State Senate Picks up a Republican making it 30-5, House loses a (net) Republican making it 59-11

If memory serves me, didn’t we arrange the chairs on the deck similarly last election? Barring any changes in outcome from recounts, which is unlikely except possibly with Liz May’s razor thin loss of 7 votes, looking at the net wins and losses, Republicans simply moved a number from the House to the Senate, picking up a new Senator, while their house numbers suffered a loss of one.

The State Senate now stands at 30-5, with the House at 59-11, giving the GOP comfortable majorities in both chambers.

Republicans added Billie Sutton’s old seat with Republican Rocky Blare defeating long-time Democrat Julie Bartling – who has often been thought to be unbeatable – in the State Senate. Other New Senators include Lee Schoenbeck, VJ Smith, Margaret Sutton, and Lynne DiSanto.

The State House was a bit more chaotic with members coming and going, with unexpected wins, but unexpected losses as well.

In District 1, Republican Tamara St. John outworked and overpowered her Democrat opponents by nearly 500 votes, costing Paul Dennert his return to the legislature. Kaleb Weis won in District 2, Carl Perry won in District 3, and Fred Deutsch returned to his old seat, denying Kathy “Jesus is pro-choice” Tyler a similar return.

Republican Doug Post picked up Democrat Spencer Hawley’s term limited seat in D7 (Brookings), while Michael Clark was punished for controversies earlier this year, giving the win to Democrat Michael Saba.

Sioux Falls continued to be tougher territory for the GOP in the midterm election, with Republican Rex Rolfing losing to Dem Kelly Sullivan in D13, and Republican Tom Holmes losing to Democrat Erin Healy.

In District 18, Republican Max Farver lost to Democrat Ryan Cwach, while Republican Caleb Finck moved across the road to be in District 21, and handily picked up the seat.

In District 25, Republican Jon Hansen handily won in the house, with Representative Tom Pischke hanging on to shut out Democrat Dan Ahlers, booting him out of the legislature once again.

In District 27, Liz May was a somewhat surprising casualty of the night being beaten out by Democrat Peri Pourier after winning in tough territory.

Here’s my list… keep in mind that the House Districts run together…

STATE SENATE RACES						Who Wins?
						R	D
Dist.	Cham.	First	Last	Opponent
1	Senate	Open		Susan Wismer (D)			1
2	Senate	Brock L.	Greenfield	Paul Register (D)		1
3	Senate	Al	Novstrup	Cory Allen Heidelberger (D)		1
4	Senate	John	Wiik	Dennis Evenson (D)		1
5	Senate	Lee	Schoenbeck	Open		1
6	Senate	Ernie	Otten Jr.	Teresa Ann Robbins (D)		1
7	Senate	V. J.	Smth	Mary Perpich (I)		1
8	Senate	Jordan	Youngberg	Scott Parsley (D)		1
8	Senate	Wayne	Steinhauer	Laura Swier Kotelman (D)		1
10	Senate	Margaret	Sutton	Rachel Willson (D)		1
11	Senate	Jim	Stalzer	Kevin Elsing (D)		1
12	Senate	Blake	Curd	Kasey Oliver (D)		1
13	Senate	Jack	Kolbeck	Melissa Hiatt (D)		1
14	Senate	Deb	Soholt	Justyn Hauck (D)		1
15	Senate	Open		Reynold Nesiba (D)			1
16	Senate	Jim	Bolin	Elizabeth Merrigan (D)		1
17	Senate	Arthur	Rusch	Howard Grinager (D)		1
18	Senate	Roger	Meyer	Craig Kennedy (D)			1
19	Senate	Stacey	Nelson	Ardon Wek (D)		1
20	Senate	Joshua	Klumb	Dan Miller (D)		1
21	Senate	Rocky	Blare	Julie Bartling (D)		1
22	Senate	Jim	White	Eric Bliss (D)		1
23	Senate	Justin R.	Cronin	Joe Yracheta (D)		1
24	Senate	Jeff	Monroe	Amanda Bachmann (D)		1
25	Senate	Kris	Langer	Brian Wirth (I), Peter Klebanoff (I)		1
26	Senate	Joel	Koskan	Troy Heinert (D)			1
27	Senate	Bill	Hines	Red Dawn Foster (D)			1
28	Senate	Ryan	Maher	Alli Moran (D)		1
29	Senate	Gary L.	Cammack	Matt Kammerer (D)		1
30	Senate	Lance	Russell	Gideon Oakes (L), Kristine Ina Winter (D)		1
31	Senate	Bob	Ewing	Sherry Bea Smith (D)		1
32	Senate	Alan	Solano	Ayla Rodriguez (D)		1
33	Senate	Phil	Jensen	Ryan A. Ryder (D)		1
34	Senate	Jeff	Partridge	Zach VanWyk (D)		1
35	Senate	Lynne	DiSanto	Pat Cromwell (D)		1
					Totals	30	5

