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Voters in Chisago County sent Jim Oberstar back to Congress but removed our incumbent state legislators in a heavy voter turnout Tuesday. Oberstar beat Rod Grams 12,639 votes to 8,708.

Incumbent State Senator Sean Nienow was defeated by challenger Rick Olseen by about 1,000 votes-- 10,500 to 9,505.

Incumbent State Rep. Peter Nelson was removed from office by challenger Jeremy Kalin on a vote of 9,629 to 9,425. (These are all unofficial results until the results are canvassed and certified.)

For county commissioner-- Ben Montzka was returned to the County Board with a tally of 2,908 to challenger Russ Goudge’s 1,272.

Rick Greene takes the vacant county board seat that Rick Olseen left to run for the state senate. Greene had 2,072 to Bill Rice’s 1,152 votes.

The new Chisago County Attorney is Janet Reiter. She got 9,864 votes. Tim Ryan took 8,763 votes. The incumbent Katherine Johnson was knocked out in the September primary election.

In citywide election results: Mark Wolcott was returned to office in Center City. He got 183 votes to Jon Alvin’s 121. Incumbent Mike Hilber and Barry Moe were the two candidates for two council seats. Hilber had 188 and Moe 184 votes.

Chisago City has a new mayor-- Don Taylor. Taylor got 943 and won both city precincts. Larry Parker got 792 votes. Incumbent mayor Chris DuBose was not seeking re-election. Council members voting gave Greg Freer the most votes with 1,001 and Sue Skow with 906. Ross Pihl got 758.

Lindstrom also has a new mayor. Keith Carlson defeated incumbent Roger Lindgren with 741 to Lindgren’s 579. In the council race Curt Flug had 927, Jim Singer had 744. In third place was Steve Hartman with 571, then it was Bob Burington with 335 and Dan Joyce at 300 votes.

Kyle Johnson will serve as Shafer Mayor with 158 votes. Heather Rosa did not seek re-election. Other mayoral candidates were; Dennis Pfeifer jr. with 66 and Jeff Behnke got 35. Patty Mattson was returned to council with 181 votes. Next in line are Chad Mittlesteadt with 167, Sonya Williamson had 92. In the special seat vote Jeremy Vitalis won with 132 votes. Patricia Kowalski had 122, Matthew Dunham 108 and Terry Smith 100.

In Stacy John Daher won the mayor race with 223 to Mel Aslakson’s 170 votes. The special council seat election went to Richard Schultz with 223 votes. Mario Schelecht jr had 107. In regular council election Barbara Avalos had 187, Tony Olivolo had 165 and Jeff Sovich 154.

Taylors Falls Mayor Mike Buchite won his seat back with 302 votes to challenger Jesse Thoen’s 116. Ross Rivard got 316 votes for council followed by Zara Kinnunen’s 211.

In Wyoming Mayor Sheldon Anderson was unopposed. He got 1,149 votes. For council Joe Zerwas stays with 1,009 and Gary Menne knocks out Ted Phillips with 712 to Phillips’ 677 votes.

North Branch Mayor Gloria Karsky held off challenger Joni Monk with 1,814 votes to 1,487. For council Amy Oehlers is returned with 1,498 along with incumbent Kathy Blomquist who got 1,349. Jim Vrchota got 1,094. Randy Larson had 843 and Peter Holmes had 802.

North Branch School Board incumbents were all returned to office. Jeanne Walz had 3,158, Kirby Ekstrom 3,485, Donna Setter 3,065. Challenger Darryl Goebel had 2,509. Karen Saltis retained her school board seat in a special election. She was unopposed and had been appointed to the seat.

In the governor’s race the county went for Republican Tim Pawlenty, who won the seat back. Pawlenty had 11,437 in this county to DFLer Hatch’s 8,940. Independent Hutchinson got 1,282 votes in the county.

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