Thanks to The North 40 Tavern for their support. A north woods tavern somewhere in the middle of a big city. They regularly rotate tap beers, so stop in to see what’s currently flowing.
A heated election season ended yesterday and the results are in. Here’s a look at some of the local highlights:
Inver Grove Heights: Incumbent Mary T’Kach won decisively. But newcomer Matt Mills edged out the other incumbent, Tony Scales. It’s a nonpartisan race, but Mills citing Operation Metro Surge as the reason he ran signals a potential progressive shift.
Mendota Heights: Split decision here as the election hinged on the controversial city hall project.
- Incumbent Mayor Stephanie Levine, who supported the new city hall, won easily over current Council Member John Maczko, who wanted to explore rehabbing the current city hall.
- Former Mayor Neil Garlock won a Council seat in a crowded field of six candidates. Pro-rehab Garlock prevailed by 65 votes over the next closest challenger, Will Stein, who supported new construction.
- Incumbent Council Member Sally Lorberbaum also won easily. She had a more middle-of-the-road stand and wanted to hold decisions on city hall until after the election. Not sure she’ll find the clarity she was looking for.
West St. Paul: Not much to say about an entirely uncontested race. That’s likely never happened in West St. Paul history.
South St. Paul: Tyler Fehrman, who ran in 2024 and lost, got the most votes in this six-way race for three Council seats. Margaret Durenberger, who had no website and didn’t answer our questionnaire, came in second. Incumbent Joseph Kaliszewski (also no website) grabbed the final spot.
South St. Paul School Board: A crowded 10-way race for six seats was full of surprises in a district that had failed levy votes earlier this year.
- Perhaps that’s why three of the four incumbents lost. Timothy Felton was the only incumbent to prevail.
- With the exception of Nick Schaefer, who had an active and vocal campaign, the three other winners all had campaigns with minimal communication in one way or another. Former Board Member Ann Counihan had no website and skipped our questionnaire. Lisa Moore skipped the candidate forum and her website was a simple Facebook page with one post announcing her candidacy in early August. And Felton skipped nearly all of it—no website, no candidate forum appearance, and didn’t answer our questionnaire.
- This race also had what looks to be the closest result in the races we covered: Counihan beat Christine Estee by 21 votes.
ISD 197: No big surprises on school board as all three incumbents won easily. The real surprise might be the levy, which passed with a strong 63% when some were worried about a difficult tax climate. This year’s levy performed in the middle of 2023 levies when a renewal passed with 67% and a new levy passed with 60%.
Inver Grove Heights Schools: With four candidates running for three seats on school board, this was a quieter race that saw incumbent Shana Dukes coming up short. The levy renewal passed easily with 66%.
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St. Paul School Board: Another crowded race with seven candidates going for three seats, but Stephanie Anderson, Omar Syed, and incumbent Uriah Ward all easily prevailed
Dakota County: All incumbents won at the county level by easy margins. Notable that no anti-incumbent push came after the big tax increase news, though two of the four commissioners on the ballot were uncontested and that news broke after the filing period ended. But even the contested commissioner races had incumbents winning by large margins (66% and 59%).
Ramsey County: The race for District 5 county commissioner was always close—Rebecca Noecker and Maria Isa Perez-Vega had a virtual tie for the DFL endorsement. But on election night Noecker prevailed by just 119 votes.
State legislature: There was nothing close about the Minnesota House and Senate seats in our area, with the DFL easily winning all races. The closest was the open seat for Senate District 53, with Paul Cumings winning with 62%. In most cases, the races swung to the DFL by at least five points compared to prior years.
U.S. House: In a national blue wave, the DFL’s Matt Little easily beat the GOP’s Eric Pratt with 57% for the Second District seat that’s been the most competitive in the state in recent years.
What’s Next
While the election is over, a couple wins will mean more changes as both the West St. Paul City Council, St. Paul City Council, and South St. Paul School Board will see vacancies and coming appointments.
- Ward 2 in West St. Paul will see a vacancy and coming appointment to replace Robyn Gulley. The last Council appointment came after the 2018 election.
- With a crowded field, South St. Paul School Board will have no shortage of candidates as they look to replace Paul Cumings. Their last appointment came earlier this year.
- St. Paul City Council will have to replace President Rebecca Noecker. Their last appointment came in 2025.
Also worth noting: Gulley’s win marks the first time in a century that a West St. Paul City Council member has been elected to the state legislature.
- After serving on Council from 1923 to 1926, Louis Berg was elected to the Minnesota House in 1926. He served three terms in the Minnesota House and two in the Minnesota Senate.
- The last time a West St. Paul resident served in the legislature was 1980 with Raymond Kempe in the House.
Election Night
During election night, we stopped in at Town Square Television for a behind-the-scenes look at their live Decision 2026 programming. They talked with candidates and discussed local results, capping a season of campaign coverage with candidate forums and more.
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