In a 2022 state Senate contest, DFLer Judy Seeberger beat Republican Tom Dippel by a grand total of 321 votes. 

Dippel was subsequently elected to the Minnesota House in 2024 and is again challenging Seeberger this year. He hopes voters in Cottage Grove, Hastings and other District 41 communities will blame rising prices on the DFL Party and vote for him. 

“People made a different choice at that time and now they have higher property taxes, car tab fees and food prices,” Dippel said in an interview at Lion’s Park in Hastings. 

Seeberger, meanwhile, faults Trump administration policies like the U.S. invasion of Iran and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for higher gas and health care costs. 

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This finger pointing is to be expected. 

Less predictable is Dippel’s penchant for Cybertrucks and Seeberger’s disdain for the Tesla-made electric utility vehicle. So is Dippel’s deference to constituents’ time when he is door-knocking and Seeberger’s burning passion for revising insurance litigation statutes. 

And maybe sort of anticipated is Seeberger’s lack of commitment to banning assault weapons. 

Here is a look at the issues that will shape Seeberger-Dippel Part II, one of a handful of races that will determine which party holds the majority in the Minnesota Senate.

Should a car tab be a flat fee or based on vehicle type?

Republicans have pounced on the fact that, thanks to a bill passed by the DFL-controlled Legislature in 2023, Minnesotans began to pay more to get that little sticker on their license plate. 

For years, motorists paid 1.285% of the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for a tab, but gradually less when registering the same vehicle in subsequent years. 

Then, the car tab price jumped to 1.575% MSRP, which also ratcheted up the cost of annual re-registration. 

So, the new owner of a 2025 Toyota Camry with a $30,000 MSRP paid $483.75 instead of the prior $396.75 for their sticker. This example includes an additional $11.25 in fees tacked on, but does not include the $10-$20 “wheelage tax” depending on the county. 

As part of a larger budget agreement that legislators and Gov. Tim Walz struck in May, tab fees reverted for one year to 1.285% MSRP for a new car. 

Dippel wants to end assessing fees based on MSRP percentages. He proposes a universal flat fee of just under $100, an idea also put forth by House Speaker Lisa Demuth, the Republican nominee for governor. 

But this would also make car tabs more expensive for Minnesotans with modest vehicles. Like me. I recently paid $64.25 to register my 2017 Honda Civic, and $20 of that was Hennepin County’s wheelage tax. 

It would, though, benefit Dippel.

The state lawmaker drove up to our interview in a Tesla Cybertruck, which he said he bought a year-and-a-half earlier. 

The MSRP of a Cybertruck starts at $70,000, which means Dippel had to pay over $1,000 to register his vehicle last year. 

Meanwhile, Seeberger wants to tear up the current tab fees and set up a new formula that includes the weight of a vehicle.

“I mean, look at things like Cybertrucks,” she said in an interview at a Lake Elmo coffee shop. “Those are the things that cause the most damage. Those are the things that are tearing up our roads and polluting with their tire residue.”

Seeberger demurred when I asked if she was using the heavy, though energy efficient, Cybertruck as an example because she knew Dippel drove one. 

Dippel cheerfully discussed Cybertruck’s advantages. 

“It is the best car that I think I have ever owned,” he said. “It just has so many different features that you wouldn’t really even think of that just makes it really comfortable. It’s very safe. It’s very ergonomic.”

Finding people who vote

Dippel gamely let me shadow him as he went door knocking on single-family homes near Lion’s Park. 

He even brought along his wife, Carrie Dippel, and their six children, who drove up in another Tesla. Combined with a campaign staffer, a photographer, and a fellow MinnPost reporter, we ended up forming a group of a dozen people that began descending on residents’ front lawns. 

The Republican candidate showed sensitivity to how this could be intrusive, stating, “I’ll let you get back to it” to more than one person who came to their door or sat out on their deck. 

Armada aside, Dippel took a cautious approach to door knocking. He only went to homes occupied by people who had voted before. 

“Fifty percent of people don’t even vote,” Dippel said. “And so we’re trying to find people that are engaged.”

“That’s OK, though. People are busy. They’re doing stuff. And I don’t blame most people for not wanting to talk about politics.”

Dippel even seemed a bit self-conscious about talking politics for so long with this politics and government reporter. 

At the end of our time together, he asked if I wanted a hug after an hour of political talk. We departed with a bro hug. 

The future of an assault weapons ban

In both committee and on the full Senate floor, Seeberger joined her caucus in voting to ban assault weapons, even while she called the bill flawed. 

As high-profile as those votes were, they were ultimately symbolic. House Republicans led by Demuth pledged to stop any such bill from becoming law.

Those Republicans include Dippel, who called the package of gun control and school safety measures that passed the Senate “a complete overreach” that would have “turned everyday Minnesotans into criminals.”

But what if the DFL controlled the House, Senate and governor’s office and Minnesota actually could become the 13th state to ban assault weapons? What would Seeberger do?

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She would need to be comfortable with the bill’s exact language, she said, and would hear from both gun-control groups like Moms Demand Action and pro gun outfits like the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.

The lawmaker, who sometimes has a gun on her at the Capitol, is frustrated that members of her caucus who are unfamiliar with guns write gun-control bills.

“I do think if you are going to legislate on a topic that you should inform yourself on that topic,” she said. “I would love to go out shooting with a bunch of my colleagues and have them hold and handle a firearm and understand just how safe it can be handled.”

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Dippel runs a laboratory in Newport that assists dental clinics. Seeberger is a paramedic for the Lower St. Croix Fire Department and works for Allina Health’s 911 ambulance system. 

Seeberger said she loves the work but just turned 57 and that it’s “getting harder and harder to lift and carry people.”

If Seeberger takes on a less physically demanding job, it would not be her first career change. The lawmaker worked as a middle school English teacher and spent years as a civil defense lawyer specializing in insurance liability cases. 

Often when state lawmakers build seniority they develop a specialty. For example, outgoing Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, learned early on that she could make a difference by focusing on tax policy. 

Seeberger, who served as vice chair of the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, said she loves digging in on insurance regulations.

Indeed, Seeberger energetically discussed the subject during an uncomfortably hot late morning outside Sunshine Coffee. Among her ideas is to end a law that keeps confidential whether the plaintiff in a car injury lawsuit was wearing their seatbelt.

“It stems from the 1960s when seatbelts were brand new,” Seeberger said, and can result in larger than deserved payouts for auto accident victims, driving up insurance rates in the process.

Seeberger would also like to see plaintiff’s attorneys have to disclose what outside parties are funding their lawsuits. 

However esoteric one may find them, these policy ideas put Seeberger squarely against her own political party, which is closely aligned with plaintiff attorneys. Seeberger’s main talking point in our conversation was her commitment to bipartisanship. 

“What I heard in 2022 is what I hear a lot today: people are sick of the partisanship,” she said.

The post Car tabs, Cybertrucks and guns: How a rematch in an east metro district could determine control of the Minnesota Senate appeared first on MinnPost.

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