Local Video
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| Voters pare down races to two |
By: SUZANNE ROOK, Senior Reporter
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Posted: Thursday, September 11, 2008 1:11 pm
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MAYOR: ROSSING CITES HER VISIONING
Mary Rossing, in her first political campaign, stomped the competition in the city’s mayoral primary, pulling in more than a third of the vote in a seven-man race.
Former Mayor Paul Hager took second with about one-fifth of the votes cast
The incumbent mayor, Lee Lansing, was the sixth-place finisher.
Rossing, a downtown businesswoman, said she believes voters reacted positively to her longtime community involvement and her insistence on looking ahead.
“I’m the only candidate who talks about vision, the only one talking about the future,” she said Tuesday evening.
The head of Northfield’s community access station who also works at Carleton College, Hager, who said this was his first primary, said he believes voters responded to his experience — not only as a former mayor and councilor, but as a former member of the Northfield School Board.
He said he plans to take a few days to get organized and look at the issues that distinguish himself from Rossing before hitting the campaign trail.
Lansing said Tuesday that he was disappointed with the results and said his inability to clear his name led to his defeat.
It’s been a difficult year for Lansing. He faced two investigations, one approved by the city council that found he violated the city’s ethics code and another still ongoing at the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Department.
But Lansing, not one to give in to defeat, offered his congratulations to Rossing and Hager. “I think it’s going to be a good slate,” he said.
The duo led their challengers: Lansing, city councilor Jon Denison local attorneys David Hvistendahl and James Schlichting, and trained mediator and former school board member Eduardo Wolle. None took more than one sixth of the total vote.
In all, 3,017 cast their ballots for the city’s mayoral candidates, about 1,000 higher than in the 2004 mayoral primary. The results, which don’t include absentee ballots, aren’t official until they’re canvassed later this week.
Rossing, whose campaign signs are posted all over town and counts a former city councilor and former mayor among her backers, has promised to change the tone in City Hall if elected. The 47-year-old says she’s a consensus-builder who wants bring back a “sense of civility, respect and pride to our local government.”
And with the budget shortfall the city is facing in 2009 and, potentially, into 2011, Rossing advocates belt-tightening and believes the council should always consider costs when approving projects.
Hager, 56, has said that as mayor he, too, would also build consensus on the council. He has criticized Lansing and was one of several former mayors who last December asked Lansing to resign following an investigator’s findings that he acted unethically. Hager advocates cutting spending, but said the city must maintain essential services, particularly public safety and utilities.
The voters, he believes, had something to say.
“I think the message they were sending is they wanted someone else to be mayor,” he said. “That message is very clear.”
AT LARGE: VOHS LOOKS TO THIRD TERM
In the at-large city council race, where all three candidates have prior council experience, incumbent Kris Vohs and challenger Dana Graham topped David DeLong.
Vohs, looking for his third term on council, tallied the highest number of votes, with nearly half the 2,670 cast. Graham took slightly less than a third.
Both move on to the Nov. 4 general election. Elections results will be canvassed by the council Thursday.
DeLong, who advocated tighter controls on city spending and has criticized the council in recent months for its seeming inability to get along, came in third with one-fifth of the vote.
Vohs said he believes voters responded to his approachability and his interest and knowledge of a range of issues important to Northfielders: economic development, affordable housing, sustainability and non-motorized transportation.
He said his honesty and willingness to listen to constituents also helped move him on to November.
Graham, who campaigned on a pledge of responsiveness to the community, fiscal responsibility and respect for the role of city government, said he believes voters want a change at City Hall. It’s now up to the candidates, he said, to point out the differences between them and highlight their strengths to voters.
Graham also believes the council should plan for the future and work closely with the Economic Development Authority in bringing additional industry to town and broadening the city’s tax base, something he believes will lower residential property owners’ taxes.
Vohs, the council’s mayor pro temp, also cited fiscal responsibility as the biggest issue facing the city and wants to see Northfield’s tax base grow.
Both say they’re ready to get to work. “The race starts now,” said Graham.
WARD 3: ZWEIFEL TAKES HALF OF VOTES
Erica Zweifel and Don McGee will face off in November for the Third Ward council seat.
Zweifel took slightly more than half the vote, with McGee pulling in a little more than a quarter of the 597 votes cast. The results are unofficial and won’t be canvassed until Thursday evening.
That the two garnered the most votes in Tuesday’s primary came as little surprise. The third candidate in the race, Alan Lindberg, did little campaigning, failed to respond to a League of Women Voters invitation to its candidates’ forum, and after being interviewed by the Northfield News, didn’t respond to questions it posed to all candidates.
The News could not reach Lindberg for comment late Tuesday night.
“It’s pretty exciting,” said Zweifel of moving on to the general election. “I think people want a change. I think people want diversity on the council,” she said of the current all-male council.
Her opponent in November, McGee, was ill Tuesday evening. His wife, Lee, said he went to bed early before the results were in and wasn’t available for comment.
The two agree on many issues, particularly as they pertain to the Third Ward, in the city’s northwest. Both want to see a small business or two in the ward, possibly a grocery store or a coffee shop, and both want the city to work toward a safer east-west crossing on Hwy. 3 for pedestrians and cyclists.
But when asked what the biggest issue facing the city is, the two differ. McGee, who became politically active after promoting changes to the city’s rental ordinance, said the city needs to focus on budgeting issues.
“First we have to establish a baseline budget to make sure that we can maintain our existing city services and properly maintain the facilities and infrastructure that we have in place,” he told the News last month.
A member of the city’s Environmental Quality Commission, Zweifel said the city’s Comprehensive Plan, currently in draft form, is Northfield’s biggest issue. Finding the tax base to support the plan, which includes growing the number of city industries, is critical.
Zweifel said she plans to start pounding the pavement, going door-to-door promoting her candidacy. She said she plans to distinguish herself from McGee, a regular council attendee and frequent commenter, who Zweifel believes has been perceived to be part of the council. And, she said, she’s heard some dissatisfaction with the city’s rental code and McGee’s ties to the ordinance, a large part of which was struck down by a May state supreme court ruling.
— Suzanne Rook can be reached at srook@northfieldnews.com or 645-1113.
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