A moderate Democrat, she was first elected to the Senate in 2006, but was unseated by Republican Ted Lillie in her 2010 re-election bid.
She also chaired the Education Committee's Subcommittee on Charter Schools, serves on the Business, Industry and Jobs subcommittees for Bioscience and Renewable Energy Development, and for Workforce Development (which she chaired), and on the Finance subcommittees for the E-12 Education Budget and Policy Division, the Transportation Budget and Policy Division, and the Transportation Budget and Policy Division-Transit Subdivision.
[3] Her special legislative concerns include education, property tax reform, health care, economic competitiveness, transportation, and water quality.
She was previously the communications director for Schools for Equity in Education (SEE), working with school districts and parents throughout Minnesota on education funding issues, and also worked as an outreach and marketing employee for the University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinics.
In 1994, she was appointed by former Saint Paul mayor Norm Coleman to serve in his Office of Children and Families.