Here is the follow-up to yesterday’s Diary. Lost in the mix with the attention being paid to MN-1 and MN-8, on Tuesday all of the remaining unresolved legislative primaries in Minnesota were ironed out. Most all of the candidates were known after the caucus/convention, but a few races were undecided. Here is the rundown of the final candidates going on to November after Tuesday.
SD-1 (R)
As expected, Thief River Falls mayor, Steve Nordhagen easily won against perennial candidate (in the purest form of the term) and Korean(!) War veteran Jual Carlson. Nordhagen is a respectable candidate, but long-time senator Leroy Stumpf will have little trouble in the GE against him.
HD-2B (R)
Steve Green won a contentious primary in this Park Rapids-based district, Neither Green nor did his opponent David Collins have much in terms of political resumes. Former 3-term DFL Rep is looking for her old job back in this seat, and has a big advantage in terms of money, and campaign structure.
HD-4A (R) & (D)
This is the race to succeed long-time GOP Rep Morrie Lanning, who decided to hang it up after getting his pet project stadium bill passed. This is Moorhead district is a remarkably difficult place for a Republican not named Lanning to win. Regardless, the Republican nominee is Travis Reimche, and the DFL nominee is Ben Lien. Neither one of them has any political experience, but both won their respective primaries handily.
SD-5 (D)
Long-time DFL senator from Grand Rapids, Tom Saxhaug faced a nominal primary challenge, but it wasn’t close.
HD-6B (R) & (D)
Sadly, Tom Rukavina, a stable of Iron Range politics for a long time has decided to hang it up and head home. This is central St. Louis County, the geographic center of the Iron Range. The Republican side had their first Range primary in decades, with Jesse Colangelo winning 64-36. The DFL primary was the effective General Election here given the nature of the district. Jason Metsa edged out Lorrie Janatopoulos, with a third candidate, Dave Meyer pulling 5%. The party has quickly rallied behind Metsa, and both candidates have been genial towards one another the whole time. “Minnesota Nice” at its finest.
HD-7A (D)
74-year-old, 20-year Duluth Representative Thomas Huntley faced a nominal challenger, but it didn’t matter.
HD-8B (D)
Local long-time high school football coach and teacher Bob Cunniff gets the nod to run against Representative Mary Franson. Franson has been quite the lightning rod of controversy in her short tenure in St. Paul. Cunniff has been parlaying Franson’s controversial nature into a big fundraising haul. He also has good name recognition for being a local radio host. This is a red area, but it is not opposed to electing the right DFLers in the right elections, just ask former Senator Dan Skogen.
SD-10 (D)
2010 DFL candidate against 12th district Senator Paul Gazelka, Taylor Stevenson, is running in the newly drawn 10th district. He is only 24 years old now, but he won his primary against Anne Marcotte on Tuesday. This is a swingy district that covers Crow Wing and Aitkin Counties. Having Crow Wing County native Rick Nolan ahead of him on the ticket surely can’t hurt. Stevenson goes against self-descriped “Christian Activist” Carrie Ruud. Ruud, to her credit, served in the legislature earlier last decade. This will be a race to watch, because the DFL can put money in, and the MN GOP likely cannot, given its financial woes.
HD-10B (D)
This is one of the election results that truly caught me off guard. Long-ago former state senator David Schaaf faced 26-year-old upstart Joe Radinovich. Seems like it should have been an open and shut case, but it wasn’t. Radinovich absolutely demolished Schaaf 76-24. Upon further inspection of their pre-primary fundraising reports, it turns out that young Mr. Radinovich outraised Schaaf and GOP nominee Dale Lueck nearly 2:1 COMBINED. Radinovich really seems to have some solid momentum going forward in this center-left Aitkin County district. Watch Radinovich, because I am not easily impressed, and his performance and fundraising has truly impressed me.
HD-11A (D)
Former Carlton County DFL chairman and former Cloquet school board member Mike Sundin edged current Cloquet mayor Bruce Ahlgren for a ticket to November. Waiting for Sundin there is Republican Jim Putnam. This is a strong DFL area, and I would be shocked to see Sundin lose, or even come close to losing. Sundin has outraised Putnam ~10:1.
