St. Paul’s Ward 2 City Council Election: Grudge Match Between Dave Thune and Bill Hosko

It’s ten days before election day in St. Paul and so far it’s shaping up to be pretty much a snoozer. The only news in the election is that Pat Harris is not seeking re-election for ward 3 and Dave Thune says this is his last time running for council in ward 2.

Can you say recount?

Of course the big news is that the election itself is completely different. This year the  county and city will be using a voter-approved Ranked Choice Voting system, which eliminates the traditional primary in favor of one November general election that will tally multiple voter choices generally until reaching a single majority winner for the council seats and four top vote getters in the school board race.

Is There an Election This Year?

Turnouts are notoriously low in city council only elections so turnout isn’t expected to be any better than the 15% – 35% that usually shows up.

Low turnout is not for lack of interesting characters. Jim Ivey – Green Party (software developer) and Cynthia Shanno – Independent (aircraft buyer and seller) are welcome additions to the perennial challengers to Thune’s seat.

Anybody But Thune

Four years ago Bill Hosko was the closest thing to a challenger of Thune. If he had disclosed his financials and residency on time he might have made a better show of it, though most believe he could have been a tuna sandwich and would have fared just as well. Hosko wasn’t Thune and that was all that mattered to many voters. Regardless, he did well enough that he is back to challenge Thune again.

Full Disclosure

You might remember that I was Bill Hosko’s campaign manager for at least half the campaign last time around. Hosko fired me after winning the primary election because he said I didn’t catch a typo on his website and because I took Labor Day off to spend with my family – with advance notice and his approval. To further complicate things he refused to pay me and lawyers had to be called in because he refused to discuss the situation with me. It was resolved quietly enough but left a horrible taste in my mouth about someone whom I believed had integrity.

Let’s Get Real

I no longer live in ward 2 but I care very much what happens there so over the course of the next ten days I will be sharing with you my experience working for Bill Hosko. Bill is not an easy man to work for and if elected to the council he will be expected to work with the other members. It’s not easy to tell if a candidate can play nicely based on campaign literature. I hope to shed a little light on the real person running against Dave Thune so that those 15% – 35% can judge for themselves who the better candidate is.