Redistricting adds surprises to St. Paul City Council races

Frederick Melo, Pioneer Press
·3 min read

When St. Paul voters head to the polls to choose their city council member this November, some may be surprised to discover that they no longer reside in the same political ward they once did.

A redistricting process following the last U.S. Census roped in the city’s Charter Commission, minus the late Chuck Repke, who died of cancer in 2021. Some city and county officials have openly acknowledged that Repke — who could alternately engross and infuriate politicos with his eagle-eyed knowledge of procedural minutiae — had a bead on redistricting like few others in St. Paul civic circles.

In addition, a process that a decade ago played out over the course of months was truncated into just four weeks in February and March 2022, blamed at the time on delays in getting updated Census data from the federal government and then the state.

Council President Amy Brendmoen has spent nearly 12 years representing Ward 5, which spans much of the North End and Como neighborhood. Redistricting last year, which was heavily influenced by consultants from St. Paul-based Park Street Public, has also left her representing a portion of the city’s East Side between Edgerton Street and Lake Phalen she’s never contended with before.

In the process, she lost representation of McMurray Fields in the Como neighborhood and, to the east, Railroad Island near downtown. In short, Ward 5 has been rolled out like dough to become more linear. “Everything, like (the annual celebration known as Hmong J4) that happens on McMurray Fields impacts Ward 5, but it’s in Ward 4,” said Brendmoen on Wednesday, bemoaning the changes.

“I had people say that after the DFL convention — ‘hey, wait a minute, I’m in Ward 5 now.’ They’re confusing,” added Brendmoen, who is not running for re-election. “I think the charter commission did it in a rush, and they were really focused on having equal numbers of residents in their wards, instead of having naturally geographic boundaries. It just got to the point where they were drawing arbitrary lines.”

Former St. Paul Charter Commission Chair Brian Alton said the commission studied six different options prepared by consultants, trying their best to adhere to criteria set out by the council itself, as well as polling locations.

“For the most part, I think, people were satisfied,” said Alton. No council members were redistricted into a competing seat.

Filings open

Candidate filings for all seven ward seats on the St. Paul City Council and four seats on the St. Paul School Board opened Tuesday and will close Aug. 15. After that, candidates will have through the end of the workday on Aug. 17 to withdraw their candidacy. Four city council members have chosen not to run for re-election — Brendmoen, Dai Thao, Jane Prince and Chris Tolbert, creating a rare opportunity for heavy turnover.

There will be no political primaries to whittle down the field, and the city council will be chosen by ranked-choice ballot, meaning voters can rank up to three preferences for council.

As of Wednesday evening, the slate of four school board candidates endorsed by the St. Paul DFL had all filed their affidavits of candidacy with Ramsey County Elections: Carlo Franco, Chauntyll Allen, Yusef Carrillo and Erica Valliant. No one else had filed for school board.

Three candidates filed for city council In Ward 1: Anika Bowie, Lucky “Tiger Jack” Rosenbloom and Omar Syed.

No candidates had filed in Ward 2 or Ward 6 as of Tuesday evening. Saura Jost filed in Ward 3. Council Member Mitra Jalali filed for re-election in Ward 4. Hwa Jeong Kim filed for council in Ward 5. And both Cheniqua Johnson and Kartumu King filed in Ward 7.

Jalali, Bowie, Jost, Kim and Johnson — all of them women of color — chose to file one after the other Wednesday morning. All of them, as well as Council Member Nelsie Yang in Ward 6, are endorsed by the St. Paul DFL except for Bowie in Ward 1, where the party did not issue an endorsement.

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