The first legislative battleground of 2008

Posted at 5:40 PM on December 13, 2006 by Tom Scheck (3 Comments)

Marsha Swails now knows she'll be facing a challenger in her re-election bid in 2008. Sarah Nyhus has filed the necessary paperwork to run in Minnesota House District 56B. She's the first legislative candidate to file since the November election. (UPDATE: Nyhus is a lobbyist).

(Another update: I'm now told Nyhus is no longer a lobbyist. She just has not unregistered with the Campaign Finance Board. She is a real estate agent.)

Swails, a DFLer, defeated GOP incumbent Karen Klinzing in November. Swails hasn't taken her oath of office yet but now knows that she'll be facing a Republican 23 months from now.

Comments (3)

Governor Pawlenty won the seat by 2,578 votes. This is a republican district and will be one of the six seats that will return to the GOP no matter how much money is spent by the DFL. Ms. Swails should treat her two years as a positive learning experience because she will not receive any help and will not be reelected.

Posted by realtime | December 14, 2006 2:28 PM

With all due respect to the good representative from District XX who posted the above comment, the election of Marsha Swails, as well as the election of Julie Bunn and Kathy Saltzman (all Democrats) from the Woodbury/Lake Elmo area shows that the voters there -- especially the Republican voters there -- are more interested in adult leadership in a spirit of cooperation from their lawmakers, rather than a sense that their districts should be enslaved as "belonging" to one party or the other (i.e. "that's a Republican District.").

Sadly, this is a concept that most officeholders have not yet grasped. The Main Street voter is interested in the middle.... and on some issues the middle for these voters might be a DFL position and on some issues it might be a Republican issue.

The voters in 56B (and 56A) were saying "we want our lawmakers to reflect our positions" rather than have "our positions should reflect the lawmakers."

Their election was a testament to the intelligence of the average voter, not because they elected DFLers, but because the voters considered their positions before they asked what party they represented.

A lot of politicians don't understand that.

Three of them are out of work because of that distinction. And so will these three if they don't.

Posted by Bob Collins | December 14, 2006 3:14 PM

Your comments regarding the color of a district (red or blue) are well taken. No district belongs to any one person or party.

However there are voting patterns of certain areas that are part of the landscape. How many republicans were elected in urban Minneapolis, Saint Paul or Duluth?

I would also disagree that the voters were asking for a specific range of viewpoints and thus rejected certain members. The Secretary of State was fired. Can anyone really tell me that voters ousted her because she did not reflect the position of the average voter on a specific issue? If voters were looking for the middle, why were no no hard core DFLers voted out?

Most people read into the election results what they want to see. Some say republicans took it on the chin because they were too conservative. Others say it was becasue they were not conservative enough. Smart candidates listen to their constituents for the correct answer. That answer will be different. The only one constant is that folks were not ready for more of the same.

In Woodbury, my guess is that folks were not asking for that change to mean higher income, sales, and corporate taxes. They were not demanding a government takeover of healthcare. They were not demanding that we protect at all costs a school funding formula that punishes suburban school districts like Woodbury.

Karen Klinzing fought for the moms and dads and kids of her district as well as anyone. She fought the leadership of her party when it was headed in the wrong direction for people in her district.

If Klinzing runs again, the voters will have an opportunity to compare the results. Voters are smart and in the long run are always right.

Posted by realtime | December 15, 2006 9:12 AM

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