Mayoral election in St. Paul, Minnesota (2017)

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# Mayoral election in St. Paul, Minnesota (2017)

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2017 St. Paul elections

Election dates
Filing deadline: August 15, 2017
General election: November 7, 2017
Election stats
Offices up: Mayor
Total seats up: 1

Election type: Nonpartisan
Other municipal elections
U.S. municipal elections, 2017

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The city of St. Paul, Minnesota, held an election for mayor on November 7, 2017. The filing deadline for this election was August 15, 2017. Ten candidates filed for the election to replace Mayor Chris Coleman (D), who did not file for re-election because of his 2018 campaign for governor.[1] Melvin Carter III won the election based on first-choice votes under the city's instant-runoff voting system. St. Paul's municipal elections are nonpartisan but partisan identification is used when candidates have publicly stated their affiliations. The city's minimum wage and a proposed redevelopment plan for a former Ford assembly plant divided candidates for mayor. Learn more about candidate positions on these issues by clicking here.[2]

## Contents

* 1 Elections
* 2 General election
* 2.1 Campaign finance
* 3 Election rules
* 4 Additional elections on the ballot
* 5 Past elections
* 5.1 2013
* 5.2 2009
* 5.3 2005
* 5.4 Issues
* 5.4.1 Differences over city plans for former Ford plant site
* 5.4.1.1 Candidate stances
* 5.4.2 Minimum wage
* 5.4.2.1 Candidate stances
* 5.4.3 No mayoral endorsement by Democratic Party
* 5.5 About the city
* 5.5.1 City government
* 5.5.2 Demographics
* 5.6 Recent news
* 5.7 See also
* 5.8 External links
* 5.9 Footnotes

## Elections

# General election

This symbol, , next to a candidate's name indicates his or her participation in Ballotpedia's municipal government candidate survey. Click the image next to a candidate's name to jump to their page detailing their responses.

Mayor Chris Coleman (D) did not run for re-election.[3]

☐ Sharon Anderson
☑ Melvin Carter III
☐ Trahern Jeen Crews

Elizabeth Dickinson
☐ Tom Goldstein
☐ Pat Harris

☐ Chris Holbrook
☐ Tim Holden
☐ Dai Thao
☐ Barnabas Y'shua

### Campaign finance

Candidates for mayor of St. Paul are required to report contributions and expenditures once they have reached $100 in contributions or expenditures during an election. The following table lists campaign finance data for St. Paul mayoral candidates through October 19, 2017.

September 12 campaign finance

# Election rules

See also: Instant-runoff voting

Municipal elections in St. Paul are conducted through a system known as instant-runoff voting (IRV). In an IRV system, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives an overall majority of first preferences, the candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated one by one and their votes are transferred according to their second and third preferences. All votes are recounted until one candidate achieves a majority.

Voters approved IRV for municipal elections by ballot measure on November 3, 2009. The system was first used for council elections in 2011 and the first mayoral election with IRV took place in 2013.[4]

Ballot-counting process

# Additional elections on the ballot

See also: Minnesota elections, 2017

St. Paul's mayoral election shared the ballot with elections for three seats on the St. Paul Board of Education.

# Past elections

* Click year below to navigate:
* 2013
* 2009
* 2005

### 2013

Mayor of St. Paul, 2013

Candidate | Vote % | Votes
Chris Coleman Incumbent | 78.8% | 23,875
Tim Holden | 16.4% | 4,978
Sharon Anderson | 3% | 917
Kurt Dornfeld  | 1.8% | 547
Total Votes | 30,317
Source: Ramsey County Board of Elections \- 2013 General Election Results

### 2009

Mayor of St. Paul, General Election, 2009

Candidate | Vote % | Votes
Chris Coleman Incumbent | 69% | 23,380
Eva Ng  | 31% | 10,496
Total Votes | 33,876
Source: Ramsey County Board of Elections \- 2009 General Election Results
Mayor of St. Paul, Primary Election, 2009

