People & politics.

• Position: Montana

Montana has taken bipartisanship to a new level. Newly elected Governor Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat-the first elected in the state in 16 years--picked a Republican as his running mate, Senator John Bohlinger Bohlinger served three-terms in the House and was in his second Senate term. "It's a new day in Montana," Schweitzer said. "It's time to have new leadership that works together, leadership that reaches out to the people."

The dean of the Illinois House, 17-term Representative Ralph Capparelli, lost his bid for another term to Representative Michael McAuliffe. The two Chicago incumbents were thrown together through legislative redistricting. McAuliffe coasted to a fifth term with 59 percent of the vote.

Two twenty-something candidates have been elected to the House in Wyoming and will become the chamber's youngest members when the Legislature convenes. Representative-elect Dan Zwonitzer, the natural resources program coordinator for the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, is 25, and Representative-elect Bryan Pedersen, a financial consultant, is 29. The two Republicans join thirty-something Representative Becket Hinckley also from Latimer County.

The president of the Senate in American Samoa, Lutu T. Fuimaono, has died at the age of 74. He entered the Senate in 1977, and became president in 1996 to complete the term of Letuli Toloa, who also died while in office.

Tom Finneran, five-term speaker of the Massachusetts House and one of the most respected--and reviled--public officials in the state, has stepped down to head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. Elected in 1979, Finneran ved as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee for five years and was elected speaker in 1966. Widely regarded as a powerful leader who led the House with an iron fist, Finneran is under federal investigation for his role in redistricting House seats and whether he perjured himself in a 2003 deposition. Representative Salvatore DiMasi, majority leader for two years and a legislator since 1979, is the new speaker. In the contentious debates on gay marriage this year, DiMasi defended the rights of same sex couples to marry.

Two former state legislators are recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Cindy Watson, the first Republican elected to the North Carolina House from Duplin County in more than a century, won for her courage in co-sponsoring legislation to reduce hog waste...