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Ely area key to Dill rout

Overwhelming support in the Ely area helped State Rep. David Dill turn back the challenge of Bill Hansen in Tuesday’s Minnesota House 6A DFL primary.Dill scored a convincing victory - winning nearly 60 percent of the vote and outpolling Hansen 6,214 to 4,261 - thanks in large part to big margins in Ely and surrounding communities.Ely voters backed Dill with more than 75 percent of the vote (934-307), while both Morse (318-149) and Fall Lake (166-78) went for the incumbent by better than two-to-one margins.It was even more lopsided in Winton (48-9) and Babbitt (365-69).Dill’s substantial victory in the Ely area - considered a battleground by both campaigns - ended Hansen’s hopes for an upset.“It was disappointing because I thought we’d do better in Ely,” said Hansen. “I was hoping for closer to 50-50, or at least 40-60. We had a great organization in Ely that worked very hard.”Dill, who left his home from Crane Lake Wednesday for a post-campaign fishing trip, was not available for comment.Hansen, a Tofte canoe outfitter and longtime DFL activist, won the party endorsement earlier this year - just as he did in a 2002 battle with Dill.But the endorsement wasn’t enough to unseat the first-term lawmaker, who seemingly appealed to a bipartisan coalition of 6A voters.Hansen attributed part of Dill’s margin to Republicans who crossed party lines and cast a ballot in the DFL primary.Republican candidate Marty Breaker of Ely, unopposed in his party’s primary, had just 728 votes.“Clearly there was a massive Republican crossover,” said Hansen. “David was campaigning hard for it. That was no secret. And if you look at Marty Breaker’s total, it was pretty obvious.”Dill won a four-way race with Hansen and two other candidates in the 2002 DFL primary with 40 percent of the vote, beating the second-place Hansen by about 500 votes.The two-man race wasn’t nearly as close.As expected, Dill racked up big margins in his home base, beating Hansen 105-5 in Orr, 83-1 in Crane Lake and 140-12 in Cook.Hansen ran well in his native Cook County and in several townships outside of Duluth, but couldn’t match the massive support Dill mustered in his strongholds.Dill also made inroads on the North Shore, winning in Silver Bay, netting 43 percent of the vote in Cook County and taking the overall vote in Lake County.And in the Ely area, where voters gave Dill a plurality of support two years ago, it was no contest.Dill had 1,496 votes in Ely, Winton, Morse and Fall Lake, compared to just 537 for Hansen. Two years ago, local voters gave Dill a 300-vote margin in a contest that also included Ely candidates Paul Kess and Roger Skraba.This year’s primary reopened some of the wounds from the bitter 2002 fight, and seemed to create even more division in the party.Earlier this year, DFL officials and Hansen campaign manager Nancy Powers accused Dill of campaign finance improprieties in 2002. An investigation resulted in a $6,400 fine against Dill and findings that he unintentionally broke the law.Dill also came under fire for payments he received while working as a snowmobile trail administrator. He administered state grant funds that went to a regional snowmobile association during his tenure as a city administrator in Orr, while at the same time he was employed by the snowmobile association.An investigation completed by State Auditor Patricia Anderson cited Orr for lax bookkeeping, but Anderson found that Dill did not break the law.The allegations against Dill were made in the midst of a Hansen challenge for the party endorsement. Local caucuses were packed with Hansen supporters, and Hansen was easily endorsed at an April convention in Duluth.Hansen campaigned as a “genuine Democrat,” taking issue with Dill’s previous support for Republican candidates such as U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman and former U.S. Sen. Rod Grams, and criticizing Dill for supporting some Republican initiatives - including support for a statewide referendum on an amendment to ban gay marriages.The Dill campaign, meanwhile, employed many of the same tactics it did in 2002. Hansen’s association with environmental organizations such as Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, Friends of the Boundary Waters and the Sierra Club, were focal points of Dill’s attack.Dill also touted his support for new mining initiatives and a proposed power plant at the former LTV site, and questioned Hansen’s leanings on the endeavors.Hansen said he was hurt by a multi-pronged attack, both from Dill and various political action committees who independently backed Dill.“Those groups spent some serious money - I can only speculate how much,” said Hansen. “I know people in Two Harbors who got as many as eight calls.”Despite the bitter campaign, Hansen said he prefers Dill over Breaker in the general election.“I think it’s important that a DFLer remain in that seat,” said Hansen. “I fully expect and challenge (Dill) to work hard for the Kerry-Edwards ticket.”

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