I’m indebted to Naomi Kritzer for writing such clear and comprehensive blog posts about Minnesota elections.  Thank you, Naomi.  She has brought her knowledge of Minnesota politics to the national, statewide, and some of the local races.

The race that I’ve seen the most lawn signs for in my neighborhood is the County Commissioner in District 2.  The incumbent opted not to run this year, and there are 5 people on the ballot for the seat.

To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what a County Commissioner did.  The main place I’ve seen “Hennepin County” was on my library card.  It turns out that Hennepin County has a $2.4 billion annual budget, and handles roads, public transit, affordable housing, and, yes, libraries.  Over a million people live in Hennepin County, and we have 7 commissioners as the executive branch of the county.  Some of the candidates note specifically that there has never been a person of color on the county board, which is frankly astonishing and alarming.  The Southwest Journal published an overview of the candidates in this race.  I am presenting them in the order they appear on my sample ballot (get yours).

Iyob Waldsmayate: A first-generation immigrant, Waldsmayate works for the VA in St Paul.  His major issues seem to be green energy and affordable housing, which I’m for, but they each only have one bullet point on his rather bare bones (though at least HTTPS!) campaign website.  He doesn’t have any endorsements listed.

Tim Bildsoe: Currently the president of the North Loop Neighborhood Association, he doesn’t have many endorsements.  The Southwest Journal says that he focuses on affordable housing, youth homelessness, and mental health.  His website does not mention these issues, instead highlighting his work in the North Loop and his fiscal responsibility on the Plymouth City Council.

Blong Yang: I actually received a mailer from Blong Yang, and I’ve seen several lawn signs for him near my home in Bryn Mawr.  In the Southwest Journal, he seemed mostly to focus on county efficiency.  His campaign website has a quick and easy (that is: extremely helpful) rundown of exactly what county commissioners do.  His endorsements page, on the other hand, is mainly a list of individuals.  His issues list focuses on the fact that he has elected experience as a member of the city council and is capable of working within the government to improve it for citizens, but is light on details of what those improvements would look like.

Irene Fernando: Fernando is the DFL-endorsed candidate and has a who’s who of endorsements from local DFL-ers (Ilhan Omar, Raymond Dehn), including the outgoing District 2 Commissioner, Linda Higgins.  I appreciate that she has guidance about how to vote early and some cute short videos about what county commissioners do.  She doesn’t have a tab about issues on her website.  In the Southwest Journal article, she discussed better coordination between police and mental health resources, child welfare, better transit, and environmental stewardship.

Natalie Johnson Lee: Johnson Lee doesn’t have a campaign website, which makes it difficult to evaluate her as a candidate.  Her responses to the Southwest Journal were fairly boilerplate, about government collaboration and efficiency.  She was a former city councilwoman for the Green Party, which is intriguing.

Bottom line: Irene Fernando has the party behind her, Blong Yang has some on the ground support in my neighborhood.  I’ll be interested to see how the race goes and what the county does in the coming years.