St. Peter Democratic Rep. Terry Morrow went unchallenged last fall in his race for House District 19A, but his sudden retirement from the seat in December enticed nearly a dozen candidates to jump into the special election to replace him.

Clark Johnson, a professor at Minnesota State University in Mankato, won the House District 19A primary race with about 66 percent of the vote, or 241 total votes. Farmer Karl Johnson came in second place with 26 percent of the vote, while St. Peter Mayor Tim Strand and educator Robin Courrier each garnered about 5 percent of the vote or less.

The 2013 legislative session may be in its second week, but it’s campaign season once again in two Minnesota House districts after recently re-elected lawmakers opted to take national lobbying jobs instead of returning to St. Paul.

Gov. Mark Dayton has set a date for two greater Minnesota House districts to hold special elections. Feb. 12 will be the day for voters in House District 19A in the St. Peter and North Mankato area and House District 14A in St. Cloud to pick successors respectively to Reps. Terry Morrow and Steve Gottwalt.

Former state Rep. Allen Quist on Friday ended days of speculation by announcing his candidacy for the state House in District 19A. He's the second Republican in as many days to enter the campaign to succeed Rep. Terry Morrow, DFL-St. Peter.

The House seat that includes North Mankato and St. Peter has given every appearance of being a DFL stronghold in recent election cycles. Rep. Terry Morrow weathered the 2010 GOP wave by 10 points. In 2012, after the new district maps were unveiled, the GOP did not field a candidate to challenge him in the general election. Now that Morrow is resigning, the GOP and the Independence Party are feeling suddenly bullish on their chances to claim victory from the DFL.

With DFLers back in control of the House and Senate, many familiar faces will be wielding key gavels when the Legislature convenes on January 8.

St. Peter DFLer played key role on Vikings stadium, other sensitive issues.

DFL Rep. Terry Morrow, who will be finishing his third term representing St. Peter, has accepted a job as the legislative director at the Uniform Law Commission. He will serve out the remainder of his term, which ends when the next session starts on Jan. 8.

Left for dead in April, the Vikings stadium bill sprinted to passage in the session’s closing days. What happened?