Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Berry gets 5 years in prison; other teen charged in connection with shooting



Two tight local races revealed divided loyalties from local
precincts according to Tuesday’s election results.

A sharp contest between incumbent Gary Miller and challenger
Lenny Walker resulted in Miller being re-elected by a margin of 14 percent
countywide.

Locally, the race divided precincts with Walker carrying
the cities of Howard Lake and Montrose, and Miller claiming victories in
all the other precincts ­ but with a margin of less than 10 percent
in each precinct, showing how close the race was.

A total of 23,770 votes were cast for Miller, and 18,131
for Walker, countywide.

In other contests, Republican Dick Borrell managed to claim
victory for the state representative District 19B seat despite deep division
among Wright County Republicans over his candidacy.

Borrell garnered 8,367 votes compared to DFLer Lori Schmidt’s
total of 7,914, according to the county auditor.

Write-in Republican candidate Darren Knight, who challenged
Borrell on the Republican ticket, garnered a total of 1,721, or about 10
percent of the total for District 19B.

Borrell narrowly carried the precincts of Waverly, Woodland
Township and Victor Township, but did not carry the City of Montrose.

The precincts of Waverly and Woodland Township registered
zero write-in votes for Knight.

Republican Bruce Anderson successfully was elected to a
new seat in District 19A, which occurred due to redistricting.

Previously, Anderson served the District 19B seat won by
Borrell. Anderson was staunchly against the Borrell candidacy.

Dick Mattson also reclaimed his District 5 county commissioner
seat, winning by a margin of 17 percent, with 4,219 votes, compared to challenger
Charlie Nelson’s 3,021 votes for District 5.

Mattson claimed larger victories in the neighboring townships,
with a wider spread in Marysville, Middleville and Victor; and tighter results
in the cities of Howard Lake and Montrose ­ winning by a margin of seven
and 12 percent respectively in those cities.

It is noteworthy that Mattson won Montrose in the first
place, since his challenger, Nelson, presides as mayor there; however the
margin was by 12 percent.

Redistricting caused the City of Waverly to be excluded
out of Mattson’s territory, traditionally a strong supporter of his, to
a different district, since it is now represented by Jack Russek in District
3. Russek ran unopposed.

Other races reflected Republican victories across Wright
County, a trend that resounded also through the country.

Republicans Mark Kennedy, Dean Urdahl, Norm Coleman, and
Tim Pawlenty claimed victories in all the local precincts for US representative,
state representative of District 18B, US senate, and governor, respectively
(see boxed area).

Predictably, incumbent Steve Dille re-claimed his seat
for state senate in District 18; especially in light of the absence of his
opponent, Democrat Sheila Sudbeck, who moved out of state.

Sudbeck filed for the state senate seat, and then apparently
relocated back to South Dakota, according to the local DFL chair office.

This did not stop local DFLers from casting votes for the
missing candidate, with 215 Howard Lake Democrats casting ballots for her,
along with 100 cast in Middleville Township.

County wide, Sudbeck garnered 2,276 votes, even though
she is ineligible for the seat because she lives out of state. District
wide, Sudbeck garnered a total of 8,848.

Urdahl claimed comfortable victories for state representative
of District 18B in the two precincts that touched his district, Howard Lake
and Middleville Township.

Overall, Urdahl earned 54 percent of the total votes over
his DFL opponent Mari Pokornowski, who garnered 38 percent, and Constitution
Party candidate Phil Jarman, who earned 8 percent.

Republican Mark Ourada overtook Democrat John McIntosh
in the race for state senator of District 19, which also reflected close
margins in local precincts.

Although Ourada won handily across the county with 62 percent
of total votes, at least two local precincts, Waverly and Montrose, were
counted toward Ourada with a margin of just two percent.

Other precincts gave a wider margin toward Ourada, with
double digit margins in Marysville, Victor, and Woodland townships.

Tony Kielkucki easily reclaimed his seat for state representative
of District 18A, with 9,097 ballots cast in his favor, or 62 percent, compared
to DFLer Lowell Ueland’s 5,549, or 38 percent.

Kielkucki carried all the local precincts with high vote
counts in the upper 70 percent range.

See local city council vote totals

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