Special election likely in St. Cloud, chance to pick up state senate seat

[wellstone dem]

While folks have been celebrating throughout the country and throughout the state there was a sad result in the St. Cloud election. Mayor John Ellenbecker, a progressive, was defeated in his bid for reelection by State Senator Dave Kleis (R).

With his win of the mayoral contest Senator Kleis will be resigning his seat. It's my understanding that Tarryl Clark will be running for this seat. She has run previously, the last election was one where republicans were sweeping the country 2002 (?)(sorry not sure of the year, and Tarryl came within 500 votes of unseating the incumbent Kleis. St. Cloud went for Kerry in 2004. This means with a lot of hard work and get out the vote effort (which is tough in a special election) we should be able to pick up this seat. (For those who don't know, Tarryl is executive director of the Minnesota Community Action Agency Association and was previously Associate Chair of the Minnesota DFL Party.)

Also in St. Cloud DFL state rep Joe Opatz is also resigning. There will be a special election for his seat. WE DO NOT WANT to give up a seat after the gains in 2004. There is an endorsing convention next week, and we will then know the name of the candidate for that seat.

We will need help here in St. Cloud, both in terms of money and time.

I will keep you updated as I get more information.