Minnesota Rep. Paul Thissen will have a new role when lawmakers go back to St. Paul early next year.

Thissen, whose House District 63A includes part of south Minneapoois and the western half of Richfield, last year led a key legislative committee on health care policy and he sat on finance and enviromental policy committees. This session, he'll be the House minority leader in the wake of the GOP takeover of both the state House and Senate from the DFL.

"The Republicans now have the responsibility to govern," he wrote in an email. "As the minority leader, my goal is to work with the Republicans in constructive ways, but also to hold the Republicans accountable for governing and to make clear the consequences of their decisions on the real, everyday lives of Minnesotans."

Thissen easily won his sixth two-year House term last Tuesday.