Election outlook for Congressional District One

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - The campaign season ends tomorrow.

Our Washington News Bureau Reporter Molly Martinez has been following the big races; she says Minnesota’s special election in August was a good preview of how general election campaigns are shaping up.

Martinez said it’s “a good indicator” of who will win a general election based off who wins a special election, this is no different.

“So in the special election, we saw a ton of outside money being funneled in from both parties to this race and while Finstad only won by 4,000 votes it is indicated that this is a likely leaning republican district,” explained Martinez. “The last democrat to hold this spot was Tim Walz who’s now the governor, so he’s clearly a very popular politician and he was sort of the exception to the rule since then.”

However Assistant Professor of Political Science at Minnesota State University of Mankato Fred Slocum has a different perspective.

“It’s normally true that incumbents have an advantage when seeking reelection,” said Slocum. “However, I would expect that advantage to be less because Representative Finstad has not really had a lot of time in office and not a lot of occasion to introduce himself to many.”

The balance of power might change in congress; depending on how tomorrow goes.

“Well, if Finstad wins, there will be no change because the seat was previously held by a Republican,” said Slocum. “If Ettinger wins, however, it would be an additional seats for the Democrats; and I mean the national trend seems to be in Republicans favor with the likely results that they are likely to hold the majority in the house -- basically would take a flip of five seats to bring Republicans into the majority, which is probably likely to happen on a national basis.”

Martinez had a few last thoughts on the subject.

“I think both parties sort of recused and rolled back their spending in these election,” pointed out Martinez. “Because they kind of feel like it was already decided back in August.”

Polls in Minnesota open tomorrow at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

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