Politics
Duluth City Council has an open seat; here’s how to fill it
Duluth City Council President Elissa Hansen announced last month she will vacate her at-large council position on July 17 to focus on her new job as president and CEO of the Northspan Group. Hansen began her at-large term in 2016; her replacement will be expected to hold the position until January 2020.
Applications for appointment to Hansen’s soon-to-be-open at-large council seat are available in the city clerk’s office and online at duluthmn.gov.
Completed applications must be received by 4:30 p.m. on Monday, July 9. Applicants will be interviewed by the council on Thursday, July 12, following the regular agenda session.
The process for filling the vacated seat was established by City Council Resolution 18-0471R, adopted by the Duluth City Council on June 11.
Duluth 2018 Primary Election Primer
There are plenty of federal and state offices up for grabs in 2018, and a little bit of St. Louis County action, but no Duluth City Council or Duluth School Board races.
Remember: Aug. 14 is one of those Primary Elections in which voters must choose a party. One can’t, for example, vote for a Republican governor and a DFL congressman. On the partisan portion of the ballot citizens must vote for the same party in all races. Below are the contests that will be on that ballot, and some notes about what will be part of the Nov. 6 General Election.
All candidates representing the Minnesota Green Party, Legal Marijuana Now Party, Independence Party, Libertarian Party or Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party are unopposed in the Primary Election and will appear on the General Election Ballot, as will any unaffiliated candidates. (more…)
Joint Ops: Why Minnesota has two pro-marijuana parties
Minnesota taxpayers might have wondered, while gazing at the State Election Campaign Fund portion of form M1, why there are two political parties dedicated to marijuana legalization. Is there some subset of beliefs that divide the parties to the point where they can’t work together? Does one party want cannabis legalized in a different way than the other?
The answer is neither. (more…)
Video: Duluth State of the City Address 2018
For those who missed it last week or want to relive it this week, Duluth Mayor Emily Larson’s Ides of March State of the City Address from the NorShor Theater is now available in a 40-minute video.
Video: Duluth Women’s March 2018
Shot by Mike Kenyanya and Daniel Oyinloye; edited by Kenyanya.
Tina Smith is Minnesota’s new U.S. Senator
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has selected his lieutenant governor, Tina Smith, to replace Al Franken in the U.S. Senate. Smith said she will run for the seat in 2018.
State Senator Michelle Fischbach of Paynesville will replace Smith as lieutenant governor.
UWS Chancellor’s Ball protested over program cuts
Two dozen spirited students, faculty, alumni and community members braved the cold on the evening of Dec. 2 to protest in front of the UWS Yellowjacket Union. The protest was held outside of the glitzy Chancellor’s Ball fundraiser to show outrage at the devastating academic program cuts that were announced on the morning of Halloween.
Protesters wore costumes to symbolically reclaim the Halloween that was ruined by the announced cuts. They handed fundraiser attendees candy with the following message printed on them: “Thank you for supporting UWS students! Please ask Chancellor Wachter to reconsider the program suspensions at UWS. More choices for students, not fewer, is what make UWS great.”
The response from those attending the fundraiser was overwhelming supportive, demonstrating yet again how deeply opposed our community is to the gutting of our university. The action closed with a rousing chant of “We’ll Be Back, We’ll Be Back!” And rest assured we will be – again and again – until these draconian cuts are consigned to the dust bin of history!
Duluth 2017 General Election Results
With 34 of 34 precincts reporting.
Duluth At-large City Councilor
Top two candidates are elected
Zack Filipovich – 8,749 | 31.48%
Barbara Russ – 6,568 | 23.63%
Janet Kennedy – 6,053 | 21.78%
Rich Updegrove – 5,899 | 21.13%
Write in – 522 | 1.88% (more…)
Thank You for Your Service
Still from Thank You for Your Service
This is partially a reflection on a movie seen at the Duluth 10 Cinema, partially a survey of important Duluth resources, and partially a reflection on the way I wish the world would be. (more…)
Duluth 2017 General Election Sample Ballot
District city council and school board races will appear only on ballots in the appropriate precincts. The location of candidates’ names will be different in each precinct; the names are rotated in accordance with the law.
