In fight for Minnesota House, candidates milk every opportunity

11/04/2006

MARTIGA LOHN
Associated Press Writer

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — Scuffed athletic shoes on her feet, hair pulled back in a practical ponytail, state Rep. Melissa Hortman worked to bond with voters in a subdivision of matching gray townhomes here.

For Hortman, a 36-year-old mom who drives a minivan, it wasn’t hard. She commiserated on rising property taxes, told a funny story about middle-school homework and talked about selling auto parts in her family’s business. One avid biker even got a tip about good routes.

“There’s a nice loop if you take the Coon Rapids dam,” Hortman, a Democrat, told the woman. “I’ve taken my kids that way.”

Every conversation is a chance to bag a vote in a swing district that could determine control of the Minnesota House. Just 402 people tipped the election Hortman’s way two years ago. This year, she’s running against Republican Andrew Reinhardt, a Gulf War veteran, in a race both parties have showered with cash and fliers.

One Republican Party brochure says, “No! No! No! No! No! Say no to Melissa Hortman!”

After picking up 13 seats in the last election, Democrats are just two seats away from controlling the House. The Senate, where Democrats hold a nine-seat margin, is seen as less likely to change hands.

In each chamber, the majority party wields power by deciding which bills get hearings and votes and the chance to become laws. Margaret Anderson Kelliher, the Democrats’ leader in the House, says her party would emphasize a fresh focus on state funding for schools, wider access to health care and road improvements.

House Speaker Steve Sviggum says Republicans would continue to continue to push for education policies that emphasize test results, free market health care legislation and holding the line on state spending.

Republicans took over the House in 1999 after a dozen years of DFL rule. Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty helped them capitalize on their agenda for the last four years, most notably when they dealt with a $4.5 billion budget deficit in 2003 without raising state taxes.

This year’s struggle for power comes down to about two dozen races in places like Rochester, Albert Lea, Austin, the St. Cloud area, rural western Minnesota and Twin Cities suburbs.

In Rochester alone, more than $400,000 in outside spending went to sway voters in three competitive House races. DFL Reps. Andy Welti and Tina Liebling face rematches with the Republican incumbents they knocked off last time around, and another spirited contest is under way for an open seat in a city that’s been turning away from its stalwart GOP roots.

“We knew from the day I was elected that we were going to be a targeted campaign on election night,” said Welti, a teacher challenged by former Republican Rep. Bill Kuisle.

Welti expects national discontent with Republicans to help him. Kuisle, a farmer who served four terms in the House, said he expects a couple hundred votes to decide the race.

Carla Nelson, a Republican whom Liebling defeated in 2004, said the party is keeping up with the Democrats this time around. Two years ago, she said, the GOP sat back expecting her to coast to re-election while the DFL spent heavily on the race.

“This year the Republicans are just as involved as the Democrats are,” Nelson said.

Cash has also run freely in the northwestern corner of the state, where dairy supplier DelRay Flom and Pennington County Attorney David Olin are vying for an open seat. Outside groups have sunk more than $100,000 into the contest, where issues such as all-terrain vehicles and gun rights are paramount.

“Brochures are being sent all over creation,” said Olin, the Democrat who hopes to put the seat back on the DFL side after Republican Maxine Penas had it for six years. She’s not running.

Both parties have gone negative, Flom said, including a Republican Party ad that compared his farming and small-business background with Olin being a lawyer.

“Some of the people up there aren’t really pleased with having another lawyer in the state representing them,” Flom said.

Back in Brooklyn Park, Reinhardt said his conservative politics would be a better fit for the suburban district. He criticized Hortman for voting to authorize a higher Hennepin County sales tax to pay for a Twins ballpark, saying he would have held out for a voter referendum.

“I could do a better job,” Reinhardt said. “My opponent, she really portrays herself as this moderate but when it comes down to the voting record, it seems to be very party-line.”

Hortman said she ran for office to get the Northstar commuter rail line approved, and it was. Her constituents supported the ballpark, which will bring construction jobs and help the state over the long term, she said. In a district without a strong business tax base, Hortman also likes to talk about inequities in suburban school funding.

The Republican and DFL parties, League of Conservation Voters and Education Minnesota combined have spent more than $66,000 on the District 47B race. That’s beyond what the candidates raised themselves — almost $34,000 for Hortman and $22,400 for Reinhardt. Both had about $3,500 on hand two weeks before the election.

All the spending and attention has turned up the pressure.

“It’s like I’m dreaming about it all night long, about planning out the next day’s route, worrying about something that happened or didn’t happen or whatever,” said Reinhardt, who does some campaigning while his two young sons are buckled into their car seats in his Ford Explorer.

Meanwhile, Hortman fretted about an offhand comment she made while knocking on doors.

“I think I repelled a voter when I called him Jared. I said, `Like the Subway guy?’” she told one of her volunteers. “It was all good til then, right? Wasn’t it?”