Reinert headed to state House of Representatives
By CORY BELLAMY
DCN Correspondent
A highly respected member of the Duluth City Council will vacate his position at the end of the year to begin representing District 7B in the Minnesota House of Representatives.
Democratic candidate Roger Reinert received nearly 73 percent of the total votes. His opponents, Rep. Allan Kehr and Independence Party candidate Jay Cole, received 20 percent and 7 percent of the votes, respectively.
Perhaps the biggest issue facing Reinert will be the budget shortfall in Duluth as well as the state of Minnesota.
“[The budget concern] is going to be huge,� Reinert said. “A good thing is that we’ve faced issues with our budget here in Duluth, and it’s something I’ll be ready for in St. Paul.�
Reinert also plans to help make improvements to education in Minnesota. He said a lack of resources will be a potential hurdle, citing the fact that 80 percent of Minnesota school districts (including Duluth) rely on revenue from taxpayers to operate.
“Minnesota is no longer thought of as the education state and that bothers me. We’re short on resources, and that is going to force us to prioritize,� Reinert said. “I’m not going to be shy about that. No matter what corner of the state you live in, you’ll receive a top-notch education. That’s my goal.�
Reinert is also in favor of improving roads, bridges and sewers across the state. He said there are over $7 billion worth of construction projects waiting to be completed on Minnesota’s infrastructure. Many sewer lines and bridges were built in the 1960s and 1970s, and are no longer up to date.
“It takes the collapse of a bridge on Interstate 35 to get a new one built. It’s time to re-invest in our infrastructure,� Reinert said.
Three other seats in the Minnesota house were also up for election Tuesday. Incumbents Mary Murphy, Thomas Huntley and Bill Hilty, all Democrats, will retain their positions after their victories on election night. This gave the Democratic Party a clean sweep in the Minnesota house races, and all won in a convincing fashion.
In another win for the DFL, James Oberstar defeated Rep. Michael Cummins, hauling in over 67 percent of the vote. Oberstar, 74, will begin his 18th term in January. He currently serves as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The results of the local races came as no surprise to Mary Currin-Percival, a political science professor at the UMD,
“Duluth tends to be a more liberal area,� Currin-Percival said. “Plus, Roger Reinert has been a very popular member of the city council. Oberstar’s win was no surprise at all. He has been in the House for over 30 years. He’s incredibly popular in Duluth.�
Comments
I appreciate the fine work you DCN folks are doing here. The local Republican Party has been hijacked by right wing extremists and they are completely irrelevant in any partisan race. Now the national winguts are saying the national party has moved too far to the middle and they believe the party has to become more wingnutty in order to win in the future. They need only to look at the results here to see their future if they do move to the extreme right.
Posted by: Tony Ramone | November 8, 2008 5:50 PM