Freshman Republican Sen. Scott Newman has refused to meet with the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), and will not sit down with any other group that supported his DFL opponent Hal Kimball during the election, according to DFL rural blogger Sally Jo Sorensen.

Lobbyists who have been waiting on pins and needles for the House and Senate to release their committee rosters got an early holiday present on Wednesday, when the Senate GOP sent out a final list of Republican names that will make up the majority in the chamber's 16 committees next year.

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.

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.

The month of March witnessed several interesting endorsing conventions for state legislative seats. In many instances, the conventions sorted out who will carry their party’s banner in November. In other cases, the endorsed candidates are being challenged in a primary. Here’s a rundown of what occurred at some of the notable conventions from the month past.

A candidate who lost Saturday's District 18 endorsement contest said he won't rule out a primary challenge against the endorsed candidate, former Rep. Scott Newman.

Before starting his campaign for judge in the First Judicial District, state Rep. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, has a few things he wants to get done in the Legislature.

The Minneapolis DFLer says she will return to full-time position in the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office