This is a relatively easy one because there’s an incumbent and then four candidates who range from “meh” to “under no circumstances ever.”

Running for this seat:

Rebecca Noecker (incumbent)
Sharon Anderson
Lindsey Ferris Martin
Bill Hosko
Helen Meyers (link just goes to The Militant, not an actual site for Helen Meyers.)

Rebecca Noecker 

Rebecca Noecker was new last time. I have mixed feelings about her. I wrote out my whole explanation for my mixed feelings and then deleted it because most of what I’m pissed off about wasn’t actually her fault. Anyway, she’s reasonably competent and conscientious and has gotten a number of valuable things done, both large and small. On the large-accomplishments side she was a proponent of Earned Sick & Safe Time and of the $15 city minimum wage. On the small-but-meaningful end she passed a resolution requiring city buildings to install gender-neutral restrooms, and an ordinance banning pet stores from selling cats and dogs (they can still host adoption events).

Sharon Anderson

Sharon is the sort of Trump supporter that even other Trump supporters tend to edge away from slowly. Her website is filled with incoherent rants. Last time around she was ranting about “Muslins.” (Her spelling.) When I checked it out this time I ran across an OPEN LETTER TO REBECCA NOECKER that didn’t appear to have a link associated with it (I’d have hesitated to click anyway, I’m always worried her site will give me a computer virus) but included the summary “Rebecca of Jewish Heritage, must either Resign from City Council or Recind DFL Endorsements and Money.”

Do not vote for Sharon Anderson, not even as a joke.

Lindsey Ferris Martin

Lindsey Ferris Martin’s website is remarkably uninformative; it’s basically a collection of pictures (mostly of her) with text saying “I could use your help in letting our neighbors know they have a strong option for their next City Council Ward 2 Representative on Election Day (November 5th). Rank choice voting number 1” but no explanation of why you might vote for her vs. any of the other candidates. She has signs, literature, and she’s put a lot of work into this campaign but just about the only thing she tells you about herself is that she’s endorsed by the Veteran’s Party of Minnesota, which I’d never heard of but which per their website appears to be a bunch of anti-immigrant global warming denialists who don’t believe in separation of Church and State. This leaflet (which you can only partially see in the photo, and which she doesn’t appear to have put on her website) is the closest thing to a platform she seems to have.

Seriously, why go out doorknocking if you can’t be bothered to spend two hours setting up a useful website? I would not recommend voting for Lindsey even if she were not endorsed by a hair-raisingly conservative group.

Bill Hosko

Bill Hosko ran four years ago on an anti-parking-meter (and not much else) platform. This time he’s marshaled a few more issues to talk about: he thinks St. Paul should hold referendums a whole lot more often, including for every property tax increase and change to city services. He wants the Green Line to have turnstiles to prevent people from riding without buying a ticket (I have no idea where to even look to assess what that would cost. A whole shit ton of money, orders of magnitude more than we lose in fares people don’t pay, as a rough estimate.) He wants to redecorate the City Council meeting chamber (so that they line up and face the citizens, like Minneapolis does, instead of sitting in a horseshoe shape) and he wants fireworks on the 4th of July.

I love people who are like “taxes are way too high AND ALSO we should spend a lot of public money setting off decorative explosives.” (This is not an entirely contradictory attitude but the stuff he wants to get rid of is not actually going to pay for all the stuff he wants to do.)

Helen Meyers

I assume from the fact that Helen Meyers linked to The Militant in lieu of any sort of useful, candidacy-specific website, that she’s a Socialist. When I looked her up in the PiPress newsbank (note: that’s a link to the St. Paul Public library and you can log in to read it with a library card) I found out she was a union organizer and has several arrests for civil disobedience. (Also, some of the other candidates have genuinely hair-raising convictions, holy crap.)

I’d vote in the following order:

1. Rebecca Noecker
2. Bill Hosko
3. Helen Meyers
4. Write In: my friend Catherine who lives in the Ward.

If you really, really loathe Rebecca Noecker, vote Bill Hosko first, Helen Meyers second (I guess), Rebecca Noecker third. Do not vote for Sharon Anderson, ever, for anything (link leads to 1994 newspaper article in the library database about her winning the statewide primary for Attorney General. She was the Republican candidate that year.)

If you’re finding these useful and would like to make sure I know how much you value my work to help keep me motivated, I have two options for you this year. I have a novel coming out in November, CATFISHING ON CATNET, which you can pre-order. Also, you may remember that last year I linked people to a couple of fundraisers on DonorsChoose for Minneapolis teachers — there was one, in particular, who was raising money to take fifth-grade students at Green Central Park School to Wolf Ridge Environmental Center. My readers really came through for her, and her students were able to make the trip, which is amazing. She has another class of fifth graders, and is fundraising again for another trip. It would make me very happy if my readers supported this project.