Senate Leader Resigns, Thompson to Seek Post?

After one of the more meteoric rises in state politics, State Sen. Amy Koch (R-District 19) of Buffalo, will be stepping down as the Minnesota Senate Majority Leader. She made the announcement on Thursday.

The move suddenly makes her assistant majority leader, State Sen. Dave Thompson (R-District 36) of Lakeville, the favorite to fill the leadership position.

Thompson said he was "shocked" by Koch's resignation, but he will "continue to work for the citizens of this state."

after being elected to his first term in 2010, told the Star Tribune he had not yet thought about who might lead the Senate, and didn't rule out his own run to become majority leader, but said he hadn't tought about that either.

Meanwhile, Koch is best known to residents as one of the from this past summer. She was first elected to the Senate in 2005.

In a letter to her constituents released Thursday afternoon, Koch called the 2011 session "challenging, exciting and exhausting." In addition to stepping down as majority leader, she will not be seeking re-election to the State Senate in 2012. She said the GOP, whom she led at the bargaining table in a contentious 2011 session, cannot "afford a lame duck leader in negotations next session."

Koch's resignation comes on the heels of the sudden resignation of Minnesota Republican Party chair Tony Sutton. Both are unrelated, but both moves create a pretty large power vacuum in the GOP.

"Obviously, any time there are significant changes in an organization, challenges result," Thompson told the Star Tribune.

"As long as we remain on the issues and the message and don't allow it to be about personalities, I think we'll be fine,'' he said. "We still have more votes than the Democrats do in the Senate."

Interestingly, Koch was asked recently in St. Michael, while visiting a St. Michael-Albertville High School government class, if she had further political aspirations. 

She said "you never know," pointing to the governor's race in 2014 and the two United State Senate seats held by Democrats in Minnesota. 

She's also rumored to be a candidate for U.S. Congress District 6, should Rep. Michele Bachmann decide to continue her presidential campaign and/or leave the House behind in 2012.