A less exciting election, but still a great outcome in my suburb [View all]
which, technically, is the 4th largest city in Minnesota, home of the Mall of America.
Municipal & school board elections were held today. Technically, these are non-partisan but everyone knows what party each candidate really belongs to.
The mayor, one "at large" council seat and two district council seats were up this year. We (we being the local DFL) were nervous because the Republican running for mayor is a real Trumper & was spending some big money (some from out of state). This is a 35 year old who has never voted in a municpal election but suddenly decides he should be mayor (this information is available through the Secretary of State's office) and he was savvy enough to run a misleading campaign centering on a couple of locally emotional issues. The fear was that those who turned out for him would vote Republican all the way down the line.
We had nothing to fear but fear itself. With one precinct left to report, the DFLers have taken all 4 seats. We also won two out of the three school board seats open tonight. The third one went to candidate who bent over backward to remain nonpartisan but I have it from another board member that "she thinks like us". So we may have won 3 out of 3.
The 'burb has been trending blue for several elections but it's not that long ago a Democrat couldn't get elected to anything and voting in a municipal eleciton meant voting for the most moderate Republican. Candidates, even in partisan races, would avoid advertising they had the DFL's support. This year the candidates welcomed the DFL doing a mailing saying "we like these people" (we can't say "endorsed" because it is non-partisan). The AFL-CIO even did a mailing for them.
Progress is being made.
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