I voted last night, natch.

I voted a straight Republican ticket, to the extent that it mattered. “Big surprise, there”, I can hear some of you writing. Well, it’s not as big a lock as some of you might think.

SaintPaulicy had some predictions; sorry to say, he blew a couple.

We only had two races in St. Paul last night; School Board and City Council.

There was good news and status quo news.

St. Paul School Board

18609 19.78 ANNE CARROLL
16828 17.89 KAZOUA KONG-THAO
13258 14.09 TOM CONLON
13126 13.95 KEITH HARDY
—————————-
11683 12.42 KEVIN RIACH
08969 09.53 DAVID PETERSON
07976 08.48 JENNETTE GUDGEL
03106 03.30 BERNARD RUPPERT
00511 00.54 WRITE-IN**
== == == == == == == == ==

It’s good news that Tom Conlon – the district’s sole sane member Republican, got re-elected. It’s even better that he made the cut in third rather than fourth place, by a 132 vote margin. Saint Paul’s students thank you, voters. (Next election, could we see about chasing Tom Goldstein from the building?)

I voted a straight GOP ticket – Conlon, Peterson and Gudgel – and for my fourth vote wrote in my cat, Nosemarie. She’s becoming Saint Paul’s most-seasoned campaigner, I think; she’s gonna get elected one day.

Now, off to the city council, where the news is just plain worse:

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD-W-01
2633 57.50 MELVIN CARTER
1932 42.19 DEBBIE MONTGOMERY
0014 00.31 WRITE-IN**

This is bad news; the Gang of Four is now the Gang of Five. It’s a bit of an upset – SPicy predicted “Debbie Montgomery has a past of being a history maker in Saint Paul. She is the first African-American female police officer, City Councilor and holder of other notable successes. What Debbie will now be is the first African American woman to be re-elected to City Hall. ” Blah.

Carter is yet another nutso liberal. Hang on to your wallets, Saint Paul. Montgomery was a voice of moderation on the district – ergo, the DFL put her on the hit list.

Big tent. Hahahahaha.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD-W-02
2733 53.02 DAVE THUNE
2399 46.54 BILL HOSKO
0023 00.45 WRITE-IN**

This was a much closer race than expected. Thune should have buried Hosko without much effort.

Speaking of burying…

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD-W-03
4369 86.29 PAT HARRIS
0639 12.62 GERALD MISCHKE
0055 01.09 WRITE-IN**

Sigh.

Now, to my ward:

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD-W-04
3115 80.93 RUSS STARK
0691 17.95 TERRANCE BUSHARD
0043 01.12 WRITE-IN**

The GOP in Saint Paul is a disorganized mess; there’s no money to mount a credible campaign. Which is a shame, since – even though there was never a chance that a standard Republican would win in the smug, government-employee-clogged Fourth Ward, the open seat left by Jay Benanav was at least a place to make a race of it.

The Fourth Congressional District GOP habitually starves the city of money, focusing its’ efforts north of Larpenteur Avenue. It has to change.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD-W-05
2124 51.52 LEE HELGEN
1983 48.10 DAVID HAAS
0016 00.39 WRITE-IN**

This hurts.

The “anti-Helgen” movement did their homework, pounded their pavement, and worked their butts off to remove the (in my opinion) loathsome Helgen from his seat. A charter member of the Gang of Four, Helgen squeaked through.

Blah.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD-W-06
2507 53.69 DAN BOSTROM
2142 45.88 PAKOU HANG
0020 00.43 WRITE-IN**

Bostrom – one of the district’s few voices of sanity – withstood a full-court push. Thank goodness.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD-W-07
1737 71.25 KATHY LANTRY
0689 28.26 JANINE KELLEY
0012 00.49 WRITE-IN**

Lantry is the boot on the Saint Paul taxpayer’s throat, (seeminglyl) forever.