A special election is being held today in MN State Senate district 26 to replace Republican State Senator Dick Day who resigned to become a Lobbiest for the gambling Industry (don’t get me started).
Senate District 26 leans Republican, McCain carried it 50-47, Norm Coleman 43-36-21. Still there is hope, the two State House Reps in the district are Democrats (each Senate district in Minnesota is divided into two house districts).
The Candidates are Democrat Jason Engbrecht, a college physics professor and Faribault School Board member. Republican teabagger and bussinessman Mike Parry. Independence Party member and Waseca mayor Roy Srp (yes that is his last name).
If you want more background on the candidates I suggest you check out a fine local blog, bluestempairie.
http://www.bluestemprairie.com/
You can get the results from the SOS ofice here.
http://electionresults.sos.sta…
To win Engbrecht will have to run up the margin in Rice County, especially the City of Faribault (his hometown). I would guess he will needs at least a 10 point margin in Faribault and 5 points in Rice County as a whole. Engbrecht will have to keep it within 3-5 points in the rest of the District.
The real wildcard is the Independence Party candidate Roy Srp. He is a 3 term mayor of Waseca (3rd largest town in the District) and has more political experiance than either of the major party candidates. Waseca also happens to be the hometown of the Republican Parry. I don’t think Srp can win without any Party machinery behind him but you never know.
Prediction
Engbrecht (D) 37
Parry (R) 32
Srp (I) 31
Polls close 8 central
a commanding 46-21 lead (including Day) in the State Senate, so this race won’t be critical to ultimate control. Just in case any SSP’ers were wondering.
a special election in a GOP-leaning Senate district (Marsden squeaked by and won AG-elect Cuccinelli’s old 37th seat).
So come on Minnesota. If VA can do it, you surely can.
Looks like low turnout. Engbrecht (D) really overperformed in one and really underperformed in the other.
D-R-I 76-73-32
R 44%, D 33%, I 23%
13 of 47 precincts in.
The good news is they are mostly small rural precincts that are in which favor the Republican. Still a chance.
The Rep is up 9 with 31 of 47 precincts in.
Some big Democratic precincts still out but it will not be enough. Looks like my new state senator will be a racist homophobic teabagger, sigh.
Turnout is extremely disapointing.
Parry (R) 4943 (43.04%)
Engbrecht (D) 4192 (36.5%)
Srp (I) 2334 (20.32%)
Turnout 27.2% of registered voters
Disapointing but a 6.5 point loss is as close as a Dem has come to winning this seat in decades. I hope Engbrecht gives it another shot in the fall when turnout is higher. The teabaggers are energized now, the Dems are not.
When there were blizzard-like conditions with 40-mph winds and temps in the single digits.