The election went pretty much as expected in Minnesota.   Governor Dayton and US Senator Al Franken cruised to relatively easy victories.   Our Congressional delegation stayed pretty much the same.  Republicans failed to defeat 8th district Congressman Rick Nolan which was their best shot at gaining a US House seat in the state.   As expected, Tom Emmer (you recall he was defeated by Mark Dayton four years ago), will take over the seat that is being vacated by Michelle Bachmann.   Emmer won easily in the most Republican district in the state.  So our Congressional delegation remains 5 Democrats and 3 Republicans.  A great deal of money was spent by the parties and special interest super PACs to achieve the status quo.

The most interesting races in the state were for State House of Representatives, where the Republicans took over control of the House.  The Republicans needed a switch of 7 seats to win control.  They took 11 seats, all from incumbent Democrats!!!  No Republican incumbent lost his or her seat.  Going into the session in January, the House will be 72 Republicans and 62 Democrats.   In 2012 the breakdown was 73 Democrats and 62 Republicans almost a mirror flip. 

Six of these defeated DFL incumbents were 1st term legislators who were swept into office with the Obama grassroots efforts two years ago.  Their losses were not that surprising.  However, five of the seat gains came at the expense of longer term Democrats;   Patti Fritz, John Ward, Tim Faust, Andrew Falk and Will Morgan.

I was somewhat surprised that the Democrats held on to very competitive seats in the Twin Cities suburbs including Woodbury, Eagan, Maplewood, and Edina.  Ten of the eleven takeover seats were in Greater Minnesota which only adds to the Houses urban(D)-rural(R) split.  

Dominic Sposeto

MIIAB Lobbyist