Iron Range Today Staff Report
The Virginia City Council field was narrowed to six after primary votes were tallied Tuesday night, setting up the Nov. 5 General Election for three open seats.
Annie Bachschneider was the top vote-getter with 532 votes (22.94%) to advance, along with incumbent Julianne Paulsen (437, 18.84%), Jared Siebert (368, 15.87%); incumbent Steven B. Johnson (357, 15.39%), David S. Hansen (290, 12.51%) and Rodney Salo (204, 8.8%). Ricky Angellar (131, 5.65%) fell short of the General Election cutoff.
KAXE wrote about the primary candidate forum on Aug. 7, hosted by Iron Range Today and the Lyric Center for the Arts, which dove into a portion of the issues facing the city. A recording is available.
In Mountain Iron, Bradley Gustafson advanced to the General Election with the 214 votes (30.7%). Incumbents Joe Prebeg Jr. (174, 24.96%) and Ed Roskoski (148, 21.23%) also moved on with Daniel L. Gunderson (94, 13.49%). Kristina Hawkins (67 votes, 9.61%) did not advance.
The four candidates will vie for two open city council seats.
In Chisholm, incumbent Travis Vake’s 339 votes (23.86%) moved him along in November. He’ll be one of six candidates for three open seats, joined by fellow incumbents Cheyenne Mikkola-Rahja (218, 15.34%), Marty Halvorson (213, 14.99%) and challengers James Varda (202, 14.22%), Audrey Bailey (185, 13.02%) and Brandan Fiedler (152, 10.70%). Seraphia Gravelle (112, 7.88%) did not advance.
In the 8th Congressional District, it will be a rematch of 2022 as incumbent Pete Stauber, R-Hermantown, and Jennifer Schultz, DFL-Duluth, each garnered nearly 91% of the primary vote.
In Minnesota House 7B, Republican Cal Warwas had 84% of the vote and will face DFLer Lorrie Janatopoulos in November to fill an open House seat after DFL Rep. Dave Lislegard did not seek re-election.
