The headline in Wednesday's Mankato Free Press, UPDATED: Finstad gets GOP nomination; ex-Hormel CEO wins DFL nod, frames the primary in the Minnesota First Congressional District special election in curious way, relegating the Democratic nominee to a no-name plutocrat.
Such are the times in which we live.
Mark Fischenich reports more details:
Former Hormel CEO Jeff Ettinger will be the Democratic contender to replace the late Congressman Jim Hagedorn in an Aug. 9 special election. On the Republican side, former state Rep. Brad Finstad of New Ulm nudged out current Rep. Jeremy Munson of Lake Crystal in the special primary election.
With 100% of the precincts reporting, former Finstad had 38% of the vote. He was within less than 400 votes of Munson with 37% of the vote. The margin of victory is above the level that would trigger a taxpayer-funded recount.
For latest results go to https://tinyurl.com/yc645j28
Two marijuana legalization candidates were already set to advance to the Aug. 9 ballot because they were the only candidates in their pot-focused parties. Tuesday's voting, along with the absentee ballots cast in advance, determined which Democrat and which Republican would join them.
On the Republican side, it was immediately a two-man contest between Finstad and Munson. Hagedorn’s widow, deposed Minnesota Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan, was a distant third with 8%, followed by Matt Benda, an Albert Lea attorney (7%), and Rochester state Rep. Nels Pierson III, a Butterfield native and Gustavus Adolphus College graduate (5%).
A former state representative from New Ulm who was the top USDA official in Minnesota during the administration of President Donald Trump, Finstad is the preferred candidate of many popular and long-serving Republican legislators in southern Minnesota. Munson, by contrast, carried a large contingent of social media followers into the congressional campaign and was endorsed by national political figures such as Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Finstad held the lead for the first hour after polls closed, but Munson surged ahead by the time half of the precincts had been counted, only to have the race tighten again. With 76% of precincts reporting and nearly 30,000 votes cast, Munson had a 13 vote lead.
Just before 11 p.m., Finstad had edged ahead again by 30 votes. By 11:22 p.m. it was 414.
All of the top vote-getters appeared to be well-liked by their nearest neighbors. Ettinger won 91% of the Democratic vote in Mower County, Munson picked up 61% in Blue Earth County and Finstad finished with 76% support in Brown County. . . . .
Twas not so for Hagedorn widow and disgraced former Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Jennifer Carnahan, though Blue Earth's local paper reported before the election in Special Primary Election to be May 24 that Carnahan was considered a frontrunner and well-known around town:
One of the names on the Republican side of the primary ballot of May 24 is that of a Blue Earth woman, Jennifer Carnahan, the widow of Jim Hagedorn.
“Some people are surprised to learn that I live in Blue Earth,” Carnahan said in an interview last week. “But I moved here quite a while ago, and I have continued to live here in our home after Jim’s death.”
Others are not so surprised, as she admits to not taking the time to cook much, so she is a frequent visitor to Average Jo’s, Farmer’s Daughters and China Restaurant.
“I am lucky there are such great restaurants here in Blue Earth,” she says with a laugh. “Sometimes I feel I live at Average Jo’s and Farmers’ Daughters.” . . .
. . . Carnahan is considered by some as the front runner in the GOP contest which has nine other candidates. She says she feels confident of her chances as she has name recognition across the First District and the state, because of her husband and because of her years of work in the Republican Party.
That copy drew the ire of our best sources in Blue Earth, one of whom suggested the only Carnahan sign was the one in her own lawn, while the place peppered with Munson signs.
Our source was on to something, though they might have overstated the situation. In the end, returns for Faribault County show that Jeremy Munson received 44.58% (502) of the ballots cast, Finstad netted 29.57% (333) of the vote, while the grieving widow was third with 16.61% (187) of the votes.
In Blue Earth's three precincts:
BLUE EARTH W-1: Munson received 39 votes or 39.80%; Finstad, 26 or 26.53%; Carnahan, 25 or 25.51%
BLUE EARTH W-2: Munson, 49 or 46.67%; Finstad, 33 or 31.43%; Carnahan, 22 or 20.95%
BLUE EARTH W-3: Munson, 26 or 45.61%; Finstad, 20 or 35.09%; Carnahan, 9 or 15.79%
We suppose we can give her the comfort of performing better close to home than her district-wide 8.01% of the vote.
In the end, the most spot-on report on Carnahan was Sam Bordey's article for the Daily Beast, Inside a Widow’s Scorched-Earth Bid for Her Husband’s Old Seat in Congress, which included this money graph:
Scores of Minnesota Republicans, for one, seem to have their own horror stories about Carnahan, according to public statements and sources who spoke to The Daily Beast who know Carnahan or worked with her.
Indeed.
Related posts
- Question from a lawsuit: why didn't Hagedorn's insurance pay for Arizona treatments?
- 1st congressional district reportage: on the congressman's wife in southern Minnesota media
- Republican Party of MN reports self-employed James, Hagedorn lives in St. Louis Park
Photo: Jennifer Carnahan in Blue Earth, Minnesota, in early May. Photo via Special Primary Election to be May 24, Faribault County Register.
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