After a caucus meeting that lasted more than five hours, Minnesota House Republicans Saturday selected Rep. Kurt Daudt from Crown, in Isanti County, to be their new minority leader. The pick comes a day after Senate Republicans picked Sen. David Hann of Eden Prairie to be Senate minority leader.

After two short years of a Republican majority, the Minnesota Legislature is back in control of the Democrats, and GOP leaders said Wednesday they are mystified by what happened during Tuesday's general election.

Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, was selected as the new Senate Majority Leader after a closed meeting Thursday. As expected, Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, was picked as House Majority Leader.

The complaint comes after MPR reported the Republican Party paid Dave Thompson for consulting work while he was running for a Senate office in 2010. DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin says the exchange raises questions about whether the Republican Party was paying Thompson to run for office.

The Senate will hold a private caucus just after Christmas to elect Sen. Amy Koch's replacement. The majority leader is the state Senate's most powerful figure.

State Republicans meet in St. Cloud to choose among three people vying to be the party's next state leader. The person who takes over confronts a steep climb to steer the party through a crippling debt and a scandal that ousted their Senate leader.

Senate Republican spokesman Steve Sviggum thinks DFLers are moving slowly to prolong their ethics complaint against Republican Geoff Michel. He says Michel was ready to have a hearing on the day the complaint was filed. Democrats say Michel failed to act appropriately after learning the Senate majority leader was having an affair with a staff member.