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Martiga Lohn
St. Paul, Minn. (AP)

Koch to lead Minn. Senate, first woman ever in job

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State Sen. Amy Koch has won the top post in the Minnesota Senate, becoming the first woman to lead the chamber.

Senate Republicans picked the two-term Buffalo senator as their majority leader in a closed caucus meeting Friday.

Current caucus leader David Senjem of Rochester took himself out of the running before the meeting.

Republicans are poised to take over the Senate after nearly four decades in the minority after a stunning series of upsets in Tuesday's election. Koch steered the caucus's election effort.

Koch came to the Senate in 2005 after winning a special election. She was a toddler when Republicans last ruled the Senate as "conservatives," before the modern partisan political designations came into use in the state Legislature.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)