Cam Gordon wins!!

In the Primary Election Cam got only 885 votes or 37% of the total to Cara's 1294. She looked like she had an insurmountable lead. At the victory party after the Primary, Cam admitted he "had a lot of work to do." They, and particularly Robin Garwood, did the work, and brought home the only Green City Council seat for the next four years. Dean Zimmermann lost in the 6th and Natalie Johnson Lee lost in the 5th.

Cara Letofsky was a formidable opponent. She was very involved in her community, went to every neighborhood meeting, was well known and well liked. Perhaps her greatest strength might also have been her greatest weakness. Her husband, Jim Davnie, represents a lot of the 2nd Ward as part of his legislative district. Although that meant she had easy access to lists and volunteers, it's possible that the voters felt that two might be too many people in one family feeding at the public trough.

The Second Ward is always interesting. Just four years ago, for the first time in fifty years of City elections, they turned out an incumbent, Joan Campbell, in the Primary. Cam Gordon did well in that election, but Paul Zerby beat him for the seat. Most observers thought Cam came close last time because there was a split in the DFL. Zerby had challenged Campbell for the endorsement and ran against her in the Primary. A split in the DFL is always thought to benefit the Green candidate. And a lot of people believed many of Campbell's people voted against Zerby and for Gordon. Four years ago Natalie Johnson Lee ran against Jackie Cherryhomes in the 5th DFL endorsing convention, and, when Cherryhomes got the endorsement, Johnson Lee went next door and got the Green's. Dean Zimmermann showed up at the 6th Ward endorsing convention and was gagged by Rick Stafford. The picture of him with duct tape over his mouth was the most memorable image of that race. Both Green candidates won with some DFL support. This year the 5th and 6th DFL were pretty united.

As the sole Green member of the City Council, Cam could easily be isolated. But the City Council is pretty gregarious and most issues don't get settled just on party lines. It's more likely that Cam will find company with some of the more progressive new members like Ralph Remington and Elizabeth Glidden. It will still be difficult to put together seven votes (there are thirteen members). Robert Lilligren, Gary Schiff and Don Samuels could be counted on to support most progressive causes, but after that it gets difficult to count that last vote. And the only rule in politics is to know how to count.

Sandy Colvin Roy ran up a convincing 53% or 4123 votes in her victory over a very spirited Kevin McDonald. McDonald found it difficult to find issues connecting to the voters. In the final days, after Roy filed her campaign contributors list, McDonald was able to point out that most of Roy's contributors were tied to developers outside the ward. But by that time most voters had already made up
their minds.

Gary Schiff easily beat Dave Bicking of the Green Party in the 9th 2549 votes to 1315, or 59% to 30.5%. Dave Shegstad ran a write in campaign that polled 447 votes or 10.3%.

Congratulations to the winners and special thanks to all who ran and didn't win but tried to contribute to meaningful public discussion of community issues.