Longtime State Rep. Mike Jaros (DFL-Duluth) will not seek re-election in 2008. He told fellow DFLers and the Duluth News Tribune he was retiring from his seat in solidly working class DFL West Duluth this afternoon.
I need to do some research to see who the potential candidates might be in this race. Political novice Brandon Clokey announced his intention to run in the DFL primary last January, but I don’t know much about him. Republican Allan Kehr announced today he would seek the GOP nomination for District 7B. I expect many DFLers to consider running for the Jaros seat, but must admit that most of the obvious names of Duluth DFLers are based on the city’s east side. I’ll see what I can find.
Duluth friends, any tips to help this Iron Ranger break this one down?
UPDATE: OK, there are some bigger potential candidates on that side than I thought. Developing …
UPDATE 2: I’m getting lots of names now from all sorts of unsubstantiated rumor mills. The big one in my mind is Duluth City Council President Roger Reinert. Some say he might be interested and he lives on the West Side. He’s impressed me when I’ve seen him do interviews and he seems to be a hard working guy. But there will almost certainly be an endorsement fight and a primary in this race. I’m still checking on some of the other city councilors and political types down in Duluth.
I’m originally from West Duluth, althoughh I moved away several years ago.
The City Councilor for West Duluth is Jay Fosle. He defeated the labor endorsed candidate and incumbant, Russ Stover, last fall. I have no idea if Fosle is a Republican or Democrat.
Also, the Central Hillside (the area above downtown) is part of that district. I believe new city councilors Tony Cuneo and Jeff Anderson both live in this area, but am not sure.
That area is a hardcore DFL, working-class area and has some major hurdles economically. I believe I read somewhere that the district is the third poorest in the state. The area certainly won’t elect anybody with “Republican” next to their name on the ballot, but there may be a chance for a conservative to win the DFL primary if they can raise enough money to get the name recognition necessary.