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Nichole Diver is running for Cloquet School Board as a write-in candidate, joining Melissa Siltanen Juntunen and LeAnn M. Butler in a race that will feature three open seats. As a write-in, Diver won't be listed on the ballot in November, while Juntunen and Butler will because they filed in advance of the election deadline. That means voters will need to remember Diver's name when they go to the polls or mail in a ballot. That shouldn't be an issue. Born and raised here, she is an enrolled Fond...
Dan Reed's pickup truck figures to add a couple thousand more miles now that he's the leading vote-getter following Tuesday's primary election in District 5 in Carlton County. Reed and Alex French advanced to the Nov. 5 general election, receiving 37.6 percent and 25.3 percent of the vote. "I was very humbled," Reed said about seeing his name atop the ballot totals. Reed has been knocking on doors across the district, with a goal of reaching every door in every township. "The response,...
Filings for local school boards as well as municipal and township races closed at the end of the day Tuesday, Aug. 13. Those candidates will appear on the General Election ballot, along with the top two candidates from any primary races detailed on Pages 1-19. Find the listing of local filings below, according to the Secretary of State website: School Board filings Barnum (elect 4): Louis Bonneville, Beth Dinger, Stephanie Ferrin, Mike Orn, Patrick S. Poirier Carlton (elect 3): Julianne Emerson, Ryan M. Leonzal, Ben Nilsen, Dan Solarz, Eryn...
Voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide who will advance to the Nov. 5 General Election in a number of races. Voters in Carlton County’s District 5 (which includes a swath of western Carlton County including Moose Lake, Kettle River, Cromwell and surrounding areas) will choose two of six candidates to advance in the county commissioner’s race for that district. Voters in the county will also weigh in on the Sixth District judge’s race. Find candidate profiles for the District 5 county commissioner’s race on Page 4 and the judge’s...
In the only Carlton County board primary to be decided during Tuesday's primary election, six candidates will vie for two spots in the Nov. 5 general election for District 5 commissioner. The position was left open earlier this year after Gary Peterson announced the end of his three-term run in the seat. Peterson is seeking to keep involved by running unopposed to become a soil and water supervisor. District 5 spans the western half of Carlton County, including Cromwell, Wright, Kettle River and...
Voters across the Sixth Judicial District have a rare opportunity to select a new district judge, with no incumbent in the race after Judge Dale Harris decided to step down at the end of his term. It is the first time without an incumbent since 2010, and the first for a judge at the Duluth courthouse since 1998. The Sixth District includes Carlton, St. Louis, Lake and Cook counties. The top two vote-getters will advance to the general election in November. John B. Schulte Age: 52 Residence:...
Anyone interested in running for local school board, township office or most municipal mayor and city council seats has until the end of the day Tuesday, Aug. 13, to file an affidavit of candidacy and pay the minimal filing fee at the respective city, town or school office. Nate Sandman says it’s the best $2 you’ll ever spend. The Cloquet school board chair is wrapping up his eighth year on the board. He doesn’t plan to run again, but said anyone who cares about kids and is passionate about education should consider running. There were zero...
Dan Reed and Alex French will advance to the General Election Nov. 5, as the two top vote getters in the District 5 Carlton County Commissioner's race. District 5 includes a swath of western Carlton County including Moose Lake, Kettle River, Cromwell and surrounding areas. Reed garnered 353 votes, or 37.5 percent, while French had 238 votes, or 25.3 percent. Incumbent commissioner Gary Peterson is not running again. Read more in this week's Pine Knot News....
Minnesotans can now vote early in Minnesota’s 2024 primary election, which is on Aug. 13. To be eligible to vote, a person must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old on election day, a resident of Minnesota for 20 days, not under a court order prohibiting them from voting and not currently incarcerated for a felony. This will be the first statewide primary election that felons will be able to participate in as long as they are not currently incarcerated. In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law restoring voting rights to people w...
Two of three incumbents were upset in Tuesday's elections for leadership of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Bruce Savage will be the new chairman of the Reservation Business Committee, defeating two-term incumbent Kevin Dupuis Sr., by 52 votes, 478 to 426. Earl Otis defeated Roger Smith 104 to 69 for District 3 (Brookston) representative. District 1 (Cloquet) incumbent Wally Dupuis defeated Michelle DeBolt, 343 to 233. All three were elected to four-year terms that will begin in...
The candidate filing period for political races subject to a primary election ended on Tuesday, yielding a ballot with more than a few surprises. In Cloquet, councilors Lara Wilkinson, Iris Keller, Kerry Kolodge and Lyz Jaakola will all run unopposed, barring a write-in campaign mounted against any of them, on the Nov. 5 ballot. In Carlton County, the commissioners’ races are a tale of three different outcomes. To replace outgoing Dick Brenner in District 1, representing west Cloquet, Scanlon and Sawyer, Sarah Plante Buhs and Caleb Dunlap will...
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa members voted on tribal council members Tuesday, April 2, narrowing the field of primary candidates to two each for the general election on June 11. The top two vote getters in each race will advance. Current chairperson Kevin Dupuis Sr. will face Bruce Savage in June. Incumbent Wally Dupuis and challenger Michelle Debolt will face off for the District 1 (Cloquet) seat, and incumbent Roger Smith will face Earl Otis for the District 3 (Brookston) seat. The unofficial vote tallies for chair and district...
