Republican Dean Urdahl of Grove City held a slight lead over DFL challenger Dr. David Detert of Litchfield in a rematch for the Minnesota House District 18B race in Tuesday's general election.
With 36 of 37 precincts reporting at 12:30 a.m. today, Urdahl led Detert 52.33 percent to 47.61 percent.
In the 2004 election, Urdahl defeated Detert 55.8 percent to 44.1 percent.
The district covers nearly all of Meeker County and six townships in western Wright County.
Urdahl, 57, is a retired teacher and has served as state representative since 2003.
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Urdahl said he would prefer to win by a landslide, but said he'll take what he gets.
"It was a tough campaign. If we come out of this with 52 percent or so, certainly it's gratifying,'' he said.
Urdahl wondered if national factors, an anti-incumbent mood or voter discontent with issues they felt lawmakers didn't work on hard enough affected the results.
Urdahl said his opponent resorted to negative advertising during the last month of the campaign and "basically distorted my record at little bit. That may have entered in a little bit.''
Urdahl said he will continue to keep trying to serve the people to the best of his ability. What's disappointing, he said, is that he's returning to the minority party. "That will present some challenges,'' he said.
In a campaign interview before the election, Urdahl said he enjoys addressing the concerns of constituents and has authored legislation that has statewide significance but local impact. He said the concerns of constituents were similar to those around the state: health care costs, transportation and job creation.
He said the cost of health care was probably the biggest issue. Last session, lawmakers looked at health savings accounts and insurance pools. Tax deductibility for health care costs could also be considered.
Urdahl said he's interested in a plan being formulated by the American Medical Association.
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Also, he's exploring the option of piloting a regional health maintenance organization in Meeker and nine other counties as a state model, and taking elements of the Massachusetts plan, which uses private insurance, to bring down health care costs.
Urdahl favors maintaining the state's commitment to education, but said the state needs to look at ways to end the funding disparity between urban and rural district.
Detert, 56, is a family practice doctor with Affiliated Community Medical Centers. He said the race was very close. He said the late returns from Wright County were "a little negative for me right now,'' and was hoping to make up the difference. But Detert said he was much happier with his showing this time compared with two years ago because he thought the race would be closer this time.
"I was much happier with our campaign this time,'' Detert said. "I thought that we did a much better job than last time as far as being able to discuss the issues, challenge my opponent's advertising ... I thought we did better this time.''
Detert, in a campaign interview before the election, said the state needs a "frank discussion'' of the issues facing Minnesota. He said the state has been sidetracked with periphery issues and fighting about things that don't affect the welfare of citizens.
Detert said the top issue is the cost of health care. He said the present complicated system should be replaced with a system that's not related to employment.
