More than a dozen candidates file for special elections to determine control of Minn. House, Senate

Two special elections that will decide control of the Minnesota Legislature began to take shape on Tuesday, as more than a dozen candidates filed to run for vacant seats in the state House and Senate.

Ten Democrats filed to run for the safely blue Minneapolis state Senate seat that became vacant last week after DFL Sen. Kari Dziedzic died from ovarian cancer.

Democrats Doron Clark, Peter Wagenius, Iris Altamirano, Mohamed Jama, Monica Meyer, Joshua Preston, Amal Karim, Emilio César Rodríguez, Clay Morgan and Harold Melcher are poised to face off in a special primary election for the Senate seat on Jan. 14. Republicans Jonathan Kraemer, Abigail Wolters and Christopher Zimmerman also filed to run for the seat so there will be a GOP primary as well.

Clark and Wagenius were the first to enter the Senate race Tuesday morning. The 47-year-old Clark chaired the Senate District 60 DFL for two years, works in Medtronic’s ethics department and coaches track and cross country at Yinghua Academy, a Mandarin Chinese immersion school in Minneapolis.

Wagenius, 54, is the son of longtime former state Rep. Jean Wagenius. He’s the legislative and political director for Sierra Club Minnesota, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group.

Altamirano ran for the Minneapolis School Board in 2014 and Meyer is the political director at Gender Justice. No further information was immediately available about them or the remaining candidates who filed to run late Tuesday afternoon.

The Minnesota Senate will be evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans until a special election for the open seat is held on Jan. 28.

Another special election will be held the same day, Jan. 28, to fill a Roseville-area House seat. Democrat Curtis Johnson won election to the seat in November, but a judge found him ineligible to serve because he failed to meet the state’s residency requirement.

Johnson’s Republican opponent, Paul Wikstrom, had challenged his residency. Wikstrom filed paperwork Tuesday to run again. Democrats John Doan, David Gottfried, Jasmine Carey, Kaying Thao and Mark Pitman also filed to run for the seat and are expected to face off in a Jan. 14 primary election.

Wikstrom, 62, has lived in the Roseville-Shoreview area for 28 years and has “built a successful engineering and management career in the aerospace and medical device industries,” according to his campaign website.

Doan, who turns 50 on New Year’s Day, is a Shoreview City Council member who served on the city’s Planning Commission as well as nearly three years on the Metropolitan Council. He was born in Vietnam, is a retired member of the U.S. Navy Reserve and currently works as an independent transportation consultant after stints with Hennepin County and Trellis, an Arden Hills-based nonprofit.

Gottfried, a 32-year-old Shoreview resident, is running again after losing the District 40B endorsement to Johnson earlier this year. He works at a local law firm supporting a pro bono program.

Pitman, 61, of Shoreview, is a production supervisor for Bloomington-based Polar Semiconductor and said this is his first run for public office.

Thao, a Roseville resident, is a former school board member and Roseville Human Rights Commissioner. She is administrator for the St. Paul Public Schools Board of Education.

Carey, whose filing was posted on the Secretary of State’s website late in the day, could not be reached for comment. The Secretary of State’s website showed no further candidate filings as of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The Minnesota House was expected to be tied 67-67 after the November election. But with Johnson ruled ineligible, Republicans will now hold a one-seat majority in the chamber when the legislative sessions begins on Jan. 14, until the special election is held to fill the likely blue 40B seat. Johnson defeated Wikstrom by about 30 percentage points in the November election.

Prospective candidates had until 5. p.m. to file the paperwork necessary to run in the two special elections, according to writs issued over the past week by Gov. Tim Walz.

Walz announced the special election for Dziedzic’s Senate seat on Monday. Some Republicans criticized the governor for giving prospective Senate candidates only a day’s notice before the Tuesday filing period, saying they should have been given more time to consider running.

In a statement Tuesday, a spokesperson for Walz said the fast turnaround was necessary to ensure Minnesotans in the two legislative districts don’t go without representation for long.

“It is a short timeline, but it’s an unusual set of unusual circumstances,” spokesperson Claire Lancaster said. “The legislative session is about to begin.”