Northeastern Minnesota is out of political power at the State Capitol. We hope this new reality ushers in a new era of local self-reliance -- and not a new era of self-pity.

Several trends have converged to make this happen.

The 2000 census and redistricting shifted the state's population and political center of gravity to the St. Cloud-Twin Cities-Rochester suburban corridor, taking legislative seats away from our region. This is a major, long-term realignment of political power.

Compounding that is a precipitous drop in seniority for Northeastern Minnesota in the Minnesota Senate. Long-time committee chairmen have retired or died, leaving the region with first-termers at the bottom of the clout totem pole. In the Minnesota House, which shifted narrowly to a Republican majority in the 1998 election and expanded that majority in 2002, Duluth has two long-time members in the minority.

The Nov. 5 election showed Northeastern Minnesota to be the only overwhelming, reliable Democratic-Farmer-Labor region in the state -- 63 percent DFL to 37 percent Republican in our eight-county region and 67 percent DFL to 33 percent Republican in St. Louis County. The once reliable, overwhelming DFL Twin Cities counties -- Ramsey and Hennepin -- voted 54 percent DFL and 46 percent Republican.

With a new Republican governor, a Republican-majority House and a hanging-by-fingernails three-member DFL majority in the Senate, our region will be on the outs. Twin Cities metropolitan area political leaders who have long believed that Duluth and the Iron Range have gotten more than their share of state resources over the years will be tempted, in tough budget times ahead, to turn off the spigot.

We will be last in line for the discretionary benefits that legislative leaders and governors dole out -- i.e. money for programs, local government operations and capital building projects.

In short, our increasing outlier status will make it much harder to get the things we need from statewide resources.

This requires a sea change in how we do business as a region. In the past, community leaders and elected officials put an awful lot of energy into working with our legislative delegation to lobby for resources from the state. They put an awful lot of energy into internecine battles between Duluth and Iron Range, between environmental and development interests, between traditional extraction industries and other newer industries.

With our changing circumstances, much of that energy and creative talent should be turned toward local entrepreneurial efforts to produce new local resources and attract new local population. For a legislative strategy, focus efforts on truly statewide assets that also are essential to our region's future prosperity -- such as the University of Minnesota Duluth together with pre-K through 12 education and transportation system improvements. Cut the counterproductive conflict and start acting cooperatively as a region.

At this pivotal time, we can afford neither complacence about our situation nor despair. This is a time for action, to make this new era of self-reliance a time of progress and not setback.