Hennepin County Commissioner Districts 1, 5, 6, 7 (2020)

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twincitizen
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Hennepin County Commissioner Districts 1, 5, 6, 7 (2020)

Postby twincitizen » February 11th, 2020, 7:25 pm

Shaping up to be 3 open seats for these 4 suburban commissioner districts! Everyone but Debbie Goettel is retiring.

We already knew about Jeff Johnson (7) and Jan Callison (6). Mike Opat (1) just announced his retirement. Despite not looking that old, Mike Opat has served since 1993!! If you know any urban-minded folks up in Robbinsdale, Crystal, New Hope, BC/BP, urge them to run!

My guess is that Goettel's race will be largely uncontested, at least not by any serious candidate. There will be healthy competitions in Districts 1 and 6. District 7....well better just hope a less insane Republican wins. I suppose there is an outside chance that a moderate DFLer from Maple Grove or NW Plymouth could win.

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Re: Hennepin County Commissioner Districts 1, 5, 6, 7 (2020)

Postby alexschief » February 12th, 2020, 8:25 am

Opat's retirement is great news for anyone who wants to see the Twin Cities have a transit system that serves the densest parts of the city, instead of a hub-and-spoke-system primarily serving farmland. By all accounts, Opat was a skilled organizer behind the scenes, which makes it all the more depressing that he used that ability to back stadiums and other megaprojects with limited economic benefits.

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Re: Hennepin County Commissioner Districts 1, 5, 6, 7 (2020)

Postby twincitizen » February 21st, 2020, 12:52 pm

Quoting myself from the Bottineau thread:
BP Mayor Jeff Lunde is going to run for Opat's seat on the County Board. Despite his status a member of the Republican party, Lunde is quite popular in Brooklyn Park and I think most people have been happy with his run as mayor. He came around to supporting light rail and would almost certainly make it a huge priority on the county board to continue on with the current alignment and station locations in Brooklyn Park. Lunde will be a formidable candidate in this race...the only way to beat him will be with a candidate who already has name recognition in the area and could get a DFL endorsement. Hopefully one of the current state reps/senators in this district is considering a run (for reasons that extend well beyond Bottineau, obviously)
I didn't want my comments there to be too partisan since that could go OT, but it's germane here. Lunde could be a real threat to the "pro-Minneapolis/anti-Minneapolis" balance on the board. He's not a bats#!t crazy republican, but he's still a member of the party. He's like pro-business moderate republican from a different era. It seems like he's been pro-LRT and reasonably welcoming to BP's large immigrant community, certainly more so than any modern-era Republican. I'm actually kind of surprised he hasn't declared himself an independent by now. But as recently as 2016, he ran for State Senate as a GOP'er (losing to incumbent John Hoffman). In any case, I'd still rather see a Democrat get this seat. It may not have felt like it at times, but Opat was always a DFL, even if anti-Minneapolis in some of his votes. Opat always strongly supported the county safety net, efforts to end homelessness, etc. If you want the Bottineau routing to be reexamined, your best bet is someone other than Lunde, because he supports the current route and stations through BP. If you want a more urban-friendly representative, you definitely want someone other than Lunde. I'm talking about future votes to calm Lyndale, Franklin, Broadway, Lowry, etc.

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Re: Hennepin County Commissioner Districts 1, 5, 6, 7 (2020)

Postby VacantLuxuries » February 21st, 2020, 1:14 pm

The previous vote to give transit funding to road construction even with the current commissioner balance should give anyone pause. If Lunde does get in there and is relatively benign to city and urban issues, whatever. But don't set 'benign' as the bar, and certainly don't go campaigning for it.

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Re: Hennepin County Commissioner Districts 1, 5, 6, 7 (2020)

Postby xandrex » August 18th, 2023, 11:02 am

Chris LaTondresse announced yesterday that he's stepping down as commissioner on September 21. He'll be the CEO of Beacon Interfaith Housing. https://twitter.com/HennepinD6/status/1 ... 5708104895

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Re: Hennepin County Commissioner Districts 1, 5, 6, 7 (2020)

Postby MNdible » August 18th, 2023, 11:07 am

That's fine, we'll just deduct the extra costs of the special election this will require from his paychecks over the next year.

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Re: Hennepin County Commissioner Districts 1, 5, 6, 7 (2020)

Postby twincitizen » August 18th, 2023, 1:20 pm

He seems like a good government guy. But it's pretty lame to run for office and serve only 2.5 years of a 4 year term.

Totally agree on the special election costs being a sour deal for taxpayers. If there ANY funds left in his campaign account, it should come from there first. Since Hennepin County still uses primaries, he didn't resign in time for the special primary to be held last week. It might even be too late now to squeeze the special primary onto the general election ballot for Nov. 7 (special general would then occur in Dec or Jan).

With less than two years left on a term, IMO cities/counties should always appoint a placeholder (many cities do appointments for partial terms, while others have not written an appointment process in their charter and must hold special elections). Super low turnout special elections are bad for reasons that extend beyond just expenses and we should avoid having them where possible.

update: A special election will be held April 9. Candidate filing to open Jan. 30. If a special primary is needed (if more than 2 candidates file) it will be held March 26.


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