Tag Archives: Minneapolis sample ballot

Election 2023: Sample Ballot / Index of Posts

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Hello to a bunch of people looking up this site on their phone from a voting booth! Here are links to (hopefully) all my posts about this year’s races. (If you scroll and don’t find what you want, try a search, but remember, I only write about races that appear on the ballot in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Here is my new post about researching a race from the voting booth, though, if you’re looking at this from elsewhere, and here is a set of Google Docs put together by someone else for school board races statewide — she tells you who’s endorsed by the teacher’s union vs who’s endorsed by the MN Parents Alliance, a hair-raisingly right-wing group.)

MINNEAPOLIS

Minneapolis has a City Council race this year but no school board race. There will be another round of citywide races (for City Council and Mayor) in 2025, when everyone will run for a four-year term.

WARD 1

Elliott Payne

WARD 2

Robin Wonsley

(No one else will appear on the ballot but there are a couple of write-in candidates campaigning actively enough to make it worth showing up to vote for Robin.)

WARD 3

Marcus Mills

WARD 4

Marvina Haynes, I guess, or maybe whichever Ward 4 friend doesn’t object to being my write-in protest vote of a lack of better candidates.

WARD 5

Jeremiah Ellison

WARD 6

Kayseh Magan

WARD 7

Katie Cashman

WARD 8

Soren Stevenson

WARD 9

Jason Chavez

WARD 10

Aisha Chughtai

WARD 11

I would write in my cat before voting for either candidate on the ballot.

WARD 12

Aurin Chowdhury

WARD 13

  1. Write in my cat.
  2. Linea Palmisano I GUESS or maybe I’d write in one of my other cats.

More info on Ward 13 here.

SAINT PAUL

Saint Paul has a City Council race on the ballot (four-year terms, because our City Council and Mayor aren’t in sync) and a citywide School Board race (choose four).

Ward 1

  1. Omar Syed
  2. Anika Bowie
  3. Suz Woehrle

More info on Ward 1 here.

Ward 2

Rebecca Noecker

Ward 3

  1. Saura Jost
  2. Isaac Russell
  3. Troy Barksdale

More info on Ward 3 here.

Ward 4

Mitra Jalali

Ward 5

  1. Hwa Jeong Kim
  2. Nate Nins
  3. David Greenwood-Sanchez

More info on Ward 5 here.

Ward 6

Nelsie Yang

Ward 7

  1. Cheniqua Johnson
  2. Pa Der Vang

More info on Ward 7 here.

Saint Paul School Board

Pick four (not ranked choice). I am probably voting for Carlo Franco, Zuki Ellis, Chauntyll Allen, and Yusef Carillo, but Erica Valliant is also a strong choice. More info on that race here.

Saint Paul City Question 1

A grumpy Yes vote.

I have a book coming out this fall, in November! Liberty’s Daughter is near-future SF about a teenage girl on a libertarian seastead. A lot of it was originally published as short fiction in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. You can pre-order it in either book or ebook format from whatever you like. ETA 11/7: Also! You can pre-order it directly from local bookstore Uncle Hugo’s and get a signed copy. And new today, you can read my short story (set in Minneapolis), The Year Without Sunshine, for free on Uncanny Magazine, if you’d like.

I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, but I get a lot of satisfaction by pointing people at fundraiser that I can then see fund, so if you’d like make a donation to encourage my work, check out check out this first-year art teacher at Lucy Laney in Minneapolis who is raising money to provide easels, drying racks, and art materials for her students, or this music teacher at Washington Technology Magnet in St. Paul, who is raising money to buy guitars so that students don’t have to share 1 guitar between 4 students.

Election 2020: Primary Sample Ballot & Uncle Hugo’s Fundraiser

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MINNEAPOLIS WARD 6 CITY COUNCIL (NOT A PRIMARY)

  1. Abdirizak Bihi
  2. Saciido Shaie
  3. Alex PalaciosAlthough I have not re-visited this one and Saciido Shaie did not register a campaign committee and Abdirizak Bihi did not file a campaign finance report. The candidates who were actually following the rules on that were Alex Palacios, Jamal Osman, and AJ Awed. Despite him having not initially made my top three, I might switch to AJ Awed at this point if I lived in the district.

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.

Election 2018: Ballot Roundup

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Here are my recommendations for allllllllllll the races I’ve written about in 2018. Links lead back to my post about the race.

Statewide

US Senator (term expiring January 3, 2025): Amy Klobuchar

US Senator (Special Election for term expiring January 3, 2021): Tina Smith

Governor: Tim Walz and Peggy Flanagan

Secretary of State: Steve Simon

State Auditor: Julie Blaha

Attorney General: Keith Ellison

Statewide Judicial

Supreme Court, Associate Justice 2: Margaret Chutich

Court of Appeals, Judge 2: Lucinda Ellen Jesson

Minneapolis and Hennepin County Races

US Representative, District 5: Ilhan Omar

State Representative 63A: Jim Davnie
(I didn’t research any other State Rep races. Just vote for the DFLer. This is a better state when the Democrats are running things.)

Hennepin County Commissioner, District 2: Irene Fernando

Hennepin County Commissioner, District 3: Marion Greene

Hennepin County Commissioner, District 4: Angela Conley

Hennepin County Sheriff: Dave Hutch

Hennepin County Attorney: Mark Haase

Minneapolis City Question regarding liquor licenses: Yes

Minneapolis School Board At-Large (vote for 2): Kimberly Caprini and Josh Pauly

Minneapolis School District Questions: Yes (to both)

Note regarding judicial races: all the Hennepin County district judges are running unopposed. It kind of doesn’t matter much whether you fill in the dots or not. I usually vote for all the unopposed incumbents unless I’m running short of time, but as you may have noticed, I’m overly thorough about anything election-related.

