Political Notebook

A local election wrap-up

Here's a quick recap of the big races. The Associated Press is reporting that Minnesota House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher has officially conceded to former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton in the DFL gubernatorial race. Statewide, Dayton beat Kelliher by 6,777 votes with 99 percent of precincts reporting. In total, Dayton got 41 percent of the vote and Kelliher got 40 percent. Former state Rep. Matt Entenza came in a distant third with 18 percent.

In Olmsted County, Kelliher narrowly beat Dayton winning by 164 votes.

Republican-endorsed candidate Tom Emmer easily won last night's primary with 82 percent of the vote. That is the same percentage of the vote he got in Olmsted County receiving 3,380 votes.

Independent Party-endorsed candidate Tom Horner got 64 percent of the statewide vote with the second place challenger — Winona-native Rob Hahn — getting 14 percent. Horner did even better in Olmsted County getting 76 percent of the vote.

GOP-endorsed candidate Duane Quam easily defeated challenger Kerry Stoick in the House District 29A Republican primary. He got 66 percent of the vote while Stoick got 34 percent. Quam will now take on DFL-endorsed candidate Doug Wunderlich for retiring GOP Rep. Randy Demmer's seat. Demmer stepped down to run for Congress.

In Senate District 28, DFL-endorsed candidate Joe Fricke had a decisive victory over Bruce Montplaisir getting 75 percent of the vote. Fricke will take on Republican John Howe, current mayor of Red Wing. They are battling to replace retiring DFL Sen. Steve Murphy of Red Wing.

One of the big surprises of the night came in the 2nd Congressional District DFL primary where former state Rep. Shelley Madore beat out the DFL-endorsed candidate Dan Powers. Madore got 55 percent of the vote with Powers getting 45 percent. Madore will challege Republican incumbent Congressman John Kline.

The beginning of Republican mischief?

Independence Party-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner made a stop at the Olmsted County Fair Monday morning. During an interview, Horner said he remains concerned that Republicans may crossover and vote for his IP opponent Rob Hahn in the Aug. 10 primary. Hahn today announced he will be running a TV ad on some Comcast TV zones on CNN, ESPN and Fox News.

Horner questions where Hahn is getting the money for a TV ad since his latest campaign report shows he raised less than $4,600 towards his campaign.

He asked "Is this the beginning of Republicans crossing over and creating mischief?"

Here is a link to Hahn's new quirky TV ad, which plays off the "$6 Million Dollar Man" TV show. Clearly a low budget production, Hahn's 12-year-old son Bobby narrates most of the ad and he got a college student to shoot the video. 

In an interview, Hahn said that he has not seen a flood Republican financial donations to his campaign thus far. At this point he said he has lent the campaign some of his own money and plans to spend a total of $5,000 on the campaign. But if Republicans, or anyone else, wants to donate money to his campaign, Horner said he is not about to turn that down.

"If Republicans want to donate, I would take their money just as willingly as I'd take Democrats' (money)," he said.