HD-11B (R) & D
On the Republican side, National Guard Major Ben Wiener edged out Pine County Commissioner Mitch Pangerl on Tuesday. Neither candidate raised more than a couple thousand dollars. Wiener is starting out the dash to November with 405 dollars in his campaign account. On the DFL side former 2-term Representative Tim Faust prevailed by a 63-37 margin over the city planner for Pine City. Faust didn’t raise a ton of money for this race, but he obviously starts out with a cash advantage over Wiener.
SD-13 (R)
This is actually a funny story. Fadumo Yusuf accidentally filed to run against Senate President Michelle FIschbach. Yusuf was born in Somalia, lives in Fridley (Many miles from the 13th district) and had intended on running against Amy Klobuchar as a Republican. But due to her filling out the candidacy form wrong, she actually filed to run in a primary against Fischbach. Yusuf managed to pull 10% in this race somehow. Regardless, Fischbach isn’t going to lose in November either
SD-15 (D)
Sally Knox won her primary, and doesn’t stand a chance against Senator Dave Brown in this district.
HD-15B (D)
This is a dud of a primary, with Brian Johnson defeated Bruno Gad, who didn’t even raise a time for his race per his campaign expenditures report. It won’t matter, because Republican Jim Newberger is going to steamroll Johnson anyways.
SD-17 (D)
As I expected, newly seated senator Lyle Koenen won his primary against Larry Rice in this Wilmar-based district. Now, some people had thought that Rice would win this primary, but in the end it wasn’t that close with Koenen winning 57-43. Rice had outraised Koenen, but in the end, incumbency won the day. This sets up a truly marquee matchup with Senator Koenen taking on Senator Gimse in this truly toss-up district. Rice, as of writing this diary, has not officially endorsed Koenen. I really hope he does not hold on as a sore loser here and gets on board.
HD-17B (D)
This primary has to be viewed as an upset. Everyone had predicted that Jessica Rohloff would win her primary against teacher Mary Sawatzky. I had this one pegged dead wrong, as Sawatzky won convincingly at 66-34. Sawatzky goes towards November to face Freshman GOP Representative Bruce Vogel and Independence candidate Zachary Liebl in this center/center-right district along the Minnesota River
SD-20 (R)
Former FBI Agent Mike Dudley easily won his primary against token opposition. This sets up an interesting race with former DFL Senator Kevin Dahle in this DFL farmland meets GOP Exurbs district. This is going to be an expensive General election, as Dahle and Dudley are both sitting on big warchests that are nearly identical in size.
HD-24A (R)
GOP endorsed candidate John Petersburg won his primary against Larry Johnson. The General Election is against DFLer Craig Brenden. None of the above candidates is really all that impressive.
SD-30 (R)
Incumbent GOP Senator Marry Kiffmeyer, a former Minnesota Secretary of State got a challenge from the right in the form of Paul Bolin. Kiffmeyer easily survived this attack from her right flank 73-27. She is safe in November.
SD-33 (R)
Republican Representative Connie Doepke was denied her party’s endorsement for senate by a challenger from the right in David Osmek. Osmek loaned himself 10 grand for the primary, but Doepke was very well funded, and looks to cruise back to St. Paul for her first term in the senate after two in the lower chamber.
HD-33B (R)
Minnesota’s longest-serving Republican Representative faced a very harsh primary challenge from Tea Party Leader Cindy Pugh. Pugh crushed Smith 70-30. Smith was a center-right Republican, somewhere to the right of Arne Carlson, and in line with David Durenberger. Smith went off on a tirade on election night about how the Republican Party has been hijacked by “extremists” (yes he used that exact word). With the sound of his speech, it wouldn’t surprise me if he campaigned for the DFL this year. This is a safe Republican district, FWIW.
HD-35B (D)
Sam Scott defeated Sam Beard in the primary to take on Republican Peggy Scott (no relation). Peggy Scott should win this north metro district.
HD-37B (R)
Tim Sanders is a strong incumbent in this swingy Blaine-based district. He easily dispatched a challenge from his right by Torrey Hall. Sanders should win, due to his personal popularity, but this will be an Obama district, and probably a 2:1 Klobuchar district. DFL candidate John Chelbeck doesn’t have the financial resources to effectively run against Sanders.
SD-39 (R)
The Republican primary was won 67-33 by Karin Housley over Eric Langness. Housley, who has no previous political experience, now goes up against 2-term DFL Representative Julie Bunn in this east metro district. This will be another expensive general election race, but Bunn has a 3:2 cash advantage, plus the political experience going forward.
