Partial results are in for D25 Senate (awaiting absentees).
And political newcomer Marsha Symens appears to have taken retired radio host and carpetbagger to D25, Rick Knobe, to the woodshed and given him a thrashing like he’s never had before:
MARSHA SYMENS (R) 5,575
SETH WILLIAM VAN’T HOF (I) 702
RICK W KNOBE (I) 2,143
With a commanding lead of over 3400 votes, I think we can call this race over, and declare that Symens has won, while Knobe has just fizzled out.
Wow! Great news!
It is always sad to watch a pro athlete stay around longer than he should. The same can be said about former radio personalities, turned politicians, turned politicians.
This makes me laugh at supporters of her primary opponent who said we would lose this seat. Congratulations to her.
Maybe Wisconsin or Michigan Dems can let Knobe borrow their extra votes.
Jim Abdnor often told the story:
He had been in State Senate Leadership for ten years, Lt. Gov. for two years when he ran for the what was then the West River US Congressional seat. His opponent was a political newcomer from I think Spearfish. Back then Congressional campaigns were run on significantly less money and relied greatly on volunteers.
Anyway, Jim assumed everybody knew him and decided to preserve scarce resources for the general. Well, the end of the story is not everyone knew him and he lost.
Why do I tell this story? I was told by a couple local political old hands Rick Knobe ran the most presumptious election they’d ever seen. He assumed everyone knew him (which made every contact with a voter seem condescending “Do you know who I am?”) and further assumed everyone (except crazy people) agreed with him.