Northland voters threw party endorsements to the wayside Tuesday, picking candidates not chosen by delegates at party conventions.

Only voters in the Independence Party stayed true, picking Roger Skraba, an Ely businessman, to be their representative in the Minnesota House District 6A race.

House District 6A DFL voters picked David Dill, Orr's city administrator, over the party's endorsed candidate Bill Hansen of Tofte. Dill won the party's spot on the November ticket by a 454-vote margin in preliminary results.

By a 2-to-1 margin, DFLers picked Rep. Tom Bakk of Cook in the District 6 Senate race over DFL-endorsed candidate Bruce Lotti, a labor president from Duluth Township.

Republicans in House District 7A selected Duluth School Board Member Harry Welty over GOP favorite Al Johnson by a 39-vote margin.

In statewide races for auditor and U.S. Senate, DFL and Green Party voters, respectively, shunned their endorsed candidates as well.

The results of Tuesday's primaries were further proof party caucuses appeal only to those on the party's philosophical fringes, said Sen. Doug Johnson, DFL-Tower. "The mainstream voters do not go to party caucuses anymore," he said.

But party faithful said Tuesday's results didn't support Doug Johnson's position.

"I still think the endorsing process is very important," said George Sundstrom, a District 6 voter and longtime DFLer.

Party financial support often gives endorsed candidates the opportunity to wage a real campaign, especially against well-heeled opponents who can invest a lot of personal money or who might have special interest backing, Sundstrom said.

Those who nabbed ballot spots over those endorsed by the party said party leaders should see Tuesday's vote as a populist mandate and a clear signal to refocus on the political center.

Dill, who won only one delegate vote at the DFL's endorsing convention in Two Harbors in June, said he was humbled and honored by Tuesday's results.

"I think this vote for Bakk and I gets our DFL headlights back on the road," Dill said.

Pitching a "big tent" philosophy, Dill said he had already talked with Hansen about unifying the party for November.

"What we need to do is put up a tent, invite all the people in, organize the community's agenda and figure out how we are going to put wheels on it," he said.

Bakk said the voters' response was a clear indication that they see value in experience and understand the importance of the work Northland lawmakers do in St. Paul. The caucus system has disenfranchised the mainstream voters, he said.

"But the mainstream voter understands that experience is important and that's what played out here Tuesday," Bakk said.

Welty, a self-described social moderate and fiscal conservative, said his GOP victory is further evidence voters are looking for a return to the political middle.

"Both major political parties took it on the chin big-time," Welty said. "And I'm bound and determined to help pull the Republican Party back to the center of the political spectrum."

His GOP-endorsed opponent Al Johnson said he never saw the party endorsement as a guarantee he would win the primary.

"I didn't look at it as a gift from the Republican Party but more as the backing of the party," Johnson said.

The endorsement gave him, a first-time candidate, significant clout against a seasoned political veteran who has run in numerous elections, Al Johnson said.

"So, I don't see the endorsements as meaningless at all," he said. "I was a young, unknown candidate who was 39 votes from winning the primary -- how can I be upset with that?"