Candidate | Vote % | Votes
Chris Coleman Incumbent | 67.8% | 7,791
Eva Ng | 25.8% | 2,967
Bill Dahn  | 2.5% | 289
Sharon Anderson | 3.9% | 445
Total Votes | 11,492
Source: Ramsey County Board of Elections \- 2009 Primary Election Results

### 2005

Mayor of St. Paul, General Election, 2005

Candidate | Vote % | Votes
Chris Coleman | 69% | 40,601
Randy Kelly Incumbent | 31% | 18,203
Total Votes | 58,804
Source: Ramsey County Board of Elections \- 2005 General Election Results
Mayor of St. Paul, Primary Election, 2005

Candidate | Vote % | Votes
Chris Coleman | 51.8% | 13,041
Randy Kelly Incumbent | 26.8% | 6,740
Elizabeth Dickinson | 19.5% | 4,905
Nich Tschida  | 0.5% | 135
Sharon Anderson | 0.9% | 216
Bill Dahn  | 0.2% | 59
Jacon Perasso  | 0.1% | 36
Glen Mansfield  | 0.2% | 40
Total Votes | 25,037
Source: Ramsey County Board of Elections \- 2005 Primary Election Results

## Issues

### Differences over city plans for former Ford plant site

The city's plan to redevelop a former Ford assembly plant into a mixed-use neighborhood attracted differing opinions from community groups and mayoral candidates. The 135-acre industrial property was used by Ford for vehicle assembly from 1925 to 2011. On September 27, 2017, the St. Paul City Council voted 5-2 to approve zoning changes and a public realm plan proposed by the St. Paul Planning Commission. Additional steps in the redevelopment process include the sale of the land by Ford to a master developer, state environmental assessments, and cleanup of any pollutants found in the assessments.[5]

Organizations supporting and opposing the Ford site plan emerged prior to the council's vote. Sustain Ward 3 supported the Ford site plan because of the group's belief that the plan provided affordable housing, access to local businesses, and public transportation options. The group celebrated the September 27 council vote for addressing earlier concerns with housing affordability in the proposed neighborhood.[6] Neighbors for a Livable Saint Paul opposed the city's plan for the Ford site because they believed that the plan increased population density, lacked sufficient green space, and increased traffic congestion. The group's goal was for the Ford site to integrate with surrounding neighborhoods and incorporate multiple housing price points.[7]

#### Candidate stances

The following table summarizes mayoral candidate positions on the Ford site plan based on publicly available information. Candidates not included in this table did not provide published positions on the issue prior to the election.

Candidate positions on Ford site

Candidate  | Support or oppose plan?  | Details
Melvin Carter III | Support | "Saint Paul’s growing population, coupled with region-wide shortages in housing, demands greater density not just at these large sites but also along our major corridors. Creating a stronger tax base through common sense density improvements will help us invest those tax dollars right back into the public services and assets that our neighborhoods rely on, and I support zoning that accomplishes these goals."[8]
Elizabeth Dickinson

| Support | "I support the key principles guiding the Ford site redevelopment plan, including ensuring: a mix of uses and activity; housing variety; jobs and tax base; energy and sustainability; transportation choice; and parks and amenities. I especially want the development to be a desirable, sustainable, beautiful space in which to live, work and play, that welcomes all age, income, and ethnic dographics, and feels organic to the rest of the neighborhood."[8]
Tom Goldstein | Oppose | "Leadership is about achieving consensus and solving problems. The fact that we have so much acrimony over this, over parking meters, over bike lanes is easy to dismiss as one side doesn’t want change and the other side has the moral authority for what we should do. I think it’s an example of not enough commitment to the process. When the city saw the level of acrimony that we had, the city should have employed mediators and brought people together."[9]
Pat Harris | Oppose | "Our ace is zoning. And I believe we are playing that card too early, thus giving Ford and unnamed developers greater leverage than necessary."[9]
Dai Thao | Oppose | "Currently, the Ford site plans are being bulldozed through and community voices are being drowned out. We cannot count success in the planning if we only count the number of meetings we’ve had. That is why I do not support the Ford site as it currently stands."[9]

