Redistricting forces Dornink to move

Sen. Gene Dornink didn’t waste any time in making a decision to move his residence in order to continue, if re-elected this fall, serving in the district he has for the past year.
On the day a special judicial panel ordered new boundaries for all legislative districts, also known as redistricting, Dornink told the Steele County Times he is moving to a residence he currently owns near the ethanol plant by Glenville in Freeborn County. That move would put him in the center on the south end of the new district.
Dornink being redistricted out wasn’t the only major change after last week’s redistricting boundaries were announced. Steele County will now be cut in half basically in the middle of the county with two Senate districts and three House districts.
“I had a hunch they would be doing this,” Dornink said of the redistricting, which moved his current residence in Dodge County into a new district with Olmsted County. “If you’re close to a line, the chances are you will be paired up differently.”
Since January 2021, Dornink has served District 27, which includes most of Freeborn and Mower counties, along with the City of Blooming Prairie and a sliver of Dodge County. Dornink has lived outside of Hayfield where he built a house in 2000.
District 27 will now become District 23 and take over a larger portion of Steele County basically in a line just south of Highway 14 and will include both the cities of Blooming Prairie and Ellendale. The new district will also extend into the southern half of Waseca County, including New Richland and Waldorf, and the eastern half of Faribault County.
“Two-thirds of the district is the same,” Dornink said, noting the new district will serve more rural communities and pick up about 5,500 additional voters. “The district has changed and we will readjust.”
All of Dodge County will become District 24 and be paired up with mostly the rural areas of Olmsted County.
Dornink will have to move to his new place by May when filings open for this fall’s election. However, he’s not letting the pending move faze him. “I haven’t spent a lot of time worrying about it,” he said.
Besides serving in the Senate, Dornink is a carpenter who focuses on buying and selling homes. “I buy distressed properties and make them affordable homes,” he said, adding that’s exactly what he did with the home he plans to move into by Glenville.
Dornink, who grew up on a dairy farm in Fillmore County, has worked in construction for most of his life. He was first elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2020. And he has no plans to stop serving.
“I just got started and I want to continue,” Dornink said. He added he definitely wants to serve at least four more years.
In other redistricting news, Sen. John Jasinski, R-Faribault, will continue to serve the northern half of Steele County, including Medford and Owatonna. His district will become known as District 19 instead of District 24. The new district does not extend into Dodge County and picks up some of the rural areas of Waseca County.
Jasinski said he is mostly pleased with the way the redistricting boundaries came out. “I couldn’t have drawn them any better,” he said, adding his only regret is that he didn’t end up with Blooming Prairie.
The legislative district currently served by Rep. John Petersburg, R-Waseca, will remain mostly unchanged, though the City of Medford and Medford Township in Steele County have been added to what will now become District 19B. He also picked up Havana and Merton townships in Steele County as well as St. Mary’s Township in Waseca County. He lost Lemond Township in Steele County and Blooming Grove Township in Waseca County.While Petersburg lives on the edge of the district, he is relieved that he survived from going into a completely different district. “This keeps me in line with most of the people I have represented,” he said. “It’s a good fit.”
Petersburg has been serving in the House since 2012.
Blooming Prairie will be getting a new state representative as the House district boundary will now become included with Mower County as District 23B, instead of Freeborn County. Rep. Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, has served the City of Blooming Prairie for several years, but she will not be in the new district. Rep. Patty Mueller, R-Austin, currently serves Mower County.
If Bennett is re-elected this fall, she wouldn’t serve Blooming Prairie, but rather a larger portion of Steele County, including Ellendale, under District 23A.
Pam Seaser, co-chair of the Steele County Republican Party, said with the new Senate and House districts extending over the southern half of Steele County, residents in that area will now be funneled to the endorsing convention in Freeborn County on March 27. Those residents include Blooming Prairie, Ellendale and the surrounding rural townships.
Seaser said the endorsing convention for the northern half of Steele County has not yet been set, though the county convention is on for March 12.
“It’s not the worst for us, but it’s new that they have cut Steele County in half,” Seaser said of the redistricting. “It will be a learning curve for southern Steele County.”
Along with the upcoming conventions, Seaser said the real fun begins with campaigning and getting used to the new district numbers. “It’s a really big deal with campaign signs,” she said, adding it’s a large expense to convert everything over.