At this time Minnesota Senate District 50 is DFL territory, but the team that is working to change that was finalized this afternoon at the SD 50 convention at Christ the King Lutheran Church in New Brighton.
The delegation overwhelmingly selected New Brighton City Council member Gina Bauman to face incumbent Sen. Satveer Chaudhary in the November election. Gina is now in her second term on the the City Council and has served with great distinction as a consistent voice for fiscal sanity. She was instrumental in keeping the city property tax levy at 0% for this year, a rare and positive change for the city. Gina has an extensive financial and budgeting background and also runs a coffee shop in New Brighton, Cuppachiodo's, which is well known and regarded in the area.
Gina has a strong campaign organization already in place and a significant group of supporters in New Brighton. She's extremely smart and quick on her feet, which proved to be a significant advantage during the endorsement process. She's also not afraid of a fight; she was instrumental in challenging the political barons who have run New Brighton for much of the last 20 years. She is well acquainted with the local issues within the district and her background provides her with the right skill set for the Senate, which is sorely lacking in fiscal discipline these days. She will be a formidable candidate.
Senate District 50 spans Anoka and Ramsey Counties and includes the cities of Columbia Heights, Fridley, New Brighton, Arden Hills and portions of St. Anthony and Shoreview. The incumbent, Satveer Chaudhary, has served two largely anonymous terms in the State Senate. He has been a loyal member of the DFL caucus, which may turn out to be a mixed blessing in this election cycle. Chaudhary might be best known for a political kerfuffle he went through in 2008, when it was revealed that he had advanced the interest of Arctic Cat, which was sponsoring an outdoor sports cable show Chaudhary hosted. It also turned out that Arctic Cat had given Chaudhary a discount on a snowmobile. Our friends at Boots On wrote about the case at the time.
Bauman joins the endorsed House candidates, Tim Utz (50A) and Russell Bertsch (50B), who are running against DFL incumbents Carolyn Laine and Kate Knuth. While it will not be easy to oust this trio of DFL incumbents, this is a strong group of Republican candidates. We'll continue to follow the races closely here.
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