Carlton County voters proved none too eager to decide presidential nominees earlier this week. Voters turned out for the presidential nomination primary Tuesday at a rate 10 percent lower than four years ago. Only 4,101 ballots were cast among 22,377 registered voters, or 18 percent, compared to a 28 percent turnout in 2020 on the way to the first go-round between Democrat incumbent President Joe Biden and Republican former president Donald Trump. "It has been a lower turnout for the...
Minnesota is among a cluster of states and territories holding presidential nominating contests in the main multistate voting event of the 2024 primary campaign. For that reason, it’s called Super Tuesday. Democratic President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are favored in their respective primaries and could inch closer to the delegate totals needed to gain the party nominations. Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and former Republican Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina — the last major rivals to Biden or Trump — both... Website
Adopted by the state in 2016 and first practiced in 2020, the presidential nomination primary gets its second go-round in Minnesota on March 5. That's when the state will join 14 others as part of Super Tuesday. To prepare locally, the office of the Carlton County auditor and treasurer conducted one of its series of hourlong training sessions Monday at the Transportation Building along County Road 61. Roughly 40 election judges and township clerks were in attendance, as the county trains its ros...
Members of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will have plenty of choices in the primary election April 2. Names for three Reservation Business Council positions — Chairperson, District I (Cloquet) Committeeperson and District III (Brookston) Committeeperson — were released Monday. They are listing in alphabetical order below. Candidates for chairperson include James Roy Blacketter III, Kevin R. Dupuis Sr., John A. McMillen, Bruce M. Savage and Victoria (“Vickie”) A. Smith. Dupuis is the incumbent. Candidates for District I include...
U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, who represents Carlton County as part of the Eighth Congressional District, announced Monday that he will seek a fourth term in Congress. His announcement comes a week after Jen Schultz, a Democratic candidate, said she will run again against the Republican. The two exchanged barbs for a week in press releases and campaign pitches as the announcements rolled in. In between the announcements, Pres. Joe Biden visited Duluth and Superior to tout $1.06 billion in funding. Bef...
Local attorney and Pine Knot News publisher Pete Radosevich is ready for Election Round 2, after an announcement Tuesday that he is running for Minnesota House of Representatives in District 11A. "I'm running for House District 11A because Carlton County is my home and I care about the issues unique to our community. While the other candidate is mimicking national issues, I feel we need a representative in St. Paul who is looking out for the issues that affect us, locally," Radosevich said in a...
Ready or not, it’s time to start thinking about voting in what amounts to an election-heavy year. Next Friday, Jan. 19, marks the start of absentee voting for the state’s presidential nomination primary on March 5 — the first of three important election dates in 2024. Absentee voting begins 46 days before an election day. Subsequent election dates include the Aug. 13 primary and the general election on Nov. 5. Voters residing in Carlton County may cast in-person absentee ballots at the courthouse in Carlton (301 Walnut Ave., Room 205) from...
Reliably blue and labor-centric throughout recent history, the city of Cloquet is experiencing something a lot of population centers are encountering: an encroaching red hue. Five of six precincts in the city contributed to the state's Democratic Farmer Labor sweep in major offices, including governor. Those precincts also favored Jen Schultz in the 8th Congressional District, despite the college professor and former state legislator being clobbered by incumbent Rep. Pete Stauber, a Republican...
The Cloquet city council canvassed votes Tuesday, making the final numbers official with a unanimous vote. Those vote totals included the write-in candidates for Cloquet’s Ward 3 city council race, with Iris Keller receiving 49 votes to Pete Erickson’s 40. The totals are meaningless, however, as they were too low to beat former city councilor Chris Swanson’s landslide 602 votes. The race for Ward 3 was, undoubtedly, the most confusing race in the county. Swanson was the sole candidate on the ballot, but cannot serve again as the Ward 3 counc...
In dribs and drabs, and sometimes huge rushes, throughout the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the results in the District 11A state house race came in. In the end, Republican Jeff Dotseth's third try at the seat proved successful as he won the district by 454 votes over Pete Radosevich, the DFL-backed candidate. Both were trying to replace Esko's Mike Sundin, who did not seek a sixth term representing Carlton County and adjoining townships in Pine and St. Louis counties. Dotseth, from Kettle...
Election judges reported a steady stream of voters all day Tuesday, with many expressing surprise at such a good turnout for the midterm elections. Thomson Township clerk Rhonda Peleski said they had a line that wrapped through the community room for much of the day, reporting that 2,134 residents voted in person at Thomson Town Hall, the polling place for Carlton County's largest precinct. "It was a long day. Really busy," Peleski said. In Cloquet, Ward 2 residents voted at the public library....
Prior to Tuesday night, the only real talk of "trifectas" in Minnesota state government had been from the GOP side - that Republican Scott Jensen could knock off incumbent DFL Gov. Tim Walz while the GOP also pulled off full control of the Legislature. As the sleep-deprived fog of the 2022 Minnesota state election evaporates, it's clear few had "DFL trifecta" in their office pool. But that's what happened, despite an election where historical trends, most of the main issues and polling were... Website
Three of five candidates were going to be elected to the Cloquet School Board on Tuesday. Sarah Plante Buhs didn’t have the faintest idea she’d be the top vote-getter. “I’m very appreciative, and I was very surprised with what the outcome was,” she told the Pine Knot the next day. “I was not expecting that much support. It’s nice to see; we have a great community.” Plante Buhs won 3,196 votes (25.9%) followed by incumbents David Battaglia, with 2,706 votes (21.9%), and Gary “Hawk” Huard at 2,367 (19.2%). Battaglia was “appreciative” of the four...