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.

Around convention time in the spring, Senate Minority Leader Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, boasted that his caucus would retake the chamber’s majority in November. Considering Senate Republicans’ 38-year stranglehold on minority status, and the 13 seats that his troops will need to gain to make good on the pledge, it amounts to a tall order.

As Minnesota’s Republican Party was giddily tweeting the news that the party had fielded candidates for all 201 seats in the state Legislature for the first time in 30 years, the Independence Party of Minnesota was quietly celebrating its own milestone: 16 candidates for the Legislature in 2010, seven in Senate districts and nine in House districts.

Advocates pushing for an end to the state’s 16-year-old ban on nuclear power plant construction suffered a blow on Thursday when a bill to end the moratorium was amended in a way that “guts” the measure, according to the legislation’s author. But that’s unlikely to elicit much pushback from the energy industry, which is staying away from the debate this year.

The state Senate last year passed a bill that lifted the state's moratorium on nuclear power plant construction. After an important committee vote on Thursday, its chances in 2010 appear bleak.

More than 14 months before the 2010 general election, 19 people have filed with the Campaign Finance Board to run for the state Senate in 16 districts, and 16 have filed to run for House seats.

State Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan, wants to abolish per diem payments to legislators in Minnesota. But not because he believes he and his legislative colleagues ...

After endorsing conventions held on back-to-back weekends by Republicans and Democrats in the 6th Congressional District, the race to win the seat being vacated by ...

Housing advocates, concerned that low-income apartment buildings are being socked by large property tax increases, are pushing for a remedy at the state Capitol. Bills ...