This is the St. Paul congressional seat currently held by Betty McCollum. The tl;dr is that I think you should vote for Betty McCollum.
On the ballot:
Betty McCollum (DFL)
Gene Rechtzigel (Republican)
Susan Sindt (Grassroots – Legalize Cannabis)
This is the St. Paul congressional seat currently held by Betty McCollum. The tl;dr is that I think you should vote for Betty McCollum.
On the ballot:
Betty McCollum (DFL)
Gene Rechtzigel (Republican)
Susan Sindt (Grassroots – Legalize Cannabis)
If you’re feeling like you just voted for Tina Smith, that’s because in 2018 she was on the ballot to finish out the two remaining years of Al Franken’s term. This year she’s on the ballot for a whole six-year term.
On ballots statewide:
Tina Smith (DFL)
Jason Lewis (Republican)
Oliver Steinberg (Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis)
Kevin O’Connor (Legal Marijuana Now)
For extra fun and confusion while researching this particular race, I discovered that there is a Kevin O’Connor running for US Senate in the Republican Primary in Massachusetts, and there is a Senator Jason Lewis — a Democrat — in the Massachusetts State Senate. “Not the same guy” is super duper obvious with the other Jason Lewis but I was temporarily thrown by Kevin O’Connor because, for one thing, we had a Texan running against Tina in the primary so “but he isn’t from here?” isn’t the obvious answer you might think.
The candidate lists are up on the Minnesota Secretary of State site, and here are the contested national, statewide, and metro-area races plus the Minneapolis ballot questions, which unfortunately are not going to involve policing. (Fuck the charter commission.)
I’m not planning to write about all the legislative races because there are 36 of them, most are only barely contested, and for fuck’s sake, people, it tells you on the ballot which one’s the Democrat! Just vote for the Democrat! (There is one Green running, I’ll try to do that race. There are also a few races with candidates from the two (two!) Yay Weed parties. You’ll get my rant on that at the end.)
I’m going to try to get these done a lot earlier than I did with the primary races, because I know a lot of people are planning to vote early. (As happened with the primary races, this plan may get pre-empted by edits arriving from my publisher.)
The Presidential ballot is not actually available yet on the My Ballot site — I assume because there isn’t officially a Republican candidate yet (and possibly because whether Kanye gets on our ballot is still up in the air). I’ll write about it at some point, mostly just because researching all the weirdos like Kanye is entertaining. But, that’s why I’m not listing that race on this post.
US Senate
Tina Smith (DFL)
Jason Lewis (GOP)
Oliver Steinberg (WEED)
Kevin O’Connor (WEED)
US House – District 4
Betty McCollum (DFL)
Gene Rechtzigel (GOP)
Susan Sindt (WEED)
US House – District 5
Ilhan Omar (DFL)
Lacy Johnson (GOP)
Michael Moore (WEED)
Minneapolis: City Question 1
Redistricting of Wards and Park Districts
Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to allow ward and park district boundaries to be reestablished in a year ending in 1 and to allow the use of those new boundaries for elections in that same year; to allow ward and park district boundaries to be modified after the legislature has been redistricted to establish City precinct boundaries; to provide that an election for a Council Member office required by Minnesota law in a year ending in 2 or 3 after a redistricting shall be for a single 2-year term; and to clarify that a regular election means a regular general election?
Minneapolis: City Question 2
Special Municipal Elections
Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to comply with Minnesota election law related to uniform dates for special municipal elections and to provide that a special election be held on a legal election day under Minnesota law that is more than 90 days from a vacancy in the office of Mayor or Council Member?
