Star Tribune
Four seats on the Hennepin County Board are up for election
Badel vs. Lunde
In District 1, Gulled Ahmed Badel is running against incumbent Jeffrey Lunde for a seat representing the northeastern corner of Hennepin County, including Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Crystal, New Hope, Osseo and Robbinsdale.
Badel is based in Brooklyn Center, according to his candidate filing. Information beyond that isn’t readily available online.
Lunde, who was Brooklyn Park’s mayor for 10 years, wants to increase support for veterans facing homelessness, create a team of advocates for crime victims and expand services for students who fell behind during the pandemic, his website states.
Beck vs. Goettel
In District 5, Jeffrey A. Beck is challenging incumbent Debbie Goettel in the district that includes Bloomington, south Eden Prairie, Richfield and part of southwest Minneapolis.
Beck, who ran unsuccessfully for County Board in 2004 and 2014, said at a candidate forum that housing stability is his top priority. He added that he wants to build thousands of low-income units across the county’s southern portion.
Goettel’s priorities include scoring funding to repair infrastructure, supporting small businesses and expanding transit options, her website states. She served as Richfield mayor before joining the County Board in 2016.
ST. CLOUD – Voters today will decide which St. Cloud City Council member will be promoted to mayor.
Candidates Jake Anderson and Mike Conway are vying to take the place of Mayor Dave Kleis, who is retiring after two decades at the city’s helm.
The August primary winnowed a packed six-candidate mayoral field to Anderson, a 45-year-old IT manager for Stearns County, and Conway, a 58-year-old consultant at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. Conway is in his second term on the St. Cloud City Council; Anderson in his first, after serving several years on the city’s Planning Commission.
Kleis is the city’s longest-serving mayor. In April, he announced he wouldn’t seek re-election after serving five terms.
St. Cloud voters will also cast ballots for six candidates vying for three at-large seats on the City Council. Candidates include incumbent George Hontos, as well as Scott Brodeen, Tami Calhoun, Hudda Ibrahim, Mark Johnson and Omar Abdullahi Podi.
If elected, Ibrahim and Podi would be the first Somali Americans to serve on the council. The six candidates were the top vote-getters in the August primary, which narrowed down a field of 16 candidates — the most in 50 years to enter the City Council primary.
Residents in the St. Cloud school district are also voting on seven candidates aiming to fill three seats on the school board. All four incumbents who are up for re-election — Scott Andreasen, Al Dahlgren, Shannon Haws and Monica Segura-Schwartz — are in the mix, along with former school board member Bruce Hentges. Other candidates are Yoanna Ayala-Zaldana and Diana Fenton.
DULUTH – Two longtime local attorneys in private practice are vying for the Sixth Judicial District seat held by Judge Dale Harris, whose retirement at the end of his term in early January 2025 has set up a contested judicial election in northern Minnesota.
Gunnar Johnson of Overom Law, and Shawn Reed, who is with Bray & Reed and has been a hearing officer, face off in the race. The Sixth District position, chambered in Duluth, covers St. Louis, Carlton, Cook and Lake Counties.
The next day, Johnson said he was humbled by the turnout and the vote.
“I’m working hard on this race because of my desire to get back into public service and to bring my experience in the law to our local court,” he said at the time.
Johnson has varied experiences, ranging from legal counsel for the Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation and its board to city attorney for Hermantown. He was Duluth’s city attorney for more than a decade, ending when he resigned in 2020 while on administrative leave during an investigation of his treatment of employees.
In the run-up to the election, a former colleague and the head of a Minnesota crime nonprofit told the Star Tribune that when a grant subsidized victim advocate position was put in front of Johnson, one his department would likely get if he applied, he said it wasn’t needed. Victim advocates serve as a guide through the legal process and are standard in a city the size of Duluth, with high domestic violence caseloads.
Johnson said recently that he needed to “ask the hard questions” before applying for the grant.
Walz made his final campaign swing Monday in the critical “Blue Wall” states of Wisconsin and Michigan, and he was set to visit Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning before heading to Washington, D.C., for the campaign’s election-night party at Howard University.
The governor reflected on his whirlwind journey as the gravity of the moment sunk in on Monday. The Democrat who grew up in rural Nebraska and was first elected to public office just 18 years ago could soon find himself in the White House.
“How amazing is it that a kid from Butte, Neb., and a kid from Oakland, Calif. — middle-class kids, her with a single mom trying to buy a home, me with a dad who dies when I’m a teenager and my little brother’s in elementary school, my mom’s a stay-at-home mom — but because of what this country has given us and the opportunities, we are going to be the next president and vice president of the United States,” Walz said.
A Harris-Walz victory in Tuesday’s general election would be historically significant nationally and in Minnesota. Harris would be the first woman elected as president of the United States. And the elevation of Walz would make way for Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan to become Minnesota’s first female and first Native American governor.