### Minimum wage

In August 2017, state officials announced that the minimum wage for all employers would increase from $7.75 per hour to $7.87 per hour in 2018. The rate for any employer with annual revenues of $500,000 or more increased from $9.50 per hour to $9.65 per hour on January 1, 2018.[10][11] Groups including 15 Now Minnesota and faith group ISAIAH advocated for passage of a $15 per hour minimum wage ordinance in St. Paul by the end of 2018. Supporters of the $15 per hour minimum wage believe that the rate would ease economic security issues for low-income families, while opponents of the rate argue that an increased rate could adversely impact the city's business climate.[12][13]

The push for a $15 per hour minimum wage in St. Paul coincided with the approval of the $15 per hour wage rate by the Minneapolis City Council on June 30, 2017. The ordinance will take effect in July 2024.[14] Officials with St. Paul Public Schools also announced in October 2017 that all employees would receive at least $15 per hour by 2020. This announcement followed negotiations between the district and food service workers, who made a minimum wage of $11.66 per hour in the 2016-2017 school year.[15]

#### Candidate stances

The following table summarizes mayoral candidate positions on a $15 per hour minimum wage ordinance as discussed during an October 2017 candidate forum. Candidates not included in this table did not attend the forum sponsored by ISAIAH.[16]

Candidate positions on $15 per hour minimum wage

Candidate  | Details
Melvin Carter III | "Raising the minimum wage is a critical investment in eliminating poverty and homelessness in our community."[16]
Trahern Jeen Crews | "One thing we'd have to do to make it happen is make amendments to the charter of the City of St. Paul. Also, we could do a ballot initiative."[16]
Elizabeth Dickinson

| "We've moved from 'Should we do this?' to how we're going to do it. That's where I would really enjoy working with you."[16]
Tom Goldstein | "I would work to have all large employers in St. Paul within two years paying $15 an hour...if we want to bring jobs here we have to make sure we don't set the bar too high for entrepreneurs and small businesses."[16]
Pat Harris | "I absolutely support a $15 an hour minimum wage ... I also believe we need to consider its impact on small business."[16]
Tim Holden | "We need to create commerce. $15 an hour is going to be very difficult for small, small businesses to maintain and account and afford."[16]
Dai Thao | "I grew up in the public housing, single-mom home, roach-infested home ... I know what it's like to be in poverty so I will absolutely support this and work with you."[16]
Barnabas Y'shua | "Is it going to have to happen? Probably. Does it have to happen now? I think we should probably hold off on it."[16]

### No mayoral endorsement by Democratic Party

Four candidates sought the endorsement of the St. Paul Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) - Minnesota's Democratic Party affiliate - at the party's city convention. In order to be endorsed by the DFL, a candidate needed to receive at least 60 percent of the vote from the convention's 500 delegates. Melvin Carter III received approximately 55 percent of the vote followed by Dai Thao, Pat Harris, and Tom Goldstein. All four candidates who sought the DFL nomination remained in the mayoral race following the convention on June 17, 2017.[17][18]

St. Paul's elected city offices have been dominated by Democrats since the turn of the 21st century. Entering the 2017 election, the mayor and all seven members of the city council were Democrats. The last Republican to hold the mayor's office or a city council seat was Norm Coleman, who was elected as mayor in 1993 and re-elected in 1997. Coleman switched his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican prior to the 1997 mayoral election.[19]

The DFL's past endorsements of mayoral candidates produced mixed results. Chris Coleman received the party's endorsement in 2005 before defeating incumbent Mayor Randy Kelly. Jay Benanav received the party's endorsement in the 2001 election but lost to Kelly for the open seat previously held by Norm Coleman. The following table details DFL endorsements and election results from 1997 to 2017:[20][21]

Mayoral election results, 1997-2017

Year  | Incumbent  | DFL Endorsed candidate  | Winning candidate
2017 | Open seat | No endorsement | Pending election
2013 | Chris Coleman | Chris Coleman | Chris Coleman
2009 | Chris Coleman | No endorsement | Chris Coleman
2005 | Randy Kelly  | Chris Coleman | Chris Coleman
2001 | Open seat | Jay Benanav  | Randy Kelly
1997 | Norm Coleman | Sandy Pappas  | Norm Coleman

## About the city

See also: St. Paul, Minnesota

St. Paul is a city in Ramsey County, Minnesota. As of 2013, its population was 294,873.[22]

### City government

See also: Mayor-council government

The city of St. Paul uses a strong mayor and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body while the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.[23]

### Demographics

The following table displays demographic data provided by the United States Census Bureau.

