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Herseth Sandlin wins re-election
November 4, 2008 | The Associated Press

SIOUX FALLS — Incumbent U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin won re-election Tuesday, defeating Republican Chris Lien, a political newcomer from Rapid City.

The call of Herseth Sandlin’s win was based on an analysis of voter interviews conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.

With 18 percent of the state’s precincts reporting, Herseth Sandlin led Lien 72 percent to 28 percent.

Herseth Sandlin, 37, held a commanding lead in the race, based on a statewide independent poll conducted in mid-October.

This year’s race for South Dakota’s lone House seat didn’t attract nearly as much attention as a couple of Herseth Sandlin’s earlier ones.

She lost to former Gov. Bill Janklow in a competitive race for the state’s open House seat. Then she narrowly defeated her Republican opponent, Larry Diedrich, in 2003 in a special election called after Janklow was convicted of second-degree manslaughter for causing a fatal traffic crash. She received 51 percent to Diedrich’s 49 percent.

She defeated Diedrich again in November 2004 by 53 percent to 46 percent. In 2006, Republican Bruce Whalen lost to Herseth Sandlin 69 percent to 29 percent.

Herseth Sandlin, whose grandfather served as governor of South Dakota from 1959-1961, earned both her undergraduate degree and law degree from Georgetown University in Washington.

She served as a federal clerk for judges in South Dakota and Maryland from 1998-2000, worked as a lawyer in Washington in 2001 and for the South Dakota Farmers Union Foundation in 2003.

Lien, 43, a Rapid City businessman and lawyer, was vice chairman of a task force that helped save Ellsworth Air Force Base from closure in 2005.

His family is involved in Pete Lien & Sons Inc., which mines gravel, sand and limestone and makes concrete and masonry blocks. He was president of the firm’s concrete works before resigning in January to campaign full time.

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