November 20, 2013
Libertarian candidates scored two victories in this year’s municipal elections! Other candidates came close, and all helped to spread the message of liberty. Here’s a recap of results for November 2013.
Roger Parras, elected to
St Peter City Council
In the southwestern Minnesota city of St Peter, Libertarian candidate Roger Parras was victorious in his bid for City Council. Results showed Mr Parras pulling in 392 votes (41%) out of 959 votes cast, coming in second for the two open seats in his Ward.
In the central Minnesota community of Pine City, Libertarian candidate Alicia Ascheman won her bid for School Board. Results showed her winning 527 votes (22%), the top vote-getter among the eleven candidates running for the Board’s three open seats. Ms Ascheman is well-known in her community as a libertarian, but hadn’t been known to the LPMN in time for this year’s voter’s guide, a situation since corrected after a meeting with LPMN leadership where she was retroactively nominated.
Other races didn’t result in victories, but candidates who gained press coverage or ran active campaigns clearly did better than those who did not.
Alicia Ascheman, elected to Pine City School Board
In St Peter‘s Mayoral race, Libertarian candidate Joel Brinker did not prevail. In the final results, Mr Brinker came in with 439 votes (38%) while incumbent Mayor Tim Strand took 716 votes (62%).
In the metro-area suburb of Savage, Libertarian candidate Shaun Alexander came just 128 votes shy of unseating an incumbent. In a six-candidate race for two seats on the City Council, the results showed the two Libertarian candidates mounting a strong challenge. Shaun Alexander won 457 votes (20%) and Jeremy Seykora gained 369 votes (16%). The seats were won by incumbents Gene Abbott with 601 votes (26%) and Jane Victorey with 585 votes (25%).
In Minneapolis, Libertarian Michael Katch gained considerable press from the local media. He came in third for City Council Ward 3, with the result of 363 “first choice” votes (6%). Winning the race was well-funded DFLer Jacob Frey with 3722 votes (61%), who surpassed even incumbent DFLer Diane Hofstede’s 1614 votes (26%).
Also in Minneapolis, results showed Mayoral candidate Christopher Clark winning 188 “first choice” votes in a field split among several other libertarian-leaning contenders amid a raucous field of 35 candidates. However, Mr Clark’s total increased 46% and he leapfrogged over several other candidates in the standings as the ranked-choice tabulations proceeded. One of the highest-gainers of second and third choice votes from candidates eliminated during the tabulation process, he survived until Round 22 among the 35 candidates for Mayor. Well-funded DFLer and former City Council member Betsy Hodges gained 28,935 “first choice” votes (36%) and was the ultimate winner.
Finally, in the metro-area suburb of Brooklyn Center, results for School Board candidate Mary O’Connor showed her receiving 35 votes (7%) among five candidates and 492 total voters.
The results of all 2013 races are available via this link.
We congratulate all of our candidates for carrying our Libertarian banner, working to get our message to the public, and for taking a personal stand for liberty!
Concerned about the expansion of government control and the erosion of individual liberty? Please consider joining and becoming active with the Libertarian Party of Minnesota. Libertarians support liberty on all issues, all the time! Libertarianism is a philosophical and political movement to promote personal freedom, strong civil liberties, a genuinely free marketplace, and peace.