Northfield DFL Candidate: “Let’s Try to Work Together”

Kevin Dahle, a civics teacher in Northfield, had toyed with the idea of public office, and when a special election popped up in his district, he decided to throw his hat in.

A week later, he’s a DFL-endorsed candidate in Senate District 25.

This past Wednesday, Dec. 5, the local DFL and Republican parties held endorsing conventions to replace Republican state Sen. Tom Neuville, who was appointed as a Rice County District Court judge by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.  Dahle says he “walked in, gave (I think) a hell of a speech, and gave my sincere thoughts on how we can win this race.”  With four candidates running, he received 38 percent of the vote on the first ballot, garnering the 60 percent necessary for endorsement on the sixth.

With approximately 40 delegates in the room, one-on-one conversations carried plenty of weight.

The special election in SD25 will be held on Jan. 3. Recent special elections have become a lightning rod for scheduling controversy — someone is always dissatisfied that one group or another will be disenfranchised because of the election date.  The SD25 special election is no different:  students at St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges constitute important DFL votes, contributing strongly to the victory of state Rep. David Bly, D-Northfield, in 2006.  Bly unseated Ray Cox, who is now the Republican-endorsed candidate in the upcoming special election.

Dahle said the question of the college vote is a good one.  “Kids will be back on campus, and we’re mobilizing them now — both campuses do come back on the 2nd, so we’re doing things with texting, on Facebook and Myspace, and we’ll be having events on the 2nd at both colleges.”

Dahle, who teaches at Northfield High School, spoke in friendly terms of his opponent, Cox, but made it clear there will be differences of opinion in the next month.  “I know Ray; he was a School Board member when I was [teachers'] union president.  We’ve had a congenial relationship, gotten along, worked well together — but the differences between us come down to the issues.  He would think that education is adequately funded; I think there is more that could be done for education.  The burden for school funding is falling to property tax payers, and the state needs to step up.”  But despite the differences between him and his opponent, Dahle says he seeks a bipartisan approach:  “My speech at the endorsing convention was an across-the-aisle speech — I talked about the values of the middle class, of the working class — we need to be a ‘do-something’ Legislature, not a ‘do-nothing’.  I talked about ‘Let’s get things done.’  I have a lot of passion, and skills to get things done.”

Dahle may face an uphill climb against Cox, who represents a known quantity across much of the district.  But we can expect plenty of attention from both parties to be showered on this race — a DFL win here would make the state Senate veto-proof for the Democratic caucus.  Could be an interesting holiday season around Northfield this year.