Norm Coleman is "likely" to run for chairman of the Republican National Committee, according to a report in Politico. Current chair Michael Steele is expected to announce this evening that he will not seek a second term.

Just 29 percent of voters surveyed disapprove of the senator. Klobuchar has the backing of 87 percent of Democrats surveyed and 62 percent of independents.

Nearly every Democrat -- 95 percent -- surveyed thinks Dayton won the election, along with 72 percent of independents.

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.

Jeff Larson, an influential national Republican strategist based in St. Paul, has sold off his stake in the GOP fundraising and consulting firm FLS Connect. But the decision to walk away from the company that he founded more than a decade ago doesn't mean that Larson is stepping back from electoral politics.

Election workers and campaign volunteers huddled up in the Plato building near downtown St. Paul on a rainy afternoon after the holiday weekend, and began their part in the tedious task of reviewing more than 2.1 million ballots statewide.

The likelihood that Tom Emmer can overcome a nearly 9,000-vote deficit in the governor's race is exceedingly slim.

The morning after the election, Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Tony Sutton and Deputy Chair Michael Brodkorb gathered the bleary-eyed Capitol press - who had been sitting up into the early morning hours waiting for a verdict on the Minnesota gubernatorial election - and began sounding off on the prospect of an automatic recount.

Mark Dayton became the first DFL governor-elect in 24 years under the unlikeliest of circumstances on Tuesday night, beating Republican Tom Emmer by a final margin of fewer than 10,000 votes out of more than 2 million cast. The exceedingly slim margin - less than half of one percent - will trigger an automatic recount.