Published: Wednesday, November 7, 2012 12:06 AM CST

In the race for South Dakota state Senate, Republican Sen. Jean Hunhoff was on her way to re-election over Democrat David Allen Tuesday night.

At press time, absentee ballots had yet to be counted.

In the South Dakota House race, incumbent Democrat Rep. Bernie Hunhoff was ahead with Republican Mike Stevens leading for the second seat. Hunhoff and Stevens were defeating other candidates, Democrat Charlie Gross, who is a college educator and has served for 18 years on the Yankton City Commission and Thomas Stotz, who is a chiropractic physician.

Jean Hunhoff had 3,844 votes, compared to Allen’s 2,009.

In the House race, Bernie Hunhoff had 3,433 votes compared to Stevens’ 2,748. Stotz tallied 2,304 votes and Gross had 2,172.

Absentee ballots had yet to be counted as of press time Tuesday night.

Two-term Republican Rep. Nick Moser decided not to seek re-election this year.

Bernie Hunhoff has served six years as state senator, from 1993 until 1998, and has also served for the past four years as a state representative. He is also currently serving as the House minority leader.

“It’s gratifying to be re-elected knowing we have had a lot of controversial issues to deal with over the past few years,” he said of his tentative win. “The support in District 18 really means a lot. In terms of policy, voters generally agreed with us on a lot of the bills, this gives us a lot of leverage to compromise with the Republican party.”

Jean Hunhoff also thanked the people of Yankton County for their apparent support.

“I’m very humbled and very excited to get back to Pierre and to work for the people of Yankton County,” she said. “When I was listening to people talk and hearing people in the forums, they have said that education funding and healthcare funding have been the main issues they have had. The people are telling us we need to do something different, and we will work towards that. I’m here working for the people of this district, and I’m going to take my passion and energy to work to meet the needs of the people here.”

Mike Stevens could not be reached by press time.

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