Minneapolis School Board At-Large
Michael Dueñes
Kim Ellison
Minneapolis School Board District 2
KerryJo Felder (Incumbent)
Sharon El-Amin
Minneapolis School Board District 4
Adriana Cerrillo
Christa Mims
Saint Paul School Board
Jamila Mame
Jim Vue
James Farnsworth
Keith Hardy
Omar Syed
Charlotte “Charlie” Castro
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (Statewide)
Paul Thissen
Michelle MacDonald
2nd District (Ramsey County) Court 8
STATE LEGISLATURE
Senate District 59
Bobby Joe Champion (DFL)
Paul Anderson (GOP)
House District 59A
Fue Lee (DFL)
Marcus Harcus (WEED)
House District 59B
Esther Agbaje (DFL)
Alan Shilepsky (GOP)
Lisa Neal-Delgado (GREEN)
Senate District 60
Kari Dziedzic (DFL)
Mary Holmberg (GOP)
House District 60A
Sydney Jordan (DFL)
John Holmberg (GOP)
Calvin Lee Carpenter (Veteran’s Party of America)
House District 60B
Mohammed Noor (DFL) (Unopposed)
Senate District 61
Scott Dibble (DFL)
Jennifer Zielinski (GOP)
House District 61A
Frank Hornstein (DFL)
Kurtis Fechtmeyer (GOP)
House District 61B
Jamie Long (DFL)
Lisa Pohlman (GOP)
Senate District 62
Omar Fateh (DFL)
Bruce Lundeen (GOP)
House District 62A
Hodan Hassan (DFL)
Arjun Kataria (GOP)
House District 62B
Aisha Gomez (DFL)
Ross Tenneson (GOP)
Senate District 63
Patricia Torres Ray (DFL)
Diane Napper (GOP)
Chris Wright (WEED)
House District 63A
Jim Davnie (DFL)
Penny Arcos (GOP)
David Wiester (WEED)
House District 63B
Emma Greenman (DFL)
Frank Pafko (GOP)
Dennis Schuller (WEED)
Senate District 64
Erin Murphy (DFL)
Sharon Anderson (GOP)
Patricia Jirovec McArdell (WEED)
House District 64A
Kaohly Her (DFL)
Sherry Schack (GOP)
House District 64B
Dave Pinto (DFL)
Georgia Dietz (GOP)
Senate District 65
Sandra Pappas (DFL)
Paul Holmgren (GOP)
House District 65A
Rena Moran (DFL)
Amy Anderson (GOP)
House District 65B
Carlos Mariani (DFL)
Margaret Mary Stokely (GOP)
Senate District 66
John Marty (DFL)
Greg Copeland (GOP)
House District 66A
Alice Hausman (DFL)
Brett Rose (GOP)
House District 66B
Athena Hollins (DFL)
Mikki Murray (GOP)
Senate District 67
Foung Hawj (DFL)
Alexander Deputie (GOP)
House District 67A
John Thompson (DFL)
John Stromenger (GOP)
House District 67B
Jay Xiong (DFL)
Fred Turk (GOP)
Regarding the YAY WEED parties:
There are two weed parties, the “Grassroots – Legalize Cannabis” and the “Legal Marijuana Now” parties. They are, under state law, “Major” parties in the State of Minnesota. Would you believe that as of August 23rd, neither one has a working website?
There are, I am sure, differences between the two parties — for example, the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis party is at least willing to acknowledge that if marijuana legalization is actually something they care about, they should be concerned about the obvious Republicans hopping onto tickets in swing Senate districts to try to swing the race to the Republicans, since if the DFL has a pretty goddamn great marijuana legalization bill in the House and what’s going to keep that from becoming state law is the CURRENT REPUBLICAN CONTROL OF THE STATE SENATE. Also, the Legal Marijuana Party has a candidate whose slogan includes the phrase “No Whores.”
But, fundamentally, the complete inability of both of these two “major parties” to so much as have a functioning website for their party and their candidates makes me want to note, for the record, that they are both embodying every stereotype of the stoners I remember from high school.
Dear organizers for the “Legal Marijuana Now” party and the “Grassroots – Legalize Cannabis” party: the State of Minnesota may be required by state law to engage in the pretense that you are “major” parties, but I am not.
And hey, for everyone else who’s read to the bottom:
I took the time to look over on Donors Choose for some Minneapolis public school teachers who could use some financial help during These Difficult Times and in particularly with distance learning. I’ve got three small projects, and one big project, to point everyone to.