STATE HOUSE RACES

Dist.	Cham.	First	Last	Opponent		R	D
1	House	Tamara	St. John	Paul Dennert		1
1	House	Open		Steven McCleerey			1
2	House	Lana	Greenfield	Jenae Hansen		1
2	House	Kaleb	Weis	Mike McHugh		1
3	House	Drew	Dennert	Justin Roemmick		1
3	House	Carl	Perry	Brooks Briscoe		1
4	House	Fred	Deutsch	Kathy Tyler (D), Daryl Root (L)		1
4	House	John	Mills	Jim Chilson		1
5	House	Hugh	Bartels	Brett Ries		1
5	House	Nancy	York	Diana Hane		1
6	House	Herman	Otten	Kyle Boese		1
6	House	Isaac	Latterell	Nancy Kerstein		1
7	House	Doug	Post	Cory Ann Ellis (I), Zach Kovach (D)		1
7	House	Tim	Reed	Bill Adamson (D)		1
8	House	Marli	Wiese	Chris Francis (D)		1
8	House	Randy	Gross	Jason Unger (D)		1
9	House	Michael	Clark	Michael Saba (D)			1
9	House	Deb	Peters	Toni Miller (D)		1
10	House	Steven	Haugaard	Barbara Saxton (D)		1
10	House	Doug	Barthel	Dean Kurtz (D)		1
11	House	Mark	Willadsen	Margaret Kuipers (D)		1
11	House	Chris	Karr	Sheryl Johnson (D)		1
12	House	Manny	Steele	Kasey Oliver (D)		1
12	House	Arch	Beal	Jeff Hayward (D)		1
13	House	Rex	Rolfing
13	House	Sue	Peterson	Kelly Sullivan (D)		1	1
14	House	Tom	Holmes	Justyn Hauck (D)
14	House	Larry P.	Zikmund	Erin Healy (D)		1	1
15	House	Open		Jamie Smith (D)			1
15	House	Open		Linda Duba (D)			1
16	House	David	Anderson	Chad Skiles (D)		1
16	House	Kevin	Jensen	Mike Steinbrecher (D)		1
17	House	Nancy	Rasmussen	Ray Ring (D) Gregory Baldwin (L)		1	1
17	House	Open		John Gors (D)
18	House	Max	Farver	Ryan Cwach			1
18	House	Jean	Hunhoff	Terry Crandall		1
19	House	Kyle	Schoenfish	Alison Bowers (I), John Koch (D)		1
19	House	Kent	Peterson	Roger Hofer (I)		1
20	House	Lance	Koth	Ione Klinger (D)		1
20	House	Paul	Miskimins	James Schorzmann (D)		1
21	House	Caleb	Finck	Anna Andersson (D)		1
21	House	Lee	Qualm	Faith Spotted Eagle (D)		1
22	House	Bob	Glanzer	Tyler Volesky (D)		1
22	House	Roger	Chase			1
23	House	John	Lake	Eleanor Iverson (D)		1
23	House	Spencer	Gosch	Margaret Walsh (D)		1
24	House	Tim	Rounds	Brian Watterson (D)		1
24	House	Mary	Duvall	Terry Keller (D)		1
25	House	Jon	Hansen	Dan Ahlers (D)		1
25	House	Tom	Pischke	Bj Motley (D)		1
26A	House	Open		Shawn Bordeaux (D)			1
26B	House	Rebecca	Reimer	Debra Smith (D)		1
27	House	Steve	Livermont	Margaret Ross (D)		1
27	House	Elizabeth	May	Peri Pourier (D)			1
28A	House	OPEN		Oren Lesmeister (D)			1
28B	House (B)	J Sam	Marty	Jason Hill (L)		1
29	House	Thomas	Brunner	Jake Addison (D)		1
29	House	Kirk	Chaffee	Michael McManus (D)		1
30	House	Tim	Goodwin	Karen McGregor (D)		1
30	House	Julie	Frye-Mueller	Whitney Raver (D)		1
31	House	Timothy R.	Johns	Wyatt Osthus (D)		1
31	House	Chuck	Turbiville	Naveen Malik (D)		1
32	House	Scyller	Borglum	Bill Knight (D)		1
32	House	Chris	Johnson	Susan Kelts (D)		1
33	House	David	Johnson	Lilias Jarding (D)		1
33	House	Taffy	Howard	Nick Reid (I)		1
34	House	Jess	Olson	Brian Davis (D)		1
34	House	Michael	Diedrich	George Nelson (D)		1
35	House	Tina	Mulally	Bo Sistak (D)		1
35	House	Tony	Randolph	Michael T Hanson (D)		1
					Totals	59	11