If it was baseball, they’d probably call it “The Conway Curse.”

Ever since popular DFL state Rep. Jerry Schoenfeld resigned from the Legislature to take a job with the state Department of Trade and Economic Development, and Democratic financial adviser Jeff Conway was elected to replace him, and then Conway had to resign from the Legislature after embezzling money from his clients, it hasn’t gone very well for Democrats in Waseca County legislative races.

The losing streak grew to 20 years. The Democrats got beat by Richard Anderson (1990). They got beat and rebeat by Gary Worke (1992 and 1994) and Doug Reuter (1996 and 1998). They made a habit of getting beat by Connie Ruth (2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006.)

Nine swings, nine misses in the legislative district that now stretches from Waseca to Owatonna.

This year, the Democrats finally found their stopper. And it was a rookie who had never run for public office before — Kory Kath, Gustavus Adolphus College political science graduate and Owatonna High School teacher.

Kath is 31 years old, married and the father of two children. But, at least to older folks, he looks young enough to be mistaken for a student at Owatonna High.

He was far from naive, however, about the challenge involved when he was thinking about running for the District 26A House seat. Ruth had decided to retire, so it was going to be an open seat. Still, the GOP had owned Waseca for two decades and the Owatonna portion of the district for even longer.

“I definitely knew the statistics,” Kath said.

He decided to try anyway.

“I’m not easily discouraged.”

Unexpected blow-out

Like lifelong fans of the Chicago Cubs each spring, Democrats in Waseca and Steele counties went into the fall with hope that this year might be different — and with the knowledge that, in the end, “close” is about as good as it gets for their team.

“Even on election night, most of us couldn’t really imagine this,” said Kathy Muellerleile, who ran for the seat in 2004 and 2006 and lost both times. “We thought it could be close. ... Then the results came in and it was just overwhelming.”

Kath won 57 percent of the vote to 43 percent for two-term Owatonna Mayor Tom Kuntz, a lopsided margin in a district that typically votes for Republicans by that margin in everything from presidential to gubernatorial elections.