In the end, it seems, no one's really happy.

After a bruising legislative session, shutdown and special session, south-metro politicians and those who follow them are assessing the outcome and trying to figure out how it squares with what voters elected them to do.

"Most of the citizens I've talked to, as they approach me, are dissatisfied," said Joe Harris, chairman of the Dakota County Board. "The legislators knew what they needed to do and they knew what the stakes were and they failed to produce, regardless of the Republicans basically saying, 'We gave him the bills and the governor vetoed them.' That doesn't cut it out there."

What would cut it -- Gov. Mark Dayton's tax-the-rich plan, the Republican legislators' no-new-taxes position, or something in between -- is equally hard to pin down. Voters have until the 2012 election to decide.

"It depends on how the story plays out and what story the public hears," said Shakopee Republican Rep. Mike Beard.

One twist, for instance, that emerged during the shutdown was the threat to beer supplies with state officials sidelined.

"If we depend that much on the government for our beer," Beard said, "maybe we have too much government. You can't haul beer down the street because you didn't get your stamp? Is that reasonable governance? If that message resonates, I'm not worried" about the Republican Party's prospects in the next election.

Yet while Beard's constituents in Scott County are known to reliably vote Republican, the ballot trends in Dakota County are less certain.

Of the 17 seats that touch Dakota County, 11 were held by DFLers before the 2010 election. That's when voters took a sudden turn to the right, handing 13 of the 17 seats to Republicans and helping propel the party to a legislative majority at the statehouse.

In at least one case, DFLers already are coming forward to try to reclaim what they lost.

Sen. Ted Daley, a freshman Republican from Eagan, already has two challengers -- Eagan Mayor Mike Maguire and former Sen. Jim Carlson, the man Daley knocked out of office.

"I certainly welcome the opportunity," Daley said, expressing confidence that a majority of the voters in his district share his opinions. "There are a lot of people upset with the budget being this big. They want to cut state spending, not just see a reduction in the increase."

But the Republicans' line in the sand on taxes has prompted concern.

Former Prior Lake Mayor Jack Haugen, a political independent who made an impassioned plea to lawmakers in Scott County some months back to stop being cowed by hard-line party ideology, said that remains a concern.

"They've got to represent the people and not a party," said Haugen, who runs an insurance agency. "And businesses with financial problems need both expense control and additional revenue."

The partisan gridlock is particularly irksome to Tom Egan, a Dakota County Commissioner who previously served on the Metropolitan Council as an appointee of Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

He cited the Dakota County Board as an example of how things should work. The county offices are nonpartisan, but board members have their personal preferences and still manage to work together because "we're not getting pounded into the ground by partisan groups like the Legislature is," he said, blaming both the DFL and Republican parties.

He also wondered if some of the new legislators in particular are too caught up in sticking to their ideals. "There's a vast difference between representing your ideological viewpoint and getting things done," Egan said.

There's a lot to come before the next election, including another legislative session and redistricting, said Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College.

If anything is clear, it's that voters in swing counties like Dakota will think carefully about their own experience.

"The voters there are weak party identifiers. They are going to go office-by-office based on what they think an individual officeholder can do for them," Schier said. "They want government to work for them."

katie.humphrey@startribune.com • 952-882-9056 dapeterson@startribune.com • 952-882-9023