(Editor’s note: Because of an early news deadline at 5 a.m. Nov. 9, a story of vote totals could not be written for the Nov. 11 issue. The following story is based on vote totals as of Nov. 14.)
by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleasders.com
St. Joseph Mayor Rick Schultz was re-elected as mayor in the Nov. 8 general election in St. Joseph, as was incumbent Bob Loso and newcomer Troy Goracke to the two open city-council seats.
Schultz, running unopposed, garnered 2,650 votes. Loso received 2,070 votes, and Goracke earned 1,986 votes.
Coinciding with a local and national win, Donald Trump also won in the Nov. 8 general election in St. Joseph as the choice for president of the United States, but the St. Joseph vote totals were much closer than almost anywhere in the area – 1,598 for Trump and 1,528 for Clinton. In Precinct 2, Trump handily defeated Clinton 1,097 to 762. In Precinct 1, however, Clinton won 766 to 501. College voters appeared to make that difference.
Other Democratic contenders also prevailed in Precinct 1: Anne Buckvold, David Snyder and Michael Willemsen. Those three failed to win the races, however.
For State Senate District 13, incumbent Republican Sen. Michelle Fischbach defeated DFL challenger Willemsen by 29,235 to 13,338. In the race for State Representative District 13A, incumbent Republican Rep. Jeff Howe won over DFL candidate Buckvold, 14,023 to 7,201. And in the race for U.S. Representative District 6, incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Emmer defeated DFL contender Snyder by 235,531 to 123,122.
Another winner was Joe Perske of Sartell for the Stearns County Commissioner District 2, who defeated incumbent Mark Bromenschenkel, also of Sartell, on a vote of 9,623 to 6,136.
Also re-elected for the fourth consecutive time is Sartell resident, State Rep. Tim O’Driscoll for House District 13B. He defeated DFL challenger Matthew Crouse by a vote of 14,882 to 6,465.
Sartell and St. Stephen voters in the Nov. 8 general election helped elect the same candidates that won at large for the U.S. presidency, as well as regional seats.
President-elect Trump won handily over Clinton in Sartell by a nearly two-to-one margin – 4,204 to 2,574. There were also some votes cast for third-party candidates.
School Board
St. Joseph voters helped elect four members to the St. Cloud School Board: Shannon Haws, 17,966 votes; Monica Segura-Schwartz, 14,779 votes; Jeff Pollreis, 14,562 votes; and Al Dahlgren, 14,096 votes.
The unsuccessful contenders for St. Cloud School Board were Scott Andreasen, 10,871 votes; Peter Hamerlinck, 14,050 votes; John W. Palmer, 11,890 votes; and Ric Studer, 9,714 votes.
Voters in the St. Cloud School District approved one of two bond referendum questions. They approved Question 1, which is to spend $104.5 million for construction of a new high school. The vote was very close: 23,018 to 22,018. Question 2, which called for a thorough renovation of Apollo High School, was defeated, also on a close vote – 23,408 to 22,060. That bond request was for the amount of $38.75 million.
St. Joseph Township
In St. Joseph Township, incumbent township supervisor Danny Lyberg was re-elected with 18 votes, as was town clerk Virginia LeDoux with 19 votes.
St. Stephen
St. Stephen Mayor Cindy VanderWeyst, running unopposed, was re-elected with 394 votes, and St. Stephen City Council incumbents were also re-elected – Jeff Blenkush with 339 votes and Thomas Vouk with 350.
St. Stephen voters preferred Trump as president by a vote total of 387 for him and 58 for Clinton.
St. Stephen voters also helped re-elect three incumbents to the Sartell-St. Stephen School Board: Jason Nies, 6,433 vote; Pam Raden, 5,717 votes; and Lesa Kramer, 5,703 votes.
St. Wendel Townhip
In St. Wendel Township, voters also went for Trump – 913 to Clinton’s 371.
Regional results
Although Clinton won Minnesota – but just barely by about 2 percentage points – Trump won handily by a two-to-one margin in Minnesota’s Congressional Sixth District in which Republican Emmer was re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 235,531, with 123,122 votes going to DFL challenger Snyder.
Trump and other Republican candidates fared very well in all three area counties – Stearns, Benton and Sherburne. In all three counties, Trump won handily by a two-to-one margin or better. In the most heavily populated city, St. Cloud, 15 of the city’s 22 precincts showed wins for Trump – seven for Clinton, five of those pro-Hillary precincts in Ward 1, which is in the college area.
National results
Nationally, Trump won more than enough electoral votes to win: 306 at last count (he needed 270 to win). Clinton won 232 electoral votes. Although at last count, Clinton won the national popular vote by a one- to two-point margin over Trump, she did not win the election because she failed to get enough electoral votes state to state (270).
Trump and Clinton each received about 60 million votes at last count, with a slight edge for Clinton. Absentee and mail-in votes are still being counted, mainly in the states of California, New York and Washington. However, those votes will not change the results of the election because Clinton already won in those states, along with those states’ electoral votes.