SD-40 (D)
Incumbent Senator Chris Eaton won her primary against Tim Davis 81-19. No Republicans filed in this deep blue Brooklyn Park based district, so she goes into November unopposed
HD-43A (D)
This race was closer than I figured it should be, but in the end, establishment DFL candidate Peter Fischer edged lawyer Bob Hill in this center-left district. Bob Hill financed over 30,000 dollars (This is a big amount of money, relatively speaking). This made Fischer spend most of the money he raised just to win the primary. Republican Stacey Stout has a slight edge in CoH now due to the primary, but it’s only by a couple thousand dollars. Still, this primary did not serve the DFL well going into General Election mode.
HD-43B (R)
This primary I didn’t see coming. Kevin Klein didn’t even file an expenditure report with the state, which generally means he is not a serious candidate. Except Klein BEAT Bob Zick, who actually raised a little bit of money. It goes to show you that when the total votes cast total 600, anything can happen. Either way, Klein goes forward to November against a strong incumbent in Leon Lillie in a safely DFL district. So ultimately, the primary was a formality.
SD-45 (R)
Blair Tremere won the close primary over Tim Hall 54-46 for the right to get destroyed by 28-year incumbent Senator Ann Rest in this deep blue district.
SD-46 (R)
This was a closely contested primary where Paul Scofield beat Roger Champagne. Scofield goes to the general election against incumbent DFLer Ron Latz in this district anchored by liberal St. Louis Park.
SD-47 (R)
Deputy Majority Leader Julianne Ortman is an establishment conservative Republican, with no notable votes that should draw the ire of those on the right. That being said, she was denied her party’s endorsement by Bruce Schwichtenberg. Ortman ultimately prevailed, but this was one of the Republican primaries that really had me scratching my head for a reason.
HD-51A (D)
Former Representative Sandra Masin faced a token opponent in Milton Walden in an effort to win her old job back against freshman Republican Diane Anderson. Anderson has a marginal cash advantage right now, but nothing insurmountable. Anyways, this district is in the Burnsville/Eagan area, which is known to swing violently from one direction to another depending on political climate.
HD-52A (R)
Joe Blum won his primary against David Meisinger 54-46. Awating Mr. Blum is incumbent DFLer Rick Hansen in this blue district centered in the liberal portions of northern Dakota County.
SD-55 (D)
Kathy Busch easily won her DFL primary in this red district. This district is open, but Prior Lake School Board member Eric Pratt is a strong Republican, and he is the prohibitive favorite in November.
HD-55B (R)
Tony Albright won his primary convincingly. Effectively, this punches his ticket to St. Paul, as this is a blood red exurban area. Travis Burton, the DFL candidate, doesn’t have much of a chance at all.
SD-57 (D)
Long-time Apple Valley Greg Clausen easily won the DFL primary. Pat Hall is the incumbent Republican Senator in this Apple Valley and Rosemount district. Clausen is a decent candidate, but this is a tough area for a DFLer these days.
HD-59A (D)
Incumbent Representative Joe Mullery got a primary challenge from the awesomely-named Marcus Harcus. But Mullery, as expeected won easily. This is a safe DFL district in the North Side of Minneapolis.
HD-59B (D)
This is an open Minneapolis district, which means the winner of the DFL primary has a seat for life. Former Republican Ian Alexander finished 3rd in the three-way primary. The top two were Raymond Dehn and Terra Cole. The results, as they stand now are: Dehn 876, and Cole 857. This race is going to recount, but either way, a liberal Democrat will come out of the recount and into a safe seat.
SD-64 (D)
Dick Cohen, who has represented his little corner of St. Paul since he was first elected in 1982 faced a primary challenger, and won 89-11.
SD-65 (D)
Sandy Pappas, who has won election in this area without incidence since 1984 won her primary 77-32. And she punched her ticket back to St. Paul in her newly drawn district in the process.
SD-67 (D)
Foung Hawj, a leader in St. Paul’s large Hmong population won a three-way primary after losing a multi-way primary in 2010. He will certainly go to St. Paul as a freshman in January.
Overall, there weren’t a whole ton of surprises, but there were enough to keep it interesting and set a narrative heading into general election mode.