Duluth 2012 General Election Results

With 100 percent of precincts statewide reported, here are the unofficial results in races relevant to Duluth.

President and Vice President of the United States
Barack Obama and Joe Biden – 1,544,534 | 53%
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan – 1,319,942 | 45%
Gary Johnson and Jim Gray – 35,075 | 1%
Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala – 12,993 | 0%
Write in – 10,620 | 0%
Virgil Goode and Jim Clymer – 3,719 | 0%
Jim Carlson and George McMahon – 3,146 | 0%
Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson and Luis J. Rodriguez – 1,989 | 0%
Dean Morstad and Josh Franke-Hyland – 1,091 | 0%
James Harris and Maura Deluca – 1,048 | 0%
Peta Lindsay and Yari Osorio – 395 | 0%

United States Senator
Amy Klobuchar – 1,852,923 | 65%
Kurt Bills – 867,816 | 31%
Stephen Williams – 73,500 | 3%
Tim Davis – 30,504 | 1%
Michael Cavlan – 13,959 | 0%
Write in – 2,564 | 0%

Constitutional amendment recognizing marriage solely between one man and one woman
No – 1,509,221
Yes – 1,399,189
Estimated blank returns – 38,856
(Estimated percent of yes votes – 47.47 – amendment fails)

Constitutional amendment requiring photo identification for voting
No – 1,537,529
Yes – 1,361,578
Estimated blank returns – 48,159
(Estimated percent of yes votes – 46.2 – amendment fails)

United States Representative for Minnesota District 8
Richard Nolan – 191,981 | 54%
Chip Cravaack – 160,520 | 45%
Write in – 1,164 | 0%

Minnesota Senate District 7
Roger J. Reinert – 32,684 | 77%
Tyler Verry – 9,621 | 23%
Write in – 199 | 0%

Minnesota House District 7A
Thomas Huntley – 15,622 | 71%
Therese Bower – 6,302 | 29%
Write in – 116 | 1%

Minnesota House District 7B
Erik Simonson – 12,450 | 62%
Travis Silvers – 4,345 | 22%
Write in – 3,127 | 16%

St. Louis County Commissioner, District 2
Steve O’Neil – 8,308 | 53%
Becky Hall – 7,224 | 46%
Write in – 84 | 1%

St. Louis County Commissioner, District 3
Chris Dahlberg – 8,322 | 60%
Debbie Isabell-Nelson – 5,406 | 39%
Write in – 88 | 1%

St. Louis County Commissioner, District 5
Pete Stauber – 8,627 | 54%
Peg Sweeney – 7,264 | 46%
Write in – 41 | 0%


Link to judicial races for folks who are hardcore

24 Comments

cork1

about 11 years ago

TOO CLOSE TO CALL!!!

adam

about 11 years ago

NPR just said the Associated Press had called Amy Klobuchar the winner 8 minutes after polls closed.

Paul Lundgren

about 11 years ago

I called that race four months ago.

Tony Ramone

about 11 years ago

How many times has Becky Hall ran for office and lost? She is now officially a gadfly.

Intrade had Obama no higher than $7.00 until about an hour or so ago. Republicans have trouble absorbing data, but now Obama is over $9.00. Winners: polling data, Nate Silver, and Sam Wang. Losers: Dick Morris and Karl Rove.

I am just guessing that Nolan will beat the guy who lives in NH. Duffy, unfortunately, will keep his seat.

vicarious

about 11 years ago

I apologize in advance: 

"Here's the results so far..." Is so very wrong.

If it was a single result, it would be correct. But, because there are more than one result, it should read, "Here ARE the results...", which cannot gracefully be shortened to "here're".

I know...this distinction is very important on this gravitas-filled election night.  Go Obomney!

vicarious

about 11 years ago

I know someone will cause to me regret that comment. It's just that...grammar is life, people.

vicarious

about 11 years ago

Thanks for being lighthearted about my insignificant complaint on this important occasion,  Paul. 

Go Cravolan!

Paul Lundgren

about 11 years ago

The pace seems to be three random write ins for president for every one vote for Jim Carlson.

Chris

about 11 years ago

Despite the long odds of mounting a write-in campaign, I'm genuinely surprised at how one sided the 7B race turned out.  Goes to show I shouldn't predict a race based on lawn signs and social media chatter.

Stephenos LaFleur

about 11 years ago

Congrats to Klobuchar on winning all but two counties in Minnesota (Pipestone & Rock, which were only comprised of about 9,000 participating voters). Craavack got canned (thank goodness), and the Graves vs. Bachmann debacle is too close to call tonight. Godspeed, political junkies.

Paul Lundgren

about 11 years ago

The unofficial results with all precincts reporting in Congressional District 6 show Michele Bachmann winning by a slim 4,207 votes.

Claire

about 11 years ago

I wonder how long before Chip Cravaack sells the house in North Branch and moves to New Hampshire to be with his family?

Claire

about 11 years ago

P.S. Chris, lawn signs are good, social media chatter is good, but it's one person, one vote. You've got to talk to people, so they understand what you stand for, and why they should vote for you.  Simonson got out there and talked to voters. So did Nolan. Betsy Hall jumped up and down on a lot of street corners, waving her signs, but I don't know if she actually talked to people. And Cravaack's campaign in Duluth seemed to emphasize smearing Nolan with lies and exaggerations in the ads and on blogs. Never saw Cravaackj out there, shaking hands.