The League of Women Voters 2017 Voter Guide is available in PDF format at lwvduluth.org.
Duluth residents who wish to vote absentee may do so in person in City Hall room 330 from Oct. 31 until Nov. 3 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 4, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; or Monday, Nov. 6, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Residents who are not registered with their current address must show proof of residency by providing one of the means allowed by law.
Duluth 2017 Primary Election Results
With 34 of 34 precincts reporting, here are the unofficial results.
Duluth At-large City Councilor
Top four candidates advance to General Election
Zack Filipovich – 3,859 | 27.97%
Barbara Russ – 2,797 | 20.27%
Janet Kennedy – 2,462 | 17.85%
Rich Updegrove – 2,456 | 17.80%
Jan Swanson – 1,222 | 98.86%
Brandon Sorvik – 604 | 4.38%
Richard L. Williams – 369 | 2.87%
Duluth Fourth District City Councilor
Top two candidates advance to General Election
Renee K. Van Nett – 622 | 44.94%
Howie Hanson – 468 | 33.82%
Tom Furman – 294 | 21.24%
Duluth At-large School Board Member
Top four candidates advance to General Election; two are elected
Sally Trnka – 3,929 | 30.00%
Josh Gorham – 3,558 | 27.17%
Harry Welty – 2,406 | 18.37%
Bogdana (Dana) Krivogorsky – 1,642 | 12.54%
Loren Martell – 1,560 | 11.91%
Duluth 2017 Primary Election Sample Ballot
There are a mere two races on Duluth’s citywide Primary Election ballot for 2017 — city council at large and school board at large. Voters in District Four, the area highlighted on the map below, can also vote to whittle down the choices for that council seat. (more…)
Welty hints at seeking another term with “this shaky video”
At-large Duluth School Board member Harry Welty wrote on his Lincoln Democrat blog about digging into a box of thank yous last night and spreading them on his office floor “to make a little campaign video for a campaign webpage.” And then he posted “this shaky video.”
Welty’s term ends Jan. 8; Duluth candidates officially file to seek school board positions between July 5 and July 18.
“Years ago I attended some session during which a presenter made a good suggestion,” Welty wrote. “She warned her listeners that it was easy to get discouraged and she suggested that we all collect thank yous and such. She thought that when we got down we could look in the old thank yous and remind ourselves that we weren’t such bad folks.
“Until I got on the School Board in 1996 my little sunshine folder wasn’t very big. Then I started reading to classrooms.”
Squelching local efforts toward earned sick and safe time
I’m watching the action at the Minnesota State Legislature with an eye toward what is happening in Duluth, too.
I look at these two initiatives. I wish I had some principle here, like “local control is always best” or something like that, but I don’t. I just prefer the results of the Duluth ordinance over the results of the state law. If I liked the results of the state law better, I would prefer that.
What do you think, comparing:
The work of Duluth’s “Earned Sick and Safe Time Task Force,” which “gathers information, collects public input, proposes the best options for implementing ESST policies and brings forward policy recommendations.”
vs.
SF 580 as introduced – 90th Legislature (2017 – 2018)
A bill for an act relating to employment; providing uniformity for employment mandates on private employers;proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 181. (more…)
Video Archive: Al Franken’s first run for U.S. Senate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh8LfGIM62M
Ten years ago today, Feb. 13, 2007, Al Franken published the above video announcing his candidacy for U.S. Senate representing Minnesota.
He won the DFL nomination with 65 percent of the vote, but in November 2008 appeared to have lost the the General Election by 215 votes to Republican Norm Coleman. On Jan. 5, 2009, the Minnesota State Canvassing Board certified the recounted vote totals, with Franken winning by 225 votes. Subsequent challenges prevented him from taking his senate seat until July 7, 2009.
