In his second campaign and first win, Herb Cox will be representing the Battlefords in Regina after defeating long-time politician Len Taylor Monday.
The Saskatchewan Party election rooms on 100th Street were crowded with supporters as the polls began reporting in, indicating from the beginning a positive response to the campaign run by Cox and his volunteers.
Premier Brad Wall, visiting the Battlefords recently, said he hoped voters would get out to the polls as he expected a close race between the Saskatchewan Party and NDP. As it turned out, the unofficial results echoed the provincial landslide, with 3,489 votes for Cox, more 1,000 beyond second place Taylor's tally.
Less than an hour after the polls were closed, Linda Cox, wife of the candidate, was being hailed as the wife of the new MLA for the Battlefords. How did it feel, she was asked.
"Pretty good so far," she laughed as she compared the incoming counts, poll by poll, with the committee's projections.
In his victory remarks to those gathered at the committee rooms, Cox said if felt a lot different that night than election night four years ago. In that battle, he lost in a close race, only 300 votes behind his opponent Taylor.
A real estate agent in the Battlefords since 1974, Cox was a campaign manager for the Saskatchewan Party in the 2003 vote before becoming the Saskatchewan Party's candidate in the Battlefords in the 2007 provincial election.
He won the party's nomination again in the spring of 2010.
Pleased with this election's overwhelming wins across the province, Cox said, "It was a very well-costed campaign," said Cox. "It wasn't a flamboyant campaign; it is something that can be achieved without putting this province into debt as the other guys were talking about doing, and I think that was a big part of election victory tonight for our party."
In the Battlefords, Cox credited his campaign team with making the local Saskatchewan Party win possible.
"This was a 'we' effort," he said. "So many people put in so many hours and there's no way we could have done it without you and we appreciate every single person, whether you came in here and pulled one night, or if you were in here for ten nights, you're all very important."
He said there's been a huge team in the office that day phoning.
"And that, folks," he said, "is what won the election for us. Fifty per cent of it was the work that was done up to today, and 50 per cent of it was the work that was done today. Identifying our vote, getting our vote out, phoning them, and they did show up for us. And that's due to your work."
Among those he thanked were his campaign manager Gregg Sheppard, business manager Al White and finance chair Dennis Cann.
In an emotional message, Cox thanked his immediate and extended family, some of whom came from Manitoba to be with him on election night.
"Family is everything," said the man who, earlier that evening, had phoned his mother to share his win with her (along the news that NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter had lost his race).
To his wife Linda, he said, "You've been an inspiration to me."
He also mentioned she "kicked his butt" when he needed it.