Claire

about 11 years ago

BTW, there's a group of right-wing extremists who run a mean-spirited  blog "exposing" DFLers that's basically a rip-off of the Drudge Report. They are too cowardly to own their words and actions, but some people I know think the blog is associated with the Northern Liberty Alliance group. They were especially virulent in their personal attacks and smears against Rick Nolan and against Erik Simonson. Both did extremely well in the election, despite the blatant attempts at character assassination with posts on that blog that got picked up by the DNT, i.e. Simonson's family issues and Nolan's "disrupting" the Senior Expo. It's pretty obvious to me that no matter how much venom these trolls spew, and how many sock puppets make up comments and put the names of real people on them who did not write those comments, that this kind of over-the-top mudslinging is completely ineffectual -- and in fact, may have hurt the candidates (Cravaack, Fosle/Silvers, Hall, etc) that these extremists claim to support. I'm just wondering if this realization that Duluthians aren't swayed by this kind of crap is going to affect the NLA's future strategies -- if it's indeed that group behind that blog -- or not. I am just really proud of the people in District 7-B and in the 8th as a whole who took the issues into consideration when voting and weren't distracted by these slimy tricks.

edgeways

about 11 years ago

Two quick things, worked the polls this year and at the end of the day when they whee reading off the results tape the head judge was having trouble reading the name of Reinert's challenger so he asked the rest of the judges who it was that ran against Reinert ... and no one knew. We had to go find a ballot to answer the question.

Last weekend I drove out to ND so passed a lot of MN along the way and made the observation that there were a lot of Kurt Bills signs, especially compared to how poor he was polling, it really seemed the year of the mismatched yard sign to poll result for many races. Cravaack as well had massive signage compared to Nolan

Claire

about 11 years ago

Signs don't mean a lot, if people don't vote. Betsy Hall has TONS of signs. But, I noticed, a lot of them on vacant land, and then there's families like the McKees who own the 3500 block I think it is of East Superior St. They had at least half a dozen Betsy Hall signs lining their side of the street for that entire block. Means nothing. 

When I was doorknocking for the DFL, a voter asked me how much I was getting paid to do it. I said, "Nothing, I'm a volunteer and an American who's fired up to re-elect President Obama and send Chip Cravaack home to New Hampshire!" He laughed, and I am pretty sure I got that vote in the DFL bag. It's the personal connections that matter most, the face-to-face conversations between voters. That's why someone like Erik Simonson, who was the target of an over-the-top smear campaign in the DNT and on the right-wing-extremist blogs, won so handily. He and his people were out there, talking to people, persuading them to vote for him -- despite some pretty heavy baggage.

Chris

about 11 years ago

I think you made a lot of good points Claire.  And I'm not really sure how much door knocking Jay did pre-election day.  Although he did show up at a couple forums, which is more than he did when he ran against Stover apparently.  My hope as a resident of 7B was that there may have been more of a fight for that DFL endorsement.  Right-wing attacks aside, I was turned off enough by the parenting issue that I was not going to support him.  I kept my ear open in the days leading up to the endorsing convention waiting to hear who was going to step up and challenge Simonson.  Having heard nothing, ironically enough, I skipped the convention to be at my 10 year old son's football game.  Had I known Julene Boe was going to throw her hat in, I at least may have tried to make it there.  Basically I'm just disappointed this was the best the DFL had to offer the residents of 7B.

Claire

about 11 years ago

Chris, if you want my honest opinion, I think the 7-B lost out big-time and the DFL shot itself in the foot by forcing -- yes, forcing -- Kerry Gauthier to step aside. He did something really breathtakingingly stupid which on a personal level repulses me, esp. since I have a teenager and the young man involved is not much older than she is. But, it was still legal, he didn't break any laws. And it's too bad, because he was one kick-butt legislator who really stood up for the people of 7-B. Erik Simonson has some big shoes to fill, and I hope he does right by 7-B.

Jadiaz

about 11 years ago

Hasn't it been stated over and over on the LPOE threads that just because something is legal doesn't make it morally right? Kerry Gauthier wasn't forced out, he made a choice that got him kicked out. Even though he thought the young man was 18, he still chose to meet up with said young man, do a sexual act in a very public area, and shed a nasty light on the area he is suppose to serve. He has no one to blame but himself. 
It was legal sure, but as a public figure it was stupid and reflected badly on him and his district. He wasn't forced out, he made his own path out. Who knows how many other times it happened and wether he knew/thought they were 18. So glad the guy is gone. Had it been a female that he had been involved with, DFLers would have chopped his nuts off.

wskyline

about 11 years ago

What happened to the post titled "the no's have it?" I'm still curious where duluthian's think the best place to get married is.

Paul Lundgren

about 11 years ago

There was a glitch in the system because we've been tinkering with our polling, so only a handful of people were able to vote. The results were posted, but Starfire switched the post off at some point.

I can tell you the results were:

Where would you go to get gay married?
Maine - 40 percent
Iowa - 20 percent
Washington D.C. - 6.6 percent
New York - 6.6 percent
Vermont - 6.6 percent

lojasmo

about 11 years ago

Yes, Jadaiz, Gauthier did get forced out.  Compare it to David Vitter who still serves in the senate after admittedly (illegally) paying a prostitute for sex.

Leave a Comment

Only registered members can post a comment , Login / Register Here

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!
Read previous post:
Seeking Nominations for the Arrowhead Arts Awards

Who would you nominate for the awards below? I'm interested in seeing new names, new faces in the arts that...

Close