Clean Sweep for SD 41 Candidates
By Bill Bedor
Get out the brooms. Senate District 41 Republican endorsed candidates cleaned up in Tuesday’s election, bucking a trend, as some would say, in the rest of the State. Foremost in the results were the re-election of Ron Erhardt to the State House of Representatives for District 41A and the election of Neil Peterson in House District 41B to fill the spot vacated by Alice Seagren. Ron drew more than 57% of the vote in his bid, while Neil polled more than 52% in his first election for a State position.
In the 3rd Congressional District, Representative Jim Ramstad again wiped out his opponent with a 65% majority. Elsewhere in the State, representation in Washington remains the same with all DFL and GOP candidates retaining their seats. Nationally, at this writing, it looks like the Republicans will advance their majority in both the House and Senate.
In other local races, both Linda Koblick in Hennepin County District 5 and Randy Johnson in District 6, retained their seats with vote counts of 73% and 71% respectively. In the Edina City Council battle of nine candidates for two open slots, Linda Masica and Ann Swenson won.
Two trends bare comment. First, SD 41 elected Republicans to the State House of Representatives when many Republican incumbents statewide lost their jobs. It appears the GOP will retain its control of the house after these defeats by a 68 to 66 margin. Second, Minnesota went against the grain by backing John Kerry for president and moving more to the left in State House races. The rest of the country, at first blush, seems to have moved further in a conservative direction. Eleven states with “Definition of Marriage” constitutional amendments on their ballots passed them all. It should be noted, however, that while Minnesota did not deliver the state for Bush, he grabbed more votes that an Republican presidential candidate in history.
Why did Senate District 41 turn in such a great performance? Clearly, it was hard work on the part of all that dropped literature, worked campaigns, and made more that 16,000 “Get-Out-The-Vote” calls in the week before the election. It all brings to mind the story of the lion and the gazelle.
Every morning a gazelle awakens knowing that it must outrun the
fastest lion if it wants to stay alive.
Every morning, a lion wakes up knowing it must run faster than the slowest
gazelle or it will starve to death.
Moral of the story:
It makes no difference whether you are a gazelle or a lion: When the sun
comes up, you had better be running hard. Senate District 41 ran hard.