Demographic data for St. Paul, Minnesota (2015)

| St. Paul| Minnesota
Total population:| 295,043| 5,482,435
Land area (square miles):| 52| 79,627
Race and ethnicity[24]
White:| 59.6%| 84.8%
Black/African American:| 15.5%| 5.5%
Asian:| 16.5%| 4.4%
Native American:| 0.9%| 1%
Pacific Islander:| 0%| 0%
Two or more:| 4.7%| 2.7%
Hispanic/Latino:| 9.5%| 5%
Education
High school graduation rate:| 86.5%| 92.4%
College graduation rate:| 39.3%| 33.7%
Income
Median household income:| $48,757| $61,492
Persons below poverty level:| 22.3%| 12.2%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015)

## Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms St. Paul Minnesota election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Mayoral election in St. Paul, Minnesota (2017) - Google News

## See also

St. Paul, Minnesota | Minnesota | Municipal government | Other local coverage

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## External links

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* City of St. Paul

## Footnotes

1. ↑ Minnesota Secretary of State, "2017 Municipal and School District Elections," accessed August 9, 2017
2. ↑ Star Tribune, "St. Paul DFL fails to endorse a mayoral candidate," June 17, 2017
3. ↑ StarTribune, "St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman will not run for re-election," December 2, 2016
4. ↑ Pioneer Press, "St. Paul mayor to be selected by instant run-off voting for first time," November 2, 2013
5. ↑ St. Paul, Minnesota, "Ford Site: A 21st Century Community Frequently Asked Questions," accessed October 9, 2017
6. ↑ Sustain Ward 3, "Council Votes Yes On Ford Site Plan," September 27, 2017
7. ↑ Neighbors for a Livable Saint Paul, "Our Goal," accessed October 9, 2017
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Sustain Ward 3, "St. Paul Mayoral Candidates Ford Site Questionnaire," accessed October 9, 2017
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Twin Cities Business Magazine, "The Clearest Dividing Line in St. Paul Mayor's Race? The Ford Site," September 26, 2017
10. ↑ Pioneer Press, "Minnesota announces 2018 minimum wage," August 17, 2017
11. ↑ Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, "Labor Standards - Minnesota's minimum-wage law," accessed October 19, 2017
12. ↑ ISAIAH, "Economy & Jobs," accessed October 19, 2017
13. ↑ 15 Now Minnesota, "Home," accessed October 19, 2017
14. ↑ Star Tribune, "Minneapolis vote for $15 minimum wage called 'victory for workers'," July 1, 2017
15. ↑ Pioneer Press, "St. Paul school district proposes $15 minimum wage by 2020," October 3, 2017
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 16.8 KSTP, "St. Paul Mayoral Candidates Weigh In on Minimum Wage," October 15, 2017
17. ↑ StarTribune, "St. Paul DFL fails to endorse a mayoral candidate," June 17, 2017
18. ↑ Pioneer Press, "No DFL endorsement for St. Paul mayor, Barrera exits school board race," June 17, 2017
19. ↑ MinnPost, "St. Paul's lone survivor: Republican Tom Conlon," November 8, 2007
20. ↑ Minnesota Public Radio, "Kelly Beats Benanav in St. Paul mayor's race," November 7, 2001
21. ↑ MinnPost, "St. Paul DFL endorses Mayor Chris Coleman for a third term, backs three school board candidates," June 10, 2013
22. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau, "State and County Quick Facts," accessed October 27, 2014
23. ↑ St. Paul City Charter, "Ch. 3.01 and 4.01," accessed October 27, 2014
24. ↑ Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

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