Minnesota Lawyer
Mary Jo McGuire
Former state Rep. Mary Jo McGuire won the special primary election in Senate District 66 by racking up huge vote margins on her home turf of Falcon Heights. In the two precincts covering the Ramsey County suburb, she received 508 votes — compared to just 53 votes for Rep. John Lesch and 28 votes for attorney Steven Marchese.
McGuire also piled up large margins in the St. Paul precincts bordering Falcon Heights. For instance, she drew more than four times as many votes as Lesch in two precincts on the city’s northern border. McGuire won the contest — which attracted roughly 10 percent voter turnout — by 656 votes.
Lesch dominated on his own home turf of the North End and East Side of St. Paul. In one precinct that straddles Rice Street, for example, he defeated McGuire by a 45-4 vote margin. But turnout in those precincts wasn’t sufficient to keep Lesch competitive. Bernie Hesse, a labor activist who lives in the district, says Lesch was simply unable to turn out voters on his home turf. “It’s hard enough to get them out in a general election,” Hesse said.
McGuire previously spent more than a decade serving in the House. She opted not to run for re-election in 2002 after redistricting placed her in the same district as DFL House colleague Alice Hausman, who endorsed McGuire in the primary.
