Another open seat, a long list of candidates, but! in this case! four out of the six candidates are wildly unacceptable, sometimes for reasons you would probably not expect!
On the ballot:
Cheniqua Johnson
Pa Der Vang
Alex Bourne
Dino Guerin
Kartumu King
Foua-Choua Khang
The good news for me is, I have written about several of these people previously.
Kartumu King ran previously in 2019. She is a convicted child abuser (link goes to my post from 2019, which provides some details on what she did.) Back in 2019 she’d also sued people 19 times; she’s added several lawsuits since then. Also, just as a side note, her website says nothing useful about what she wants to do on the City Council, and her campaign Facebook is mostly just links to things like the Ballotpedia page about the city of Saint Paul. I would not rank Kartumu.
Foua-Choua links to a website that doesn’t work and her Facebook (linked above) is about her campaign in 2022 for a completely different job (and when I wrote about her last year, I had a hard time finding information then, too.) I’m not sure she knows she’s running. (OK, that is slightly unfair; she filled out the East Metro Voter Guide questionnaire and I would take her over Kartumu or Alex but there is just not much here.)
Alex also ran in 2019 (but in Ward 6), and I’m going to link to my post about that race because it has many quotes from the Pioneer Press article about his history. To very briefly sum up an extremely convoluted story: you can laugh off the shoe theft, you can laugh off the dognapping-for-profit, but the multiple arrests for violence, including sexual violence, against women he knows: nope, nope, nope. Absolutely not.
When Dino ran for mayor in 2021, his criminal conviction was the very first hit. Good news for him: now it’s below his campaign Facebook. Since his was for bad checks rather than (a) child abuse or (b) partner abuse or (c) dognapping, and also it was over two decades ago, I’d probably let the conviction slide. But he’s also a Republican, and that’s a nonstarter.
On some topics, Pa Der seems more progressive than Cheniqua — on the MinnPost questionnaire she’s solidly in favor of allowing triplexes (“Allowing families to turn their current homes into multi-unit housing would open up more housing options for residents and in essence increase the housing availability in our city as well as provide opportunities for families to be landlords and provide housing”), she favors the sales tax, and she’s pro-rent control, with the caveat that she thinks we should do a study on the current policy and whether it’s working the way we thought. But she’s also Dino Guerin’s second choice, which makes me kind of suspicious. She’s also endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce and supported by the SuperPAC “Saint Paul Works” which is apparently funded by a landlord group. This all makes me very wary in a “clearly these people, all of whom I dislike, know something I don’t” kind of way.
Cheniqua Johnson is endorsed by the DFL and seems like basically a normal Democrat. On the MinnPost questionnaire where they asked about triplexes, she gave a long answer that made it sound like she thought triplexes were great without ever actually saying “yes, they should be allowed on any lot. (She finishes with “This could be a step in the right direction.”) This is part of why I took a second look at Pa Der. I wound up watching the LWV forum (it goes a lot faster if you’re skipping over 4 out of 6 candidates), and honestly, Cheniqua and Pa Der both came across as normal Democrats.
I would rank Cheniqua first because the fact that the landlords want Pa Der makes me deeply suspicious. I would rank Pa Der second. I would rank Foua-Choua Khang third, because while she’s barely running and didn’t show up for the candidate forum, as far as I know she hasn’t committed any violent crimes and she’s not a Republican.
ETA: Sustain Saint Paul sent me a link to their questionnaire, which both Pa Der and Cheniqua answered. Again, both of them had really good responses. Pa Der might in fact be better on biking. Cheniqua talked about accessibility. They’re both in favor of mixed-use zoning, improved transit, and slowing traffic on city streets.
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Will Tell Stories For Food 