Minnesota State Rep. Gene Pelowski (D-Winona) said Winona State University and higher education in Minnesota will benefit greatly from the Nov. 2 election.

Pelowski, the 10-term champion for education, said bonding bills to renovate Memorial Hall, Pasteur Hall and other university projects are going to get a huge push in the next legislative session.

Minnesota Southeast Technical College also stands to gain funding for construction, he said.

The DFL party gained 13 seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives, bringing the count to 68 Republican and 66 DFL.

“A message has been sent to start putting resources back into higher education,” Pelowski said.

He is calling the 13-seat swing “a rejection of Gov. Pawlenty’s policies.”

Education, health care and the job market are key issues Pelowski said brought Minnesotans out to polling places in record numbers.

“The public has said, ‘It’s time to do what’s best for Minnesota,’” he said.

Despite the huge turn-around for Democrats in Minnesota, Nick Ridge said he isn’t crying.

“We may have lost the battle, but we won the war,” Ridge said, in regards to the national election that kept President George Bush in the White House until 2008.

Republicans are toting the Nov. 2 election as a huge victory as they will now solidly control the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and the presidency.

“The experience was great, we came in and tried our best,” Ridge said. “And we learned a lot along the way.”

As Winona County has many Democratic voters, Ridge said, “I was proud to get more votes than anyone else has ever received against Rep. Pelowski.”

Winona State College Democrats President Ryan Flynn said he was pleased with the overall result of the election.

“Everyone we campaigned for won in our precinct,” Flynn said. “We carried Minnesota and only lost the national election by two (percentage) points.”

Pelowski also said now is the time Democrats should start thinking about taking the Minnesota governor’s office back for their party and suggested Mike Hatch, state attorney general, might be a name to watch for in the campaign against Republican Gov. Pawlenty.

Flynn said Minnesota Democrats should get over Kerry’s loss and start thinking about the 2006 state elections.

Unlike some, Flynn said he feels the party does not need a new message, “it just needs a better messenger.”

Kerry was too slow to react to the Bush campaign’s false accusations, Flynn said.

The national elections favored Republicans more than Minnesota elections did, which left some Winona State Democrats visibly aggravated, walking with heads hung low on Nov. 3, while university Republicans cheered the national victories as mandate of Bush’s first term in office.