Franken was reelected in 2014, defeating Republican Mike McFadden with 54 percent of the vote. His second term ends Jan. 3, 2021.
Klobuchar votes to comfirm Pompeo as CIA director
14 Senate Democrats Fall in Line Behind Trump CIA Pick Who Left Door Open to Torture
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar was one of 14 Democrats who sided with Republicans on Monday in voting to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Mike Pompeo. (more…)
Selective Focus: Gallery of Duluth Mayor Portraits
Happy Inauguration Day. Let’s celebrate peaceful transfers of power with a retrospective view of the portraits of Duluth’s Mayors. For many years, these portraits hung in the hallways of City Hall, but were recently taken down to be cleaned, maintained, digitized and cataloged. The images used here are taken from the Minnesota Digital Library. More information about each mayor is available at the site.
Don Ness says portraits are traditionally done 2-3 years after a mayor leaves office, and he anticipates his portrait will be added to the collection some time this year. So scroll backward through time with us and enjoy the virtual gallery of Duluth mayors.
(more…)
HF 41: Student Physical Privacy Act
Posted without comment:
1.1 A bill for an act
1.2 relating to education; establishing the Student Physical Privacy Act; proposing
1.3 coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 121A.
1.4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
1.5 Section 1. [121A.35] STUDENT PHYSICAL PRIVACY ACT. (more…)
To the Battlements, Wherever and Whatever They Are
I think about September 11th a lot. More, lately.
I was working at Duluth’s now-defunct Ripsaw newspaper at the time, and we were confounded for the first hours. Do you remember the world in which an attack on U.S. shores was impossible? The idle impenetrability of the United States? We invaded. The world was our bully pulpit. But that day, the paradigm shifted as surely and as immediately as that of a new mother, who, in the second her child leaves her body finds her heart, her worst fears, vulnerable and exposed to the worst the world has to offer. You could almost hear it, the snap of collective consciousness as the reality became apparent, over the day. One hour at a time, our perceived security, the luxury of our superiority, rolled away like so many layers of fog.
My sister came and picked me up. We drove around, listening to the soundtrack from the Coen Brothers’ masterpiece, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and tuning in to the news for updates. We smoked a million American Spirit cigarettes. We felt scared.
Later, I stood on the balcony of my third-floor apartment, on the phone with my best friend. “We’re going to war,” he said.
“Definitely,” I replied. (more…)
Historical Trauma and Standing Rock
When I was young and more exciting than I am now, I started teaching Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus. One of the reasons Maus made its way into classrooms was that it was an immensely accessible introduction to the Holocaust.
But about halfway through the second time I taught the book, I realized that its special genius is not the way it tells the story of Vladek, a Holocaust survivor, but the way it tells the story of Artie, the son of a Holocaust survivor.
Perhaps this is clearest in the scene where Artie and his wife, Francoise, take Vladek to the grocery store so that Vladek can return a half-eaten box of cereal. (more…)
Making America Great Again
It wearies me to see hordes of people so downcast from something as small as a presidential election. Your time and energy can be put to better use where you may be of real influence: your neighbors and community.
I’m taking a two-pronged whack at getting some of you folks out of your funk. I wrote this column in the Duluth Budgeteer for you, because What this country needs most is you.
Finally, I made a nice circuit through the surrounding countryside yesterday, and believe that many of our country’s problems can be fixed if we’ll simply focus on feeding and entertaining ourselves as a community. Our city and surrounding rural area need one another to thrive. Read more about Making America Great Again at Ed’s Big Adventure.
Duluth native Nides in New Yorker
The Nov. 14 issue of The New Yorker magazine features an article (clearly written before Election Day) on “the Democrats’ fight over finance.” The focus of the piece is on Thomas R. Nides, “who is seen as a contender for a prominent position in a Clinton Administration.”
Nides is a Duluth native and 1979 graduate of East High School. From 2011 to 2013, he served under Hillary Clinton as deputy U.S. secretary of state for management and resources.