By Rich Larson, News Director
Northfield Mayor Rhonda Pownell was elected to a second term last night, defeating her challenger, former City Councilor David Ludescher. Pownell easily gained another term with 65% of the vote. With the victory, she becomes the first Northfield mayor to win a second term in more than twenty years.
Pownell is known to be a calming influence in the City Council Chambers, and maintaining that balance is one of her stated goals. She has also said that the City needs to support the City council’s Climate initiative and find a sustainable model to fund the city park system, while also supporting local businesses and growing the corporate tax base.
New faces on the City Council
The Northfield City Council will have two new members in January. City Councilor David Delong lost his bid for a third term representing Northfield’s Second Ward to Jami Reister, a trained physician who has spent many years working with the Northfield Fine Arts Booster Board. The voting was close in the Second Ward. With 2,762 votes cast, Reister defeated Delong by 158 votes.
In the Third Ward, George Zuccolotto defeated Don Stager to fill the seat being vacated by incumbent Erica Zweifel. Zuccolotto presented himself as voice for the youth and the Latino community in Northfield. The voting in the Third Ward was also quite close. With 1107 votes cast, Zuccolotto won with a 129 vote margin of victory.
At-Large incumbent councilor Brad Ness easily gained a second term on the council defeating challenger Ricky Livingston with 57% of the vote.
Lippert (D) and Draheim (R) both re-elected
DFL Representative Todd Lippert will be going back to St. Paul for the next session. Lippert gained a second term representing District 20B defeating Republican Challenger Joe Moravchik by a 52-47% margin. Republican incumbent Senator Rich Draheim won a a second term with 54% of the vote, defeating DFL challenger Jon Olson and Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis candidate Jason Hoschette, who did earn 6% of the vote.
Gonzalez-George big winner in Northfield School Board race
The two incumbents up for re-election on the Northfield School board will both return for another term. Noel Stratmoen and Amy Goerwitz both received enough votes to keep their seats, but the largest vote total went to Claudia Gonzalez-George who will join the board after receiving more than 7,000 votes. Corey Butler rounds out the quartet of school board winners. At 5287 votes, Butler trailed only Gonzalez-George and Goerwitz. In a statement this morning, Butler said he is grateful for the opportunity to serve and is eager to get to work. “There are difficult decisions ahead for the district, particularly with funding,” he said. “I look forward to being part of the new board to work in concert with administration and staff to face these challenges.”
Changes in Dundas, Rice County boards
Incumbent John Cruz failed in his bid for another term on the Dundas City Council. Newcomers Luke LaCroix and Luke Smartwood received the highest totals in a pool from which voters were asked to select two candidates.
Jim Purfeerst unseated longtime Rice County Commissioner Jake Gillen with 64% of the vote in Rice County’s First District. Galen Malecha, the incumbent commissioner in the Second District who ran unopposed, took home 99.8% of the votes cast.
Craig wins re-election; Kistner argues case next week
And DFL incumbent Angie Craig is the apparent winner in Minnesota’s Second Congressional District race, however the results there are a bit murky. After the death of Legalize Marijuana Candidate Adam Weeks in September, it was determined that election should be pushed back to next February. Craig’s campaign sued and won, saying that the election should go forward based on federal law. But Republican challenger Tyler Kistner made repeated appeals in Federal Court, finally appealing to the Supreme Court last week for an emergency injunction stopping the election, which was denied. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear Kistner’s arguments next week and make a ruling then. It is unclear what power the court has to overturn an election once it has taken place.
