Block a MAGA Takeover of the Wayzata School Board
Our Senate District 44 is now overwhelmingly Democratic. All but one small precinct in SD44 votes reliably for DFL candidates.
But sleepy off-year elections are perfect for a minority takeover since so few people vote. All it takes is a fired-up base and an organized plan. This year, the MAGA folks are enraged and they’re well organized to dominate the Wayzata School Board, a “non-partisan” body.
Republicans have recruited small teams of candidates to coordinate their campaigns in order to sweep the 2021 local elections in Minnetonka (council and mayor) and the Minnetonka and Wayzata school boards. Countering this well-organized plan will take fast, assertive action.
We hope you can do your part by voting and by actively spreading the word with your friends and neighbors.
Voting Logistics
- Find your polling place
- Vote early by mail
- Vote early in person
Wayzata School Board Election
There’s a huge field of 12 candidates vying for 3 open seats to the Wayzata School Board. But the GOP has 3 of these candidates working together to take all 3 seats. They share a platform of anti-masking, anti-vaccinations, and “anti-CRT”
These 3 candidates as a group are communicating with the riled-up and tuned-in GOP minority. If the rest of us vote in an uncoordinated way across all 9 of the remaining candidates, the MAGA crowd will probably win all three seats.
Ballot Strategy: Wayzata School Board
You can vote for 3 candidates to fill the 3 at-large School Board seats.
There are 12 candidates running.
To minimize vote splitting across the remaining 9 candidates (and assuring a GOP sweep), several parent groups including Pro-Science Parents in Wayzata School District, are supporting a more progressive slate. We recommend that slate to you here.
Vote! Please vote for all three of these candidates:
- Sarah Johansen—incumbent & Treasurer
- Heidi Kader
- Dr. Milind Sohoni
Minntonka Municipal Elections
These are ranked choice elections, but some of the candidates are MAGAs, while others are great. The recommended candides are:
Mayor
John Kuhl
At-Large Seat A
Iola Kostrzewski
Deb Calvert—incumbent
At-Large Seat B
Dr. Kimberly Wilburn
Ash Patel
Minnetonka School Board
You can vote for 3 candidates to fill 3 School Board seats. (Not ranked choice.)
There are 8 candidates running. A three-person GOP candidate team will draw a lot of GOP votes.
Vote splitting across the remaining 5 candidates would make a GOP sweep likely.
To minimize vote splitting, please vote for these candidates:
Patrick Lee-O’Halloran
Dan Olson
Meghan Selinger
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Links to some of the candidates. Wayzata School Board:
https://www.sohoniforschoolboard.com/
https://www.votejohansen.com/meet-sarah.html
https://heidiforwayzata.com/
Minnetonka Seat B:
https://kimberlycaresmn.com/
(Patel has no on line presence)
Minnetonka Seat A:
https://debcalvert.org/
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=iola%20for%20minnetonka%20city%20council
Minnetonka Mayor
https://www.johnkuhl.com/
Minnetonka School Board:
https://www.lee-ohalloran.com/
https://www.olson.school/
https://www.electmeghanselinger.com/about?fbclid=IwAR2TH9sFt2S21uqlKj4JI1fuEb9EfoMQ0i8CNUtjDXORCPSVPgxmOffr9d8
I hope they do win. Liberal school boards need some checks and balances just like congress and the senate. Democracy at work.
I don’t know about the Minnetonka School Board at this time, but in the past, it was nothing even close to liberal. The Wayzata School Board shows no indication of being especially liberal.
I don’t know about MN, but here in MI school boards are decidedly not liberal. I have a feeling that just is the case here in MI liberal is applied to any person or group that does not support discrimination and whitewashing US history.
It’s important to remember that Michelle Bachman got her political start on a school board as a member of a slate who chose an election with traditionally low voter turnout.
Eternal vigilance. It’s good to have diverse, but not crazy, voices on the local school boards and city councils. So, a stealth MAGA candidate is not going to run with a red hat but keep the hat in the closet until after they have been elected. Pay attention and get to know the candidates and then vote.
She did indeed. I helped her along in those early days, it turns out.
The MAGATs here anything but stealthy, whether they are running for some office, arguing with people who are in office, protesting against mask and vaccines, or harassing doctors and nurses who treat the covid patients in our hospitals as those medical workers leave when shifts are done. (Our hospitals now have security escorting them to their cars because of the people waiting for them in parking areas.)
Helped her along? Was it you who foisted OBE on a Christian Minnesota Education system that forced her to run for school board? That would make a good blog post in itself.
It might be that I’ve never blogged that story.
Greg, did you really mean to omit the only BIPOC candidate for Minnetonka School Board from your recommendations? Also, you haven’t taken into account the appointment of a Black anti-CRT/religious conservative physician to a Board vacancy. Mike Remucal is the uniquely qualified to keep that appointee in check. Please explain your omission of Dr. Mike Remucal.
I did not make the list. It is the product of a coalition of grassroots groups. It is possible your candidate didn’t present to any of the groups. Alternatively, there were some candidates that were not included on these lists because if the limit imposed by the process. These are not lists of great or even acceptable candidates, but rather, slates, and thus limited in size.
Of all these races the Mtka school board is the one I have the least direct info on.
Thanks for the info, though, feel free to post a link to a web site for the candidate!