Dayton’s Eric Lucero, the GOP-endorsed candidate and winner of a special Republican Primary vote last August, will look to keep House District 30B red when he squares off against Sharon Shimek of Otsego tomorrow, Nov. 4, in the general election.
The winner will replace House District 30B Rep. David Fitzsimmons, who withdrew his name during the endorsement process at the GOP convention earlier this year.
For a look at Lucero’s platform, check out our one-on-one interview with him via a questionnaire earlier this summer prior to his primary win over St. Michael’s Kevin Kasel.
Shimek was profiled, recently, in a piece posted by the Elk River Star News. The DFL-endorsed candidate shares Lucero’s concern over equitable funding for schools, particularly those in House District 30B, which, per pupil, are among the lowest funded in the state.
Shimek also said she supports MNSure, the state-run insurance arm of the Affordable Care Act, saying it had a “rough start” but she has “heard stories” of it helping many folks who needed insurance and couldn’t get it via traditional means.
“It has been my observation throughout the years that new programs and new computer programs need adjustments when they are started. But having Mnsure is moving in the right direction of health care for Minnesota. It will help make health care costs more transparent to all of us, it helps make each of us more responsible for our own health, and as wages increase it could help decrease some government assistance,” she told the Star News.
There are fewer House Districts that bring more Republicans to the polls than House District 30B, which, in its first election in 2012, voted for nearly every Republican candidate on the ballot over a DFL-endorsed candidate. The district went to challenger Mitt Romney in the presidential race, was a key reason Rep. Michelle Bachmann was able to retain her seat in a tight Sixth District U.S. House election, and had one of the highest turnouts for challenger Kurt Bills in his failed attempt to take out U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
With that in mind, newcomer Eric Lucero will have a distinct advantage over DFL-endorsed Sharon Shimek when voters head to the polls to decide which candidate replaces Fitzsimmons on Tuesday, Nov. 4.