(I don’t have a patreon or a ko-fi but I take a lot of satisfaction from seeing projects fund after I point people at them. Please donate!)
MINNEAPOLIS WARD 6 CITY COUNCIL (NOT A PRIMARY)
MINNEAPOLIS SCHOOL BOARD
At-Large — Michael Dueñes
District 4 — Adriana Cerillo but possibly Mims in the general, undecided
US SENATE
Tina Smith, but if you want a further-to-the-left option in the primary you can vote for Paula Overby. If you’re voting in the Republican party primary for some reason, totally vote for Bob “Again” Carney.
US HOUSE
CD 4 — Betty McCollum
CD 5 — Ilhan Omar
MN SENATE
59 — Bobby Joe Champion
62 — Omar Fateh
65 — Laverne McCartney Knighton
MN HOUSE
59B — Esther Agbaje
63A — Jim Davnie
63B — Emma Greenman
66B — Athena Hollins
67A — Couldn’t decide, both candidates look awesome ETA TO ADD: a comment on my post says that Murphy actually dropped out, so Thompson it is.
FYI, I spent July mostly focused on revising my novel, CHAOS ON CATNET, which is turned into my editor and incidentally available for pre-order on Amazon. This meant I didn’t get some of these write-ups done in time to be useful, unfortunately. But also, these days I usually try to run some sort of fundraiser and I didn’t have the bandwidth to think about what to point people to.
But, a couple of days ago I got an update on the Save Uncle Hugo’s fundraiser, which included some updates from owner Don Blyly. I’ve been meaning to write about this in more detail, because Don has always been unusually forthcoming about the ups and downs of owning a small business, and the stuff he’s run into just trying to get basic stuff like a demolition permit (his store was burned to the ground but he will need to pay someone to scoop out and haul the rubble, for which he needs a permit) has been nightmarish, the kind of absolute bullshit that makes me want to scream, “does the city of Minneapolis want to transform the Lake Street corridor into a mix of checks-cashed-here places and chain stores? Is that their goal?” (It’s not just Don running into this; Ruhel Islam, the owner of Gandhi Mahal, has spoken about some of the obstacles too.)
Anyway: Uncle Hugo’s is one of my favorite stores on the planet, so much so that in my fictional Future Minneapolis in Chaos on CatNet (which takes place approximately 10 years in the future), I gave them a beautiful new storefront on Lake Street with a sculpture of a rocket ship on the front of the building. I think Don wants to rebuild if he possibly can. I would encourage my so-enthusiastic-they-wish-to-send-money-somewhere readers to please contribute to the Uncle Hugo’s rebuilding fund or buy one of their t-shirts or sweatshirts. You can also, as it happens, order a signed copy of Catfishing on CatNet from him — he’s running a mail-order business from his house at the moment.
Rep Tim Mahoney currently holds the seat but is not running again. On the ballot:
THIS is my VERY LAST PRIMARY POST (arriving probably too late to be useful but ONE MORE AND I WILL BE ABLE TO FEEL DONE).
John Lesch is the incumbent and DFL-endorsed. On the ballot:
This seat was held by Jean Wagenius, who is not running again. On the ballot:
Emma Greenman (DFL endorsed)
Husniyah Dent Bradley
Jerome T. Evans
This is the seat currently held by Raymond Dehn, the progressive favorite mayoral candidate back in 2017. On the ballot:
Raymond Dehn (incumbent)
Esther Agbaje (endorsed by the DFL)
Isaiah Whitmore
Lisa Neal-Delgado, a Green, will be running in the general election. (I mention this just in case you’ve seen her name and are wondering why she’s not getting discussed!)
There are three people on the ballot; two will advance to the general election.
On the ballot:
Christa Mims (DFL-endorsed)
Adriana Cerillo
Ken Shain
This district is currently represented by Bobby Joe Champion. On the ballot:
Suleiman Isse
Bobby Joe Champion (Incumbent)