Northside candidates faced tough Election Day challengers
Turnout was strong for a mid-term election. Photo by David Pierini
By David Pierini, Editor
Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Directors: Despite strong backing and key union endorsements, Northsider KerryJo Felder, lost her bid for an at-large seat on the MPS Board of Directors Tuesday.
Felder finished third in a four-way race for two at-large seats, according to unofficial totals. Collin Beachy was the top vote getter with 68,058 votes. Sonya Emerick, a disability advocate who wants to lobby the state to fully fund public education, narrowly defeated Felder 52,355 to 51,857. Lisa Skjefte totaled 31, 930 votes.
Felder seemed a shoe-in for a seat but with a week before the race, she faced calls to back out after the ex-wife of her husband accused Felder in a Facebook post of being intoxicated and “assaulting” her children during a recent family trip to Maryland.
Advocates with the Racial Justice Network, called Felder unfit for office and held a news conference to encourage her to back out and press her endorsers to drop their support.
Felder told North News she would stay in the race. The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers continued its support of Felder through the election.
In a statement to SW Voices, Felder admitted some of the things Vann Daley said on Facebook were “valid” and alluded to a possible addiction to painkillers because of chronic pain caused by osteoarthritis.
Hennepin County Attorney: Mary Moriarity, the former chief of the Hennepin County Public Defenders Office, was en route to a big win over Martha Holton Dimick, a Northsider, former judge and prosecutor.
Moriarty won with 57.6 percent of the vote to Dimmick’s 41.8 percent, according to unofficial totals. The vote total was 254,418 to 184,739.
Moriarity is part of a wave of public defenders in the United States to win top prosecutor jobs on campaigns of reform, data driven charging decisions and philosophy that violent crime is a public health crisis. Dimick was the establishment candidate with her tough-on-crime stance and won endorsements from several law endorsement groups and mayors across the county, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Moriarty will succeed Mike Freeman, who is retiring at the end of the year.
Minnesota Attorney General: Incumbent Keith Ellison, a resident of the Lyn Park neighborhood, won a second term and in what appeared to be one of the closest statewide races. Unofficial totals show Ellison defeating Republican challenger Jim Shultz 1,253,690 to 1,232,837 (50.4 percent to 49.6 percent).
The margin was not narrow enough for an automatic recount and Schultz late Wednesday morning conceded defeat, according to news reports.
Among Ellison’s first-term accomplishments was his office’s successful prosecution of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Schultz called Ellison soft on crime and used the uptick in violence in the Twin Cities over the last couple of years to gin up support. The attorney general is primarily responsible for consumer protection, legal representation of state government, advocating for small businesses in utility proceedings and prosecuting criminal proceedings when asked by county attorneys.
Winners before the polls closed: State and county Democrats elected to serve North Minneapolis secured new terms Tuesday after appearing on the ballot without challengers.
They are: Hennepin County Commissioner Irene Fernando; state Representatives Esther Agbaje and Fue Lee; and state Sen. Bobby Joe Champion.