It’s been quite an interesting few months that have brought us to yet another election. Some fought hard to be heard and some slid on by without too much of a struggle. We’d first like to give kudos to all candidates for stepping up to better Duluth and the community that we live in. The Reader assembled a panel to discuss who we’d endorse.

Let’s not waste time. Your ballot, if you choose to vote will flow something like this:

First off, We’d like to say that overall Don Ness has served the community our community very well, and will be a hard act to follow.

Mayor of Duluth

Emily Larson

Emily Larson gave us absolutely no feedback on any of her positions, despite several requests. She seemed ill prepared in at least one of the debates.  She may well assume that she has this in the bag, which she probably does.  Regardless, the majority of The Reader’s panel felt she was the better candidate to lead Duluth now. The bottom line is that Larson is more qualified. Her time on the City Council, her knowledge and education make her the obvious candidate here. Horton has good intentions, and he’s a fighter, but you can’t fight everything head on, and being powerless in certain situations does happen. Larson seems more capable of keeping her cool.
Horton impressed with his vigor, passion and hard work. As a news source, Horton seems much more accessible than Larson, and he is certainly working hard and clearly cares deeply about our community. On the other hand, Larson doesn’t have a Facebook page specifically for people that she has blocked on social media, unlike Horton.  Horton should be encouraged to continue putting his considerable energy into improving our region.   

City Council At Large

Elissa Hansen & Kriss Osbakken

This really came down to experience of a caring individual and the promise of a new up and coming candidate. This wasn’t an easy choice for us since all of the candidates are worthy. Noah Hobbs at 26 doesn’t quite have what we were looking for although one of our board did back him. Between the five on the board, it ended up with Elissa Hanson and Kriss Osbakken. Yes, Osbakken has been a contributor with The Reader, but we’ll let Dr. Gary Kohls explain it his way:  
“Kriss was one of the few candidates for city council that seemed to have significant expressed knowledge about national politics (and world and American history) who has taken ethics-based positions on any number of issues that will inevitably be impacting Duluth and the surrounding area.
Kriss has a deep understanding of (and has publicly called for action on) serious issues such as income inequality, homelessness, climate change, American neo-colonialism, militarization, police brutality, racism, and the dangers of multinational corporate domination (and pollution) of America’s and the world’s economies, America’s political system and the entire planet.
Her wisdom and her passion for justice for the downtrodden, the economically deprived and fellow underdogs were positions that appealed to the panel.”
Jim Booth would be a fine choice and narrowly missed our endorsement, but the board leaned towards Elissa Hansen. Her views made sense and she has the experience to be a solid City Councilor. To sum it up, she has infrastructure and businesses on the top of her mind.
Between the young energy of Hansen and the experience and wisdom of Osbakken. Regardless,  the City Council will certainly be stirred up. Again, all candidates show a lot of promise.

City Council District 1

Gary Anderson

There was a lot of back an forth between Gary Anderson and Karl Spring. We finally went with Anderson on a 3-2 vote. Both candidates are worthy of being on the council. Anderson’s ability to get things done when he cares about something got him the nod.

City Council District 2

Joel Sipress

Joel Sipress has been a professor at UW-Superior and has never been afraid to speak out against injustice. Just being the only candidate on the ballot is not enough to garner an endorsement from this board, let alone a unanimous nod, as Mr. Sipress earned.
Sipress, 50, was appointed to the 2nd District City Council seat to finish the term of Patrick Boyle, who was elected to the St. Louis County Board in 2014. In the last year, he has distinguished himself as a thoughtful, balanced statesman, enough even, to win over our board’s most conservative member.
Mr. Sipress grew up in New Jersey, attended Princeton University for his undergraduate studies and the University of North Carolina for his doctorate. He moved to the Twin Ports 20 years ago with his wife, Claire Kirch.


City Council District 3

Em Westerlund

She’s progressive, active and unrivaled. What’s there to say here? Westerlund will be a breath of fresh air in the council and we can’t wait to see what she does.

City Council District 5

Jay Fosle

We had to chat for awhile over this decision. In the end Fosle got a unanimous vote from our board. He isn’t your typical politician. Yes, he might take a different approach now and again. He might not always be the popular guy who goes with the flow, but you know what? That’s why he should remain on the City Council. He’s dedicated and for better or worse, he’s the type of person to question things and perhaps make them better. While his opponent Janet Kennedy is a worthy contender, tour panel often values the outlier, the outsider who asks the hard questions, even if the result is pre-ordained.

School Board At Large

No Endorsement

Yes, we looked at both candidates and no one on the board could muster any strong opinion one way or the other on this race. May the best candidate win.

School Board District 2

Charles Obije

32 year-old Mr. Obije, a Nigerian native who has made his home in Duluth for the past 12 years, impressed us with his energy, drive and tenacity. These are qualities that we think will serve the people of the 2nd District well on the School Board. Mr. Obije received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Superior and his master’s degree from the University of Minnesota Duluth.

