Dziedzic, Wagenius amass biggest war chests in SD 59 race

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Kari Dziedzic and Peter Wagenius bested the pack of DFLers vying for the nomination in the Senate District 59 race to succeed former Sen. Larry Pogemiller.

The campaigns started raising money on October 28. The campaigns filed their pre-primary reports on Tuesday that show fundraising results through November 22.

The winner of Tuesday’s DFL primary will advance to the general election to represent the Minneapolis district on January 10. Pogemiller, who represented the heavily DFL area for decades, resigned to become the director of the Office of Higher Education in Gov. Mark Dayton’s Cabinet.

Dziedzic, who works for Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Stenglein, raised $36,000, which is more than a lot of legislative campaigns raise in an entire election year. Her campaign raised $25,880 was from individuals, $4,250 was from lobbyists and $5,750 from PACs. Her campaign had $17,001 in the bank as of November 22.

Wagenius, a policy aide to Mayor R.T. Rybak, came in a strong second place with $19,000, including $425 from lobbyists. He had $11,900 in the bank as of November 22.

Attorney Jacob Frey reported raising $9,704, which was all from individual contributions. The campaign had $7,284 in cash on hand and also $8,982 in unpaid expenses. Frey reported in a 24-hour notice on Monday he contributed an additional $11,000 to his campaign.

Mohamud Noor raised $7,100, of which $5,850 was from individual contributions. He received $1,250 from three union-affiliated PACs. His campaign had $3,000 in the bank as of November 22.

Former Minneapolis City Councilmember Paul Ostrow raised $5,115 and had $1,285 in the bank as of November 22. Ostrow’s campaign had loans and unpaid campaign expenses totaling $1,100.

The lone Republican in the race, Ben Schwanke, raised $4,000 and had $2,975 in the bank.