Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Politics, Politics, Politics.  Filings for statewide office ended earlier this month and the preliminary collection of candidates for all statewide, congressional district, and Minnesota House of Representatives races is set.  The list of candidates can be found at the Minnesota Secretary of State's website and I have supplied a link to that site below.  You can find the candidates for each race and websites of candidates who have furnished them are available.

Minnesota Secretary of State Election Website:  http://candidates.sos.state.mn.us/

The primary will be held on Tuesday, August 12, 2014, with the Republican primary for Governor, which features four candidates, will be the headline event that day.  There are some very interesting Republican primaries for the House of Representatives and a lion's share of those contests are being held in legislative districts where SEE member school districts are located.  Looking through the list, I see three races that I will be watching closely.  They are:

  • District 30A (SEE members St. Michael-Albertville and Buffalo), in a race that features Eric Lucero (endorsed candidate) and Kevin Kasel (St. Michael City Council member).
  • District 35A (SEE members Anoka-Hennepin and Elk River), where Justin Boals and Abigail Whelan (endorsed candidate) are facing off.
  • District 47A (SEE member Waconia), where Bob Frey (Norwood-Young America business owner) and Jim Nash (Waconia Mayor) are the Republican candidates vying for the slot in the general election.  There was no endorsement in this race.
I urge voters in these districts to acquaint themselves with these candidates and get out and vote in August.

The highest profile primary contest on the DFL side of the ledger features 42-year legislative veteran Phyllis Kahn facing off against Minneapolis school board member Mohamud Noor, who seeks to become the first Somali immigrant elected to a state-level office in Minnesota.

The battle for the House of Representatives will be extremely heated.  Both parties have identified the seats they are targeting to seize from the other party and those lists were outlined in a recent MinnPost article.  While there are usually surprises on election day in which a seat deemed "safe" by one side or the other switches parties, I think the list provided in the article are fairly accurate in their assessment.

Here is a link to the article that lists the seats both parties are targeting in the upcoming election.

MinnPost link:  http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2014/06/party-without-power-how-minnesota-gop-plans-take-over-house

No comments: