Finstad

defeats

Eckstein

By KEVIN SWEENEY

Journal Editor

NEW ULM -- Rep. Brad Finstad won re-election in House District 21B Tuesday. The Associated Press called the election in Finstad's favor at midnight, with Finstad leading his DFL challenger Joe Eckstein by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin with about 75 percent of the precincts counted.

Finstad had 9,088 votes to 6,247 for Eckstein, according to the Secretary of State's office web site.

District 23B includes Brown County and parts of Redwood and Watonwan County.

"I'm completely humbled and honored to have the opportunity to represent District 21B for another term," said Finstad. "I pledge to work my hardest in the issues that are important to my district. I will continue my open door policy. My phone is always available, and I look forward to working for my constituents," he said.

Finstad entered the Legislature two years ago, with the state facing a $4.5 billion deficit and the DFL and Republican leaders locked in a partisan battle over how to close that gap. He faced an aggressive campaign from Eckstein, a nephew of the last DFL legislator from Brown County, Tony Eckstein, who served in the 1970s. Eckstein challenged Finstad's voting record on issues such as cutting Local Government Aid Funds, voting for foreign ownership of farmland, and transportation funding that Eckstein said spends more on metro needs than rural roads and highways.

Finstad and Eckstein spent the evening watching the polls with their campaign volunteers and friends. Both reflected on a campaign that they thought was solid and civil, if contentious at times.

Eckstein said the campaign was a tremendous experience for him, "getting out and meeting the people." It was his first time going through the different tasks of planning appearance schedules, ads, parades, and fundraising.

"The hardest part of the campaign was trying to get the message across in short sound bites and ads and statements. There's a lot of content, and you have to get that across to the people."

"For us to have people on our committee with experience in those things, who have been through the process a few times, made it that much easier," said Mary Eckstein, Joe's wife.

Eckstein said he enjoyed the doorknocking and meeting people. The folks he met were all polite and congenial, he said, even if he was running as DFLer in a largely conservative district.

Eckstein said, before the results were in, that he felt good about the campaign. "It's a tremendous feeling. I told my committee that when it was all done on Nov. 3, I wanted to be sure we had played all our cards, got our issues on the table and did what we wanted to do."

Finstad said he also enjoyed the door-to-door campaigning and meeting people.

"I found there was a lot of optimism out there. People think its going pretty good. We've had some good farm prices, and the jobs are coming back. People say they know the state has been through a tough time and we were forced to make some hard decisions when it came to budget time, but they think things are improving."

This was Finstad's second campaign. He said the difference between 2002 and now comes from being through the legislative process. "I've been explaining the legislative process, the complexity of the issues and the misconceptions that come from looking at little parts of larger bills," said Finstad.

"You go from defining yourself in the first campaign, who you are, your vision, your morals, and what your plans are. In the second campaign, you talk about how have I delivered on what I said I would do, where we have come from and where we are heading."

Finstad was criticized by his opponent for voting in lockstep with the Republican party.

"That surprised me," said Finstad. "I ran as a Republican, was elected as a Republican, and he seemed shocked to find out I was a Republican."