OWATONNA — The field is set for a hotly contested race in Minnesota Senate District 24, which includes most of Steele County.
At Saturday’s district endorsing convention at Trinity Lutheran Church, local Republican delegates voted 63 to 29, with one abstention, to select Faribault Mayor John Jasinski as the party candidate to challenge Sen. Vicki Jensen, DFL-Owatonna. Jasinski’s opponent for the endorsement was Faribault business owner Janet Moline.
In addressing delegates, Jasinski stressed his record of business development and supporting limited government since winning office in Faribault.
“When I first started we had 134 full-time employees, we dropped down to 116 during the recession, and now there are 124, so we have downsized government under my leadership there,” he said. “My Senate platform in Minnesota is making Minnesota more competitive. This state should not be the third-highest tax state in the nation. I could live with 20 or 22, somewhere in there, but not with number three.”
Steele County Party Co-Chair Dave Thul stressed the importance of this Senate seat, which traditionally has leaned Republican, as part of the effort to reverse the current Democratic-Farmer-Labor advantage of 39 seats to 28 in the Senate.
“In order to flip that back to Republican control, you can do the math, we need six seats to flip over,” he said. “Senate District 24 is one of those prime opportunities that the Republican Party, the Senate Republican Caucus has identified as a prime target to flip to a Republican seat. Be prepared. You will see a lot of money, a lot of resources being spent by groups not necessarily the local Republican parties in this race.”
After the delegates, selected during the March 1 caucuses, voted in Jasinski’s favor, he thanked supporters and expressed enthusiasm for the campaign ahead.
“I’m looking forward to making things change, [using] my experience in Faribault to reach out at the next level,” he said.
Both candidates signed pledges to honor the convention’s endorsement, and Moline confirmed she was ending her campaign. She likewise thanked supporters and said their political advocacy was not over.
“I’d like to … remind people it took less than 10 percent of our population to overthrow a tyrannical government in the American Revolution, and we had more than 10 percent today,” she said. “We may have lost the battle, but the war will continue.”
Also up for endorsement Saturday were Reps. Brian Daniels of Faribault and John Petersburg of Waseca, neither of whom faced challengers within their party. Daniels — whose District 24B includes Medford, Ellendale and most of rural Steele County — will face his predecessor, former Rep. Patti Fritz, again in November. Petersburg, whose district includes Owatonna, is up for a rematch with 2014 rival Bev Cashman.
Also speaking at the convention were First Congressional District candidate Jim Hagedorn; Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie; and Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt, R-Crown. Daudt praised Daniels and Petersburg and urged the delegates to remain steadfast in opposition to DFL policies.
“I’m a little bit afraid of what Democrats might do in St. Paul,” he said, citing proposed tax increases and transit projects. “With [our] majority in the House, we’ve been able to stop a lot of really bad things from happening. I’m really proud to day we were able to stop every single one of Gov. [Mark] Dayton’s major proposals last session.”
Saturday’s event ended with appeals for volunteers and donations to support local candidates’ campaigns. The next date on the local Republican party calendar is the Congressional District 1 convention on May 7 in Mankato.
