Close races
Posted 11/13/02

County Sheriff
Brent Lindgren is the new Mille Lacs County Sheriff. He received 5,872 votes, while his opponent, Mike Mott, received 4,117.
The majority of Mottís votes were from the city of Milaca where Mott is police chief.
Lindgren had strong support in the city of Princeton, Greenbush Township and Princeton Township.
Lindgren said of the campaign, "I put my heart and soul into it and I think thatís what it takes. It was a lot of hard work, and a lot of campaigning."
But he added, "Hard work pays off - itís no different than investigations. We had goals at the beginning of the campaign, we met all our goals, and thatís how I plan to be as sheriff."
Lindgren said of the transition with outgoing sheriff Dennis Boser, "We will be working hand-in-hand from here on out, but Iíll still be doing investigations as well."
Mott said of his opponent and others, "Congratulations and best of luck to the winners in all the races."
County Commissioners
In District 1 (City of Princeton) Dick Satterstrom won receiving 793 votes. Dale Dunham received 616.
In District 2 (Milo, Greenbush and Princeton townships and the cities of Pease and Foreston) Roger Neske received 1,067 votes, while Dave Tellinghuisen received 1,060.
The Times reported in last weekís issue that it would be an automatic recount for District 2, but county auditor/treasurer Phil Thompson said that a recount has to be requested by Tellinghuisen.
As of Tuesday morning, Nov. 12, a request for a recount had not been made to the auditor/treasurers office.
Neske received the majority of his votes from Princeton Township, while Tellinghuisen received a large number of votes in Milo Township.
Moments after the final ballots were tallied, Neske said, "I didnít think it would be that close. It was a hard fought campaign. I knocked on 90 percent of the doors and I think thatís what paid off."
Neske also said he went back to some residences the Saturday before the election and found more people were home on Saturday than during the week. He believes the extra effort helped him win the election.
The new commissioner for District 3 (Page and Milaca townships and the City of Milaca) is Phil Peterson who received 1,327 votes to Dick Knollís 526.
Peterson said of his victory, "Itís pretty humbling that people would turn out and vote. Iím glad some of the veterans are there. The information they have is valuable. Iím not going to go into this thinking Iíve got all the answers."
Peterson said itís a big responsibility, but he added that he feels he can handle it.
Knoll told the Times he had no comment regarding the election results.
District 4 (Bradbury, Onamia, Lewis, Dailey, Mudgett, Hayland, Borgholm and Bogus Brook townships and the cities of Bock and Onamia) will be represented by Bob Hoefert who topped Stub Strelow by 192 votes, 1,065-873.
Hoefert said, "I appreciate the support I got. Itís tough getting half of a new district."
When asked about the county boardís work over the next few years, Hoefert said, "Our budget pretty well fixes our agenda, and zoning ordinances so we can grow with some sense."
Strelow said of the race, "It went good. I met a lot of new people down there. He [Hoefert] was a good adversary. Iím glad I did it."
In District 5, Frank Courteau won out over Bob Szrot, 1,495 - 601.
The only precinct in which Szrot had more votes than Courteau was Kathio Township.
Courteau said, "Iím humbled and very grateful for the overwhelming demonstration of support and confidence expressed by the voters. Clearly, the voters spoke loudly and clearly."
Szrot said of the election, "Iím really happy with the voter turnout. This is the one way Americans can help define who they are as people, as individuals, and also what their community is going to be like in the world and also in the history books. Iím really glad to see that I got the amount of support that I did, that people wanted to share a vision for the future of cooperation and consciousness."
Szrot also said he really enjoyed talking with some of the young voters and the seniors.