Election season can now begin in earnest. Tuesday, August 14 was Election Day and also the deadline for candidates to file for offices not on the primary ballot. The races for county commissioner, Supreme Court judges, and U.S. senators and representatives have been narrowed to two candidates for the November election.
Austin and Doo-Kirk advance in commissioner race
County Commissioner District 4 was the only local race that had three candidates still in the running. The Gunflint and Maple Hill precincts cast their votes in this race with the best voter turnout in the county. Gunflint precinct saw 62 percent and Maple Hill 61 percent of its registered voters choosing a candidate.
Garnering the most votes was Heidi Doo-Kirk with 217. She was followed by Rick Austin with 160 votes. The third candidate, Gail Anderson, received 93 votes and will not appear on the November ballot.
County Commissioner District 2 had three candidates listed, however Kelly Swearingen had withdrawn from the race and asked constituents not to vote for her. Despite her request, she received 20 votes.
Incumbent Fritz Sobanja earned 99 votes and challenger Garry Gamble received 76 votes.
Incumbent Cravaack to face DFL-endorsed Nolan
For the U.S. Representative District 8, there was little intrigue for incumbent U.S. Representative Chip Cravaack, who had no Republican challenger.
However, on the Democratic- Farmer-Labor (DFL) side, there was a fierce race between DFLendorsed Richard “Rick” Nolan of Crosby and Tarryl Clark of Ely and Jeff Anderson of Duluth. DFL-endorsed Nolan won the district with 38.94 percent of the vote. Clark was next closest with 32.27 percent and Anderson received 29.39 percent of the vote.
Incumbent Cravaack and Nolan will face off in the November general election.
Following Nolan’s win, DFL Chair Ken Martin released the following statement: “We are glad to see our endorsed candidate Rick Nolan prevail in the primary this evening. All three candidates in this race ran strong campaigns and have contributed greatly to the discussion about why it’s so important that we defeat Chip Cravaack this fall. Now it is time for us to join together as a united party for that purpose. And we will not stop working until we succeed.”
Incumbent Cravaack also issued a statement. Cravaack said, “I spoke with Congressman Nolan earlier this evening to congratulate him on his primary win. I’m looking forward to discussing our different visions for the future of our country and the 8th District during the next 83 days. I look forward to a healthy debate on the issues important to Minnesota and the country.”
Incumbent Klobuchar will face GOP’s Bills
In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent DFL Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minneapolis had several challengers—Jack Edward Shepard, Dick Franson and Darryl Stanton. Klobuchar, the first woman from Minnesota to be elected as U.S. senator, easily won the state with 90.79 percent of the vote.
In the GOP race, Kurt Bills, a first-term state representative and high school teacher from Rosemount, won the primary with 51.12 percent of the vote, defeating David Carlson and Bob Carney Jr.
Klobuchar also claimed an overwhelming majority of the Cook County vote, receiving a total of 933 votes. Her Republican challenger actually tied with one of his opponents in Cook County— Kurt Bills and David Carlson each received 134 votes.
Independence Party candidate Stephen Williams, a farmer from Austin, won the ballot slot for his party with 59.67 percent of the vote.
Judicial candidates advance
In the Chief Justice race, Lorie Skjerven Gildea and Dan Griffith will advance to the November general election. David R. Stras and Tim Tingelstad will advance to the November general election in the associate Supreme court justice race. Stras won 48.83% of the vote and Tingelstad received 29.45 percent.
Ballot full for November election
As voters went to the polls on August 14, the filing period for North Shore Hospital, School District 166 and the Grand Marais City Council ended and there are now candidates in every race.
The Cook County North Shore Hospital board has two members whose terms are coming up for re-election and both incumbents have filed for re-election. They are Kay Olson in District 4 (the Maple Hill/Gunflint Trail district) and Justin Mueller in District 2 (the east Grand Marais district). Another citizen, Lynn Parish, is also running in Hospital District 4 against Kay Olson.
School District 166 also has two board seats up for election. Currently serving in those positions is Leonard Sobanja, District 4 and Terry Collins, District 2. Both men have said they will not run. Last week only Lorrinda “Sissy” Lunde has filed to run in the District 4 race. This week, Ed Bolstad filed to run for the School District 2 seat.
In the city of Grand Marais, up for election are the mayor’s seat and two council positions. The incumbents are Mayor Larry “Bear” Carlson and Councilors Tim Kennedy and Jan Sivertson.
Incumbent Mayor Carlson has filed to run for re-election and this week Adam Harju also filed for mayor. Councilors Kennedy and Sivertson have both filed for reelection.
The general election will be held Tuesday, November 6, 2012.
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