Legislative primaries shake out across Minnesota

Rep. Steve Smith and Cindy Pugh

The shape of all 201 Minnesota legislative contests this fall is now set after more than 40 primary races across the state were settled on Tuesday. In some instances, DFLers and Republicans won contests in partisan strongholds and have almost assuredly secured their place in the Legislature next session. In others, incumbent lawmakers were ousted by intra-party challengers.

In one of the most contentious legislative primaries this summer, Republican Mound City Councilman Dave Osmek beat Rep. Connie Doepke by 1 percentage point in Senate District 33 on Tuesday. The race to replace GOP Sen. Gen Olson in the western suburbs has been the most-watched contest since Doepke lost the GOP endorsement to Osmek in May. Doepke has since been the subject of nearly a half dozen negative literature pieces from conservative groups outside of the district, including a last-minute mailing from Koch brothers’ group Americans for Prosperity on Tuesday that pictured Doepke side-by-side with President Barack Obama. The mailer suggested that she didn’t fight hard enough against “Obamacare” while she was in the Legislature.

Doepke made a few missteps of her own during the campaign, suggesting in one mailing that she had the backing of U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen. The move earned a swift rebuke from Paulsen, who had openly backed Osmek.

In the same district, another  incumbent Republican fell to a more conservative newcomer. Twenty-two year incumbent Steve Smith of Mound, the longest-serving member of the House GOP caucus, received just 30 percent of the vote in losing to Cindy Pugh, co-founder of the Southwest Metro Tea Party group.  Pugh had the backing of GOP House Speaker Kurt Zellers in the highly conservative district, while Smith, a pro-union Republican, had several labor groups working on his behalf.

Bucking that trend, incumbent GOP Sen. Julianne Ortman easily trumped a Republican primary challenge from activist Bruce Schwichtenberg in Senate District 47. While Ortman, who currently serves as Senate deputy majority leader and runs the Taxes Committee, was unable to earn the GOP endorsement back in May, she still beat Schwichtenberg with more than 58 percent of the vote in the primary.

On the other side of the aisle, two three-way scrums for DFL stronghold seats in the House shook out in a fairly predictable manner. In House District 6B DFL primary, union organizer and campaigner Jason Metsa beat activist Lorrie Janatopoulos and construction worker Dave Meyer in a race to take retiring Rep. Tom Rukavina’s seat in the House. Metsa was favored to win after earning the endorsements of most of the major unions and Rukavina himself.  Metsa won with more than 53 percent of the vote, with Janatopoulos tallying 41 percent.

Longtime activist Raymond Dehn came out the victor in a three-way primary in North Minneapolis’ House District 59B, which is open after Rep. Bobby Joe Champion opted to seek a Senate seat.  Dehn, who had the backing of unions like MAPE and Congressman Keith Ellison, beat out former Hennepin County staffer Terra Cole and attorney Ian Alexander with a 37 percent plurality of the vote.

Incumbent DFL Sen. Lyle Koenen managed to fend off a primary challenge from Willmar-area DFL businessman Larry Rice to run in west-central Senate District 17 this fall. In a DFL primary in the 17B House race, Education Minnesota local president Mary Sawatzky beat activist Jessica Rohloff with 65 percent of the vote.

Primaries shook out in both parties on Tuesday in House District 11B.  Redistricting paired Rep. Roger Crawford, R-Mora, with Rep. Bill Hilty, DFL-Finlayson, but neither incumbent sought  re-election. On the DFL side, former Rep. Tim Faust of Cloverdale claimed 59 percent of the vote in beating Pine City planner Nathan Johnson. Faust will face Republican nominee Ben Weiner, a berry farmer and U.S. Army National Guard Sergeant who beat Pine County Commissioner Mitch Pangerl in a close primary race Tuesday.

Here’s a roundup of how all the legislative primaries turned out: