Before closing his victory speech after winning back the DFL majority in the Minnesota Senate, a teary-eyed DFL Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk grabbed the arm of one of his first-time candidates and lifted it high. “I want to introduce you to Senator-elect Melisa Franzen,” Bakk shouted to an exuberant crowd of DFLers gathered in downtown St. Paul at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. “They didn’t lose because they are Republicans; they lost because they are wrong.”

What began as a practically giddy collection of Republican activists at the Hilton Minneapolis Bloomington on Tuesday night turned into a scene of despair by the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

Hibbing legal clerk Carly Melin won the five-way DFL primary election Tuesday evening to replace retired DFL Rep. Tony Sertich in House District 5B, but Republicans are questioning her eligibility to run in the general election in less than two weeks.

Democrats in Senate District 5 endorsed Hibbing legal clerk Carly Melin over the weekend in the race to replace former House Majority Leader Tony Sertich.

House Republicans are taking the opportunity to make some permanent changes to the rules now that they're in the majority.

Filing closed Tuesday for the special election to replace DFL Rep. Tony Sertich in House District 5B, and six people - including one Independence Party and one Republican candidate - have thrown their name in to replace him.

Matt Massman will be the new assistant commissioner for tax policy at the state Department of Revenue.

Republican leaders at the Capitol are looking to reduce per diem and lodging reimbursements to legislators. In the Senate, legislators could see a $10 cut to their $96 per diem, and in the House, an approximately 25 percent trim for lodging reimbursements for rural legislators.

The Democratic and Republican caucuses in the House and Senate are meeting between now and Sunday to organize and decide on leadership after a presumed DFL-stronghold in the Legislature fell into the GOP's hands Tuesday night.

So here's the list as it currently stands. Races in which it appears an automatic recount will be triggered --five by our reckoning, all in the House -- are bolded. In addition, there are still only partial returns in Rep. Terry Morrow's re-election bid in 23A.