When newly elected Anoka County Commissioners Matt Look and Andy Westerberg were asked if they wanted the Northstar commuter rail line to be extended to St. Cloud, both said yes -- hardly the answer expected of fiscal conservatives.

That raised a bigger question for the county's immediate future: Just how conservative will this new board be?

"I don't know," said Commissioner Dan Erhart, the progressive one-time chairman of the board who has championed Northstar and a proposed passenger-rail line from Minneapolis to Duluth.

"I talk to a lot of people who have dealt with Andy, and they say he's unpredictable," Erhart said. "He'll vote differently at times than people expect. And Matt Look isn't going to be anybody's puppet."

Look, finishing his tenure on the Ramsey City Council, wants a Northstar station in Ramsey and would like to see the line extended to St. Cloud, as was initially planned. Even before learning that Northstar's ticket sales will finish far below projections, Look said that he was looking at the big picture.

"We need to create jobs and get people back to work," Look said earlier this month. "We have to look at Northstar for the way it will affect the county over the next several years. That's how you have to look at any project."

Westerberg agrees. He said that he is "for the most part a fiscal conservative" but would deviate from expectations when voting on projects that have regional and statewide significance.

"For something like Northstar, I have to think outside the box," Westerberg said. "You have to consider how it will affect people over a 50-year period, not just how it will affect us today.

"I think it's important to look at both sides of the issue. I approach every issue from that standpoint."

For Erhart, there can be no more encouraging words. With Minnesota Department of Transportation officials scheduled to discuss next week the possibility of gearing a Northstar extension to St. Cloud to passengers as well as commuters, Erhart will try to pitch the importance of the Northern Lights Express passenger-rail line from Minneapolis to Duluth.

The recent collapse of the Metrodome roof is reminder of how close Anoka County came four years ago to building a Vikings stadium in Blaine. Erhart was a driving force in brokering a deal in which the county and the team would have been equal partners. But when the state declined to become the third partner, the stadium deal collapsed as dramatically as the Metrodome's roof earlier this month.

But the board that voted 6-1 in favor of a Vikings stadium is a distant memory. Scott LeDoux, battling ALS, retired because of the illness and was replaced by his wife, Carol LeDoux, via special election. Dennis Berg and Dick Lang are about to retire. Margaret Langfeld, who led the board in 2006, did not seek reelection after the Blaine stadium deal collapsed and is retired.

Now Erhart has to wonder whether his more conservative board colleagues will be willing to listen to him?

With fiscal conservative Rhonda Sivarajah prepared to become the next County Board chairperson, Erhart isn't sure whether he'll have much of a platform to be heard. He said he has yet to speak to Sivarajah about the future of the board since her unofficial selection as the board's next leader.

"I hear rumors, which are discouraging, about the committee structure," Erhart said. "Nobody knows how this will be structured come Jan. 4."

Westerberg, who agreed to vote for Sivarajah as chairwoman of the board, said labeling this board or its members might be unwise.

"I don't think I think that much differently than Dan Erhart," Westerberg said. "He's not going to spend money unless it's for the better of the county. That's how we all feel.

"I'm not going to vote a certain way because somebody else thinks that's the way I should vote. I'm going to vote my conscience. It may not always be what people expect."

Paul Levy • 612-673-4419