PHOTO: Lil Shepherd, Flickr CC
Tuesday, May 31, brings the last day to file for local, state and federal offices in Minnesota. While there are some interesting legislative and county races shaping up across Northern Minnesota in 2016 (I’ll have more on those Wednesday), something else stood out to me.
City council races on the Iron Range are fairly quiet. In places like Hibbing, only incumbents have filed for re-election to city council seats. The political tinder box of Ely doesn’t have a contested election yet. A number of towns still have the minimum number of candidates filed, or none at all.
Now, it’s true that some towns without primaries open their filing period in August. That applies to some of these towns. But given the amount of energy spent on “revitalizing the Iron Range” since last year’s iron mining downturn, this all seems a little tepid.
Check the current list of candidates for towns in St. Louis County. You can use the Secretary of State’s website to review filings anywhere in Minnesota. Check your local city or township clerk’s office to learn more about filing for office where you live.
As I said, on Wednesday I plan to review the contested races across Northern Minnesota to show where one might find drama and intrigue.
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Some additional notes:
You may have noticed that I’ve not posted as much these last two weeks. Part of that was for work reasons. I am teaching an extra class this summer that started right after graduation. I also had to write a script for the June 18 Great Northern Radio Show.
I’m also trying to be a little more deliberate in my postings here, especially over the summer. You will see fewer overall posts, but I hope that they are more interesting or useful than average. I am trying to dedicate more writing time to other projects somewhat less etherial than 2-3 blog posts a day.
MinnesotaBrown.com will mark its 10th anniversary just before the 2016 election. We’ll whoop it up then.
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