St. Cloud City Council members Jake Anderson, Mike Conway to face off in November mayor race

ST. CLOUD - Two City Council members successfully emerged from a field of six candidates vying to replace Mayor Dave Kleis, who has led the central Minnesota city of St. Cloud for two decades.

In the unofficial results posted to the Minnesota Secretary of State website, Jake Anderson earned 1,710 votes (23.5% of the vote) and Mike Conway earned 1,516 votes (20.8%) — enough to land spots on the ballot in November.

“I will genuinely say I was surprised,” Anderson said, noting he filed to run for mayor in May at the encouragement of others even though he wasn’t sure about running. “I’m still a little bit in shock but I already have people reaching out and we’re going to plan on how to move forward for November.”

Conway said he is excited and humbled the voters are allowing him to continue his pursuit of the mayor’s office. He also said he thinks the primary results — where the top vote-getters are active in city governance — show residents realize the importance of candidates having an understanding of how the city is run.

Both Anderson and Conway said they are excited for a spirited campaign in the months to come.

“We want to have a positive campaign and a positive sharing of ideas,” Conway said. “Hopefully the best ideas win.”

The four candidates who fell short: Carol Lewis with 19.9% of the vote, Anne Buckvold with 18.2%, James Trantina III with 14.1% and Steven Schiller with just 3.5% of voters. Lewis fell short of the second spot by 66 votes.

Because her current term as an at-large council member is ending this year, Lewis won’t have a role in city government come January after serving 12 years on the council.

“It’s tough but it’s the will of the people,” Lewis said. “I think I brought a different perspective to the council. A former council member told me he thought of things in terms of the numbers, but I brought the human perspective to it.”

Kleis, 60, is the city’s longest-serving mayor. First elected in 2005, he was re-elected while running unopposed in three times. In the 2020 election, he defeated Schiller with more than 63% of the vote. In April, Kleis announced he wouldn’t seek re-election this fall after five terms.

Anderson, a 44-year-old IT manager for Stearns County, and Conway, a 58-year-old consultant at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, are midway through their terms representing different wards on the City Council.

Voters could only vote for one mayoral candidate and for up to three candidates for St. Cloud City Council on Tuesday.

The pool of 16 candidates running for City Council was the largest in at least five decades — and likely the most diverse, with candidates ranging in age from 28 to 72 and representing multiple ethnicities. The City Council has long skewed older, more male and more white than the makeup of the city.

Three candidates will be elected this fall for four-year terms starting in January. The six who will appear on the November ballot are Tami Calhoun (who earned 13.9% of the vote), Hudda Ibrahim (12.5%), incumbent George Hontos (11.1%), Mark Johnson (9.7%), Scott Brodeen (8%) and Omar Abdullahi Podi (6.8%).

Candidates who won’t appear on the November ballot are Mindy Ellingson, Charlie Hobbs, Nicholas Lengyel, Bill Doll, Emmanuel Oppong, Alex Cutchey, Garrett Zimmerman, Lenora Hunt, Michael H. Peterson and Patrick Crooks, whose vote percentage ranged from 6.3% to 1.7%, respectively.

If elected in November, Ibrahim and Abdullahi Podi would be the first Somali Americans to serve on the council.

Primaries generally have a significantly smaller turnout than general elections. There were 38,000 registered voters in St. Cloud but fewer than 7,300 — about 20% of registered voters — voted in the mayor race.

“It’s the old cliché: If you don’t vote, you can’t complain. And I like to complain,” said Ron Koshiol, 70, of St. Cloud after voting on Tuesday afternoon.

“I just wish the line of people was out the door and to the parking lot,” said St. Cloud resident Colleen Lardy, 77, whose husband, Marcus, was only the 100th voter at their East Side precinct at 3:30 p.m.

Marcus Lardy said he voted for Republicans in the federal races and Trantina for mayor because he’s a “self-made man” who runs a towing company in town.

Martha Blauvelt, 76, of St. Cloud is a self-proclaimed “complete lefty” who voted for Democrats in the federal races and Lewis, an attorney, for mayor.

“It would be so nice to see a woman become mayor for the first time in history,” she said.

The amount that mayoral candidates have reported spending on the campaign ranges from a minuscule amount to several thousand dollars.

As of mid-June, Trantina reported spending more than $34,500 on billboards, signage and banners, and as of the end of July, Lewis had spent about $30,000, the bulk of which went to campaign mailers and marketing costs.

As of Aug. 2, Conway reported spending about $10,300 on advertising and Anderson reported spending about $750 for yard signs and leaflets.

Buckvold has only reported spending $13, though her last campaign finance submission was filed in March. Schiller hasn’t submitted a report.

The range for spending among the council candidates was from zero to more than $7,000.