Ward defeats Gazelka

John Ward, a retired Brainerd educator, defeated incumbent Paul Gazelka for the House District 12A seat Tuesday.

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With 26 of 27 precincts reporting, Ward had 8,463 votes while Gazelka had 7,043 votes. While the race was close for the House seat, Gazelka called Ward to congratulate him on his win around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.

"I'm truly honored and humbled that voters of District 12A put their trust in me to elect me," said Ward. "Mr. Gazelka and I, I feel, ran a positive campaign. I'm so appreciative of not getting into a negative campaign you saw so much of. I salute him and his efforts on a clean campaign. I'm thankful for his call and just respect the fact that both of us gave it our all and tried our best and unfortunately in politics there's someone who goes on and another who doesn't."

"I was surprised and disappointed," said Gazelka. "I felt like I've done a very good job for the area and the state. I want to congratulate John Ward on his success and I wish him the best."

John Ward, House District 12A DFL candidate, smiled Tuesday night at his election headquarters at the Lodge of Brainerd Lakes in Baxter after the vote tally began to move in his favor. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls » Purchase reprints of this photo.

Gazelka said he wasn't sure of any future political runs, that he planned to go home to bed and "sleep on it for a while."

"I know there's a very wide sweep of Republicans out of office across the state," said Gazelka. "I do think it's related to what goes on federally but that's what it is. That's politics. I feel like I'm an effective legislator and I do feel I fit the district but that's for the voters to decide and tonight they decided that John Ward was who they wanted."

Ward said he told his supporters gathered at The Lodge at Brainerd Lakes in Baxter that they couldn't sleep too late Wednesday since they had more than 700 campaign signs to go pick up.

Al Doty, the Democratic challenger for the House 12B seat, defeated incumbent Greg Blaine Tuesday.

With 51 of 52 precincts reporting, Doty received 8,341 votes and Blaine received 7,740 votes.

JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.