Saint Paul and Ramsey County Races

US Representative, District 4: Betty McCollum

State Representative 64B: Dave Pinto
(I didn’t research any other State Rep races. Just vote for the DFLer. This is a better state when the Democrats are running things.)

Ramsey County Commissioner, District 3: Trista MatasCastillo

Ramsey County Commissioner, District 5: Rafael Ortega (post is from the primary season; Charles Barklind is no longer on the ballot, everything else applies.)

Ramsey County Sheriff: Jack Serier

Ramsey County Attorney: John Choi

Saint Paul School District Question: Yes

2nd District Court, Judge 2: DeAnne Hilgers

2nd District Court, Judge 11: Leaning toward Scott Flaherty for my own vote, but both candidates are excellent.

2nd District Court, Judge 14: Robyn Millenacker

2nd District Court, Judge 20: Probably Tony Atwal, despite his DUI.

2nd District Court, Judge 28: Elena Ostby

I think that’s all of them. If you have some spare time this weekend, CONSIDER VOLUNTEERING.

Edited to add: if you’re looking for more perspectives, or information on races outside Minneapolis and St. Paul, this tool also has some information on downticket races: https://inthearenaonline.com/mycandidates/

I’ve been asked about a tip jar, and for various reasons I don’t have one. You can buy one of my books (online if that’s easiest, but local bookstores Dreamhaven and Uncle Hugo’s usually have Cat Pictures Please & Other Stories, my short story collection, and might have my novels). You can also stay tuned to pre-order my new novel Catfishing on Catnet (coming November 2019 from Tor Teen!) once there’s a pre-ordering page. Finally, you can donate to the not-yet-fully-funded Donors Choose fundraiser I linked to back on the post about the Minneapolis School Board race: a trip to Wolf Ridge Learning Center for 5th graders at Green Central Park Community School.

 

Minneapolis Elections: Naomi’s Sample Ballot

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A quick reminder to those who don’t know this: I actually live in St. Paul (I lived in Minneapolis for 17 years, and started election blogging when I still lived in Minneapolis, but I moved across the river in 2012.) These are the people I would be voting for — I don’t actually vote for any of them.

MAYOR

  1. Betsy Hodges
  2. Raymond Dehn
  3. Nekima Levy-Pounds

All my posts on the Minneapolis Mayoral race.

CITY COUNCIL

Ward 1

  1. Jillia Pessenda
  2. Kevin Reich

Ward 1 analysis here.

Ward 2

Cam Gordon is running unopposed.

Ward 3

  1. Steve Fletcher
  2. Samantha Pree-Simpson
  3. Tim Bildsoe

Ward 3 analysis here.

Ward 4

  1. Phillipe Cunninghamd
  2. Stephanie Gasca

Ward 4 analysis here.

Ward 5

  1. Jeremiah Ellison
  2. Raeisha (RA) Williams

Ward 5 analysis here.

Ward 6

  1. Mohamud Noor

Ward 6 analysis here.

Ward 7

  1. Janne Flisrand
  2. Teqen Zea-Aida

Ward 7 analysis here.

Ward 8

  1. Andrea Jenkins

Ward 8 analysis here.

Ward 9

  1. Gary Schiff
  2. Mohamed Farah

Ward 9 analysis here.

Ward 10

  1. Lisa Bender

Ward 10 analysis here.

Ward 11

  1. Erica Mauter
  2. Jeremy Schroeder

I’ll add to this one — whichever you rank first, you should definitely rank the other second. They’re both awesome.

Ward 11 analysis here.

Ward 12

  1. Andrew Johnson

Ward 12 analysis here.

Ward 13

  1. Linea Palmisano

Ward 13 analysis here.

BOARD OF ESTIMATE AND TAXATION

  1. Carol Becker
  2. David Wheeler

BET analysis here. (Carol and David are unopposed on the ballot.)

PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSIONERS AT-LARGE

  1. Latrisha Vetaw
  2. Devin Hogan
  3. Londel French

(Note: there are three open seats, but order matters.)

Park Board At-Large Race analysis here. All Park Board posts (including my analysis of the Political Cycle of Life) here.

PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSIONERS, DISTRICT SEATS

District 1

  1. Chris Meyer
  2. Billy Menz

Park Board District 1 analysis here.

District 2

  1. Kale Severson
  2. Mike “Talley” Tate

Park Board District 2 analysis here.

District 3

  1. AK Hassan
  2. Abdi Gurhan Mohamed

Park Board District 3 analysis here.

District 4

  1. Jono Cowgill
  2. Tom Nordyke

Park Board District 4 analysis here.

District 5

  1. Steffanie Musich
  2. Bill Shroyer

Park Board District 5 analysis here.

District 6

  1. Brad Bourn

Park Board District 6 analysis here.

And, hey, was my analysis useful to you this year? Are you thinking to yourself, “wow, I wish this fine person had a Patreon link”? I do not have a Patreon link, but you could buy a copy of my latest book (a short story collection) or one of my two ebook-only collections (Comrade Grandmother or Gift of the Winter King). Or! For a limited time only (the next month), you can donate to my fundraiser for the Bridge For Youth!(Because it’s specifically my fundraiser I can see how much my fans have donated,which is pretty awesome.) The Bridge for Youth is a Twin Cities non-profit that provides counseling, support, shelter, and services (including long-term transitional services) to homeless teens (and even younger children — their shelter houses kids as young as ten.)

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to vote tomorrow!