Footage of Melin, Weber debate in Iron Range House seat

On Sept. 5, the Duluth News Tribune hosted legislative forums on the Iron Range. You can see several forums involving mismatched candidates from various races in SD3 and SD6 here. But I am sharing the only one-on-one comparison in that day’s activities: a debate between Rep. Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing) and GOP challenger Roger Weber of rural Nashwauk.

House District 6A includes much of the old central Range seat previously held by Tony Sertich, before his ascent to the IRRRB commissionership, and David Tomassoni and Jerry Janezich before they moved to the Senate, respectively. Melin won the 2011 special election to replace Sertich.

The primary difference this election is that district now includes a large section of Iron Range (and some distinctly non Iron Range) precincts from Itasca County represented until now by State. Rep. Tom Anzelc. Melin should carry most of these towns but has to reintroduce herself to new constituents to be sure. Weber is from this area and will seek the upset.

Anzelc, a friend of mine, is running for re-election is an even more dramatically recomposed district 5B based around Grand Rapids. I’ve avoided discussing this race much because I manage Tom’s campaign. Sometime later I’ll try to write this one up because it, too, is quite a story — among the top legislative races to watch in Minnesota.

When I get footage of a forum with Jason Metsa and Jesse Colangelo in House 6B, Tom Rukavina’s former seat, I’ll share that, too, as it will also be an interesting test of Iron Range political indexes in a changing climate.

Comments

  1. Fascinating….

    On the issue of copper mining, The DFL state house candidate sounds like Cravaack and the Republican state house candidate sounds like Nolan.

    Who would have thunk it?

    Range politics continue to get weirder and weirder.

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