Selcer, Stensrud locked in Hennepin County district rematch

Impress your friends on election night and tell them it's all about 48A.

No state House district more epitomizes the recent metronomic swings of Minnesota politics than 48A, which includes western suburbs Eden Prairie and Minnetonka.

Kirk Stensrud won the seat in the 2010 Republican wave before getting washed away in the 2012 DFL wave, losing to Rep. Yvonne Selcer by 202 votes. Now they are in a rematch, and the two parties see the race as potentially decisive in determining who controls the state House, where the DFL currently holds a slim majority — if Republicans can flip seven seats, they take control. Given continued DFL control of the state Senate, both sides are dumping money and volunteers into a few House races like 48A.

Although the outcome could lead to very different governing paths — Republicans are advocating a more business-friendly tax and regulatory environment — the candidates are so busy appealing to every last voter that at times, they sound alike.

Selcer: "I believe in a balanced approach."

Stensrud: "I think maybe people like a balance."

Selcer emphasizes her business ties — growing up in a big family that owned a small, regional telephone company and later experience as a national sales manager for a computer firm. She is quick to point out that she voted against the 2013 tax increase, which is also the legislation that authorized construction of what has become a politically flammable issue, the state Senate office building.

Even when she talks about education, a subject she knows both as a former teacher and school board chair, Selcer uses words like "rigor" and "accountability" and recounts creating an audit committee on the Hopkins school board to right the fiscal ship.

Selcer said a key priority if she wins will be college debt. Recent grads are putting off life decisions such as buying a home that is slowing the economy, she said.

Unprompted, her opponent Stensrud said nearly the same thing: "How can we get our kids prepared for the workforce without burying them in college loans?" he asked.

Stensrud led a varied, professional life in fields such as medical sales before deciding he wanted more control of his own destiny. He bought a commercial window-washing franchise, employing between five and 15 workers.

During his one legislative term, Stensrud voted with the Republican majority and its conservative agenda, including fiscal austerity measures like cuts to higher education, mental-health services and state government, as well as on social issues such as restrictions on abortion and gay marriage.

He also said state government would have been wise, with many of its workers near retirement age, to cut its workforce without layoffs, just as many corporations do to become more productive.

But Stensrud focused on opportunity rather than austerity, saying his hope is that the next generation will have a shot at the kinds of high-paying jobs and middle-class prosperity for which Minnesota is famous.

Stensrud also sounded out bipartisan themes. Knowing the DFL will control the state Senate, he said it would be unproductive to pass bills in the House that might be symbolic conservative victories but would have no chance of passage in the Senate. And, he said, a Republican House and DFL Senate should "go at areas where there's common ground."

Patrick Coolican • 651-925-5042