Special elections to decide whether DFL, GOP control MN Senate

Two special elections next Tuesday to fill vacancies in the Minnesota Senate will determine the balance of power in the narrowly divided chamber where the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party holds a one-seat majority In what is seen as the more competitive of the two races Republican candidate Dwight Dorau faces state Rep Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger DFL-Woodbury in a contest to fill the seat for Woodbury-centered District It s been vacant since former DFL Sen Nicole Mitchell resigned this summer after her conviction on two felony burglary charges Elsewhere Republican Michael Holmstrom Jr faces DFLer Louis McNutt in the special electoral contest for Senate District which includes largest part of Wright County and parts of Meeker and Hennepin counties The winner will fill the vacant seat of Sen Bruce Anderson R-Buffalo who died unexpectedly in July at With the two vacancies the state Senate at this moment has DFL and Republican members If the GOP candidate wins in both of Tuesday s special elections the party will secure a one-seat majority in the Senate If the DFL holds on to one seat they ll hold seats and preserve their one-seat majority Last year s voting process gave the state its preponderance closely divided authorities ever a House tied - between Republicans and DFLers and a Senate split - with the DFL holding the advantage Tuesday s special elections could tweak that delicate balance Woodbury Senate race Senate District which includes Woodbury and south Maplewood has favored Democrats by double-digit margins in latest elections though it is not as historically Democratic as the center of the Twin Cities and is seen as the more competitive of the two races Hemmingsen-Jaeger has a message focused on tackling rising soundness care and child care costs and protecting the habitat Though she also says voters are worried about President Donald Trump s immigration crackdown and cuts to federal spending Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger Courtesy of the candidate The national is coming up more I would say because of the actions the federal executive is taking you can t ignore them and it s affecting our daily lives she stated People s wellbeing insurance is going to go up by double-digit percentages People are worried about ICE coming into our neighborhoods Hemmingsen-Jaeger a legislative and plan analyst at the Minnesota Department of Human Services disclosed her background as a state lawmaker and past work which includes close to a decade as a forensic scientist at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will help her succeed in the Senate I have an understanding of how the legislative process works I know how to work across the aisle and am very values-driven solution-focused she reported I think just my approach being a little bit more thoughtful and science-based really makes for certain good comprehensive program Dorau meanwhile is hoping that voters will see what could be more than billion of fraud in state leadership programs and considerable spending development under DFL leadership in latest years as a reason to vote for a Republican candidate Dwight Dorau Courtesy of the candidate A lot of people are still kind of hung up about the overspending the surplus disappearing Dorau mentioned The fraud is taking money away from people who duly need it and it s also hurting the taxpayers who are paying it Minnesota had a record billion surplus in and Democrats in control of the state establishment grew state spending by nearly to fund new programs like free school meals and paid family and medicinal leave Minnesota had a million surplus for the current two-year budget cycle but administrators warned earlier this year that the state could face a billion shortfall in - Dorau a retired U S Air Force colonel who served as a navigator on KC- aerial refueling tanker aircraft and an ROTC instructor at Johnson High School in St Paul disclosed he is running to restore representation following Mitchell s criminal affair and resignation While he announced he has not heard much from voters about Mitchell s break-in at her estranged stepmother s home it still deprived District of adequate representation in the Senate While the state DFL urged Mitchell to resign after the April break-in the Senate DFL caucus thwarted efforts to remove her from office citing due process concerns Instead Senate DFL leaders removed Mitchell from committee assignments and caucus meetings only allowing her to take part in floor votes Dorau stated this had left Woodbury without full advocacy at the Capitol on issues like securing sales tax exemptions for water healing projects to address M-linked defilement or other proposals to fund infrastructure projects Our current representatives have done nothing to get that along even though our mayor and our city councilors have been asking for it for a long time Dorau declared Woodbury and Maplewood were underrepresented by our senator and her situation for months Hemmingsen-Jaeger and Rep Ethan Cha DFL-Woodbury introduced a bill to secure the exemptions but it did not see major progress in the Legislature this year Changing district Republicans could win Senate District but it won t be easy What was once a more politically mixed area has shifted increasingly Democratic in modern years according to University of Minnesota Political Science Professor Larry Jacobs Voters in that district have changed We re seeing more college-educated folks moving in We re seeing people who identify as Democrats more moving in or they re more moderate he commented In Hemmingsen-Jaeger won a second term in House District A which makes up one half of the broader Senate District with of the vote Mitchell beat Dorau in the voting with nearly of the vote to Dorau s Dorau lost the race for House District B in with of the vote to Cha s Jacobs noted messaging by DFLers in upcoming elections will focus on the Trump administration s actions while Republicans will try to make upcoming elections a referendum on the record of Gov Tim Walz and his fellow Democrats District District historically supports Republicans and has not attracted the same levels of spending as the contest in the east metro That district has been consistently Republican for a while and Republicans are winning there by large margins What s happening in Woodbury is more of a latest story Jacobs noted It s evolving Whereas it looks like a done deal it s just locked in Spending in each of the Senate special elections shed light on the level of interest Between July and Oct Dorau had raised around and spent around on his campaign according to pre-election filings with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Residents Disclosure Board Hemmingsen-Jaeger raised around and had spent around Related Articles Tim Walz orders audit of Medicaid billing as fraud prosecutions continue Capitol precaution Threats to MN executives increase in Gov Tim Walz Gabby Giffords to hold gun control town hall in Waconia Gun owners group says it ll sue if St Paul moves forward with firearms ordinance Fighting fraud core issue for GOP gubernatorial candidate Kristin Robbins During that same period District candidates raised and spent roughly half the total raised and spent in District Holmstrom raised and spent McNutt had raised about and had spent around Minnesota has seen an unusually high number of special elections this year due to deaths criminal cases and a candidate residency dispute Tuesday s contests are among six that have happened so far this year Early voting has been underway since Sept and closes Monday Nov the day before voting day For more information on elections including how to vote go to twincities com news politics elections