Nearly lost in all the post-election Deomcratic hand-wringing is the interesting fact that the Minnesota DFL had a fantastic night, whittling the GOP lead in the statehouse down to a single seat. (And even that one seat is the subject of a mandatory recount, so we may yet have a tie in the House.) 77% turnout in the state appeared to work in the DFL’s favor, and some particularly dogmatic right wingers were ousted from the legislature. Even a chunk of the suburban vote went in the DFL’s direction, leading to a reevaluation of the metro area by local media.

Furthermore, for such a reclamation of DFL power to occur on the same night that Republicans made such a strong showing in national races (even in Minnesota) is a clear sign that the electorate is fed up with the exclusionary political games that House Speaker Steve Sviggum and Governor Pawlenty have been playing for the last two years. This bodes well for advocates of public transportation and local government aid, both of which have been gutted by the no-new-taxes crowd. So while the nation as a whole may be still be a tough place for Democrats, Minnesota may actually be moving back towards the DFL for the first time in a decade.