The other candidate, David Kirby, 71, is highly qualified as well. His background includes a doctorate in educational administration. He taught education for several years before turning to medicine. He has been a Duluth resident the past 17 years and retired as a family physician with St. Luke’s.
The Editorial Board felt that although Mr. Kirby is a highly qualified individual, he just is not the right person for this seat at this time.


School Board District 3

Loren Martell

Yes, you may have read some of Loren Martell’s columns about the Duluth School Board in The Reader.

We’re not playing favorites here, there are very few people anywhere who have the depth of knowledge as to ISD 709 that Martell does. If anyone can keep the School Board, the people who decide how your kids are educated and how the money is spent in line, it is certainly Martell. He’s probably the candidate that the school board doesn’t really want on board and that’s exactly why he should be there.

City Question 1: Sale of Liquor in Lakeside and Lester Park

No: “I do not support eliminating the state law which prohibits the sale of intoxicating liquor”…

The board decided 3-2 to vote “no” on this issue. Arguments for a “yes” vote included the right for free enterprise and that people without vehicles shouldn’t have to trudge for miles through the snow just to get a bottle of wine or a 12 pack. Those who voted “no” said that this was an issue specifically for Lakeside and Lester Park and that there should be some sort of voting process that pinpoints that specific area. In a way that makes sense. Why should the entire city vote on something that deals with just one corner of town? We’re not certain how that voting process could happen, but it should. That will answer this question fully and accurately for the residents who live there.

City Question 2: Ranked Choice Voting

No: “Duluth City Charter will not be amended to adopt Ranked Choice Voting as the method for electing the mayor and city councilors.”

Ranked Choice Voting may have a time and place in the near future, but that time, especially in Duluth, is not now. Duluth’s races are typically non-partisan. As a reader, you may have noticed that most races involve two people. First, there are concerns about tallying the races using RCV. New or updated voting machines will be needed and that will cost money. Second, a lot of people don’t even understand it. Sure, a group of educated men finally got the general gist of things, but the average person would have to look it up. Third, even if the average person looked it up, how are they to have the knowledge to not only understand one or two candidates, but many candidates? We do our homework and emailed all of the candidates in this race trying to learn more about them. It was startling to see how few responded. Even if you’re attempting to learn more about a candidate, don’t expect to get a straight answer, or even any answer. Yes, these people are very busy, but it’s our job to tell you what they say and their job to say it. So, basically, you’d have to be fully involved with learning about each and every candidate and depending on if they feel like saying really anything about their positions.  It’s not right for Duluth at this time, although the idea has some potential in helping develop third parties on a national basis.
In the end, research and learn as much as you can. Most of the candidates in this race are worthy individuals. The most important thing is to actually vote. We won’t pass judgement, hell, we won’t know who you vote for. Learning about your community and watching out for each other are a couple of important things in being a good citizen. Don’t think that you don’t matter, because you do. We’ll be here, but to really get things done, you just might have to talk to a few of the people we just endorsed. We wish them the best on addressing our needs.  

Minnesota House 3A

Rob Ecklund

Koochiching County commissioner Rob Ecklund is the choice in the Minnesota House 3A race. The district stretches from I-falls to the North Shore and the former union president at Boise-Cascade aims to add two more T’s to the areas reliance on taconite, timber and tourism. Ecklund said a priority is to add transportation and technology to the mix and we wholly support that idea. We do have reservations with Ecklund’s support for copper-nickel and other heavy metal mining in Northeastern Minnesota but all the candidates on the November ballot support sulfide mining so we’re throwing our support to Ecklund and his many years of public service.     
Robert Boone
Founder, Owner and Publisher of the Reader. A lifelong resident of the Twin Ports, Boone has dug into many local issues and has even interviewed George W. Bush. After 18 years of running an independently owned paper, he knows a few of the ins and outs of what’s happening around town.

Paul Whyte
When Paul wasn’t working on credits towards his Mass Comm degree, he’d be taking unneeded classes in Political Science and Law. While he is known as an entertainment writer, he will take the gloves off to delve into political, environmental and social topics as needed. After six years with the Reader, he knows a couple of things about the area he lives in.  

John Gilbert
A former writer for the Star Tribune for 30 years and 15 years WCCO radio. He is now a radio talk show host and sports writer with the Reader. Of course he has spent plenty of time in the Twin Ports and has a good understanding about what’s going on with the area.

Israel Malachi
The newest addition to the Reader, Malachi is anything but new to the area. He’s a business owner and is our conservative consultant.
Having ran for mayor himself and with a family background in local politics, Malachi was a good choice to add insight and balance to the board.


Dr. Gary Kohls
Kohls has a firm grasp on politics and psychological matters. He is a long time resident of the Twin Ports and has a lot to bring to the table when it comes to this area.


Forrest Johnson
Forrest Johnson former
editor of the Lake County News-Chronicle in Two Harbors for over 20 years and has covered issues and politics of the North Shore.