's how little time passed last year before the Minnesota GOP took aim at the man some still hold responsible for sending Franken to Washington in the first place: Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

Following the 2008 U.S. Senate recount of nearly 3 million ballots, the state canvassing board was left with more than 6,600 challenged ballots from all corners of the state. Those ballots were selected by representatives of both former Sen. Norm Coleman and Sen. Al Franken for a host of reasons, ranging from stray marks to any writing on the ballots that might identify the original voter.

Two elections, two statewide recounts at taxpayer expense that threaten to stretch out for month after tedious month: Something must be wrong with the system.

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.

State House candidate Tom Heyd doesn't relish the idea of extending the state sales tax to clothing. And from what he's heard door-knocking in the conservative District 16B, voters aren't excited about it either.

VOICES of Conservative Women, a new political advocacy group, is honoring eight legislators for their work at the Capitol. The "Voices of Fiscal Conservatism" award winners, all Republicans, are state Reps. Laura Brod (New Prague), Mary Kiffmeyer (Big Lake), Mary Liz Hoiberg (Lakeville), Joyce Peppin (Rogers) and Peggy Scott (Andover), and state Sen. Debbie Johnson (Ham Lake), Amy Koch (Buffalo) and Julianne Ortman (Chanhassen).

The power divide between DFLers and Republicans in the Minnesota House may look daunting on its face, but not so long ago the GOP held a similarly imposing majority.

More than a half-dozen wallets and purses have disappeared from the Minnesota State Office Building in the month since the 2010 legislative session began, and authorities are reminding legislators and staffers to be careful about leaving personal items unattended.

The Center of the American Experiment is out with a new report, "No Longer a National Model: Fifteen Recommendations for Fixing Minnesota Election Law and Practice."