Gas tax increase

I think having business supporting the gas tax had an impact, especially on the suburban House Republicans who "crossed" the party line.

I don't think it is surprising that four of the six are suburban legislators in areas that had long been Republican strongholds. Polls and surveys have been showing many of the suburbs, especially those inside the 494/694 beltway, are becoming more like the inner city in demographics, thus more Democratic leaning.

Mt. Lake House Republican Rod Hamilton has Highway 60 running through his district. MnDOT has been working almost 25 years to make that road four-lane west of St. James to Worthington and there are still several miles to finish. Iowa, on the other hand, has been moving much more quickly to turn its section of Hwy. 60 from the Minnesota border to Le Mars into four-lane. It now bypasses Sheldon, where I lived in the early 1980s. So that might have impacted his vote.

The other rural Republican is from Freeport, just west of St. Cloud, and probably saw firsthand the growing need for transportation spending in that booming area.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)