A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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There are a total of five candidates vying for three seats on the Cloquet School Board, and there are profiles of all five of them within this file. So please read all the way to the bottom before you make your decision. Sarah Buhs Briefly summarize your personal background and qualifications. I am a lifelong Cloquet resident. Along with my children, I have nieces, nephews and friends in Cloquet schools. I serve on the Washington PIE as president, Cloquet Education Foundation Board member and...
The Pine Knot News will accept candidate endorsement letters, with the following restrictions. The suggested word limit is 200 words, but we’ll accept up to 300 words for those who aren’t simply repeating themselves. If we receive multiple letters about a candidate saying the same thing, we won’t run all of them. We don’t charge for endorsement letters like many other papers, but expect our readers to understand that space is valuable. Endorsements must abide by the same rules as any other letter to the editor: in particular, reader comment...
Earlier this week, Carlton County election officials mailed 600 absentee ballots to people who’d requested to vote in advance of the Nov. 8 midterm election. It was a far cry from the 2020 general election, in which roughly half of the county’s voters (10,900) used early voting and mail-in options during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. “I feel like the 600 we just mailed out will be the bulk of them,” said Kevin DeVriendt, Carlton County auditor/treasurer. Early voting began last week, 46 days prior to election day, and voters can vote at...
As a 23-year educational interpreter working at Cloquet High School, it's normal to find Iris Keller standing with the teacher at the front of the classroom. Keller delivers in sign language what the teacher is saying to a student Keller has worked with since he was in fifth grade. "There I am, looking out at this whole class," Keller said. "I go with the student to all his classes - college government, calculus, physics, German 4. He's really smart." Like the student, she carries a backpack and...
Cloquet Ward 3 city council candidate Pete Erickson has a unique challenge this fall: he has to get voters to do more than fill in a box next to his name. For Erickson to win, voters will have to actually write his name, and NOT fill in the box next to the listed candidate's name: Chris Swanson. In the meantime, Swanson is running his own informal "Please don't vote for me" campaign, after moving out of Ward 3 and stepping down as councilor in August. August was too late to change the ballots fo...
For the first time in 16 years this November, Carlton County residents will face a choice when voting for sheriff. First appointed Carlton County sheriff in 2005, Kelly Lake has experienced only one election challenge, coming in 2006, when she won 85 percent of the vote. Since then, she's gone unchallenged. Until now. Lake is being tested by Jason Syrett, a 10-year law enforcement officer with the Moose Lake Police Department. "Kelly's been in there since April 2005," said Syrett, 35. "My...
The filing period for Carlton County, the state of Minnesota, and the city of Cloquet was in May, but the filing period for remaining cities in Carlton County ended Tuesday, Aug. 16. Now that filing periods and August’s primary races have concluded, what follows is a list of all candidates running for public office in the Nov. 8 general election (*incumbent): School board filings Cloquet (elect 3: Ted Lammi*, Gary “Hawk” Huard*, Jamie Graham, David Battaglia*, Sarah Plante Buhs) Barnum (elect 3: Betty A. Anderson, Dawn Hultgren, Jessica Unkel...
Low voter turnout and new voting machines led to a speedy turnaround for Carlton County election results in Tuesday's primary election. County elections staff were finished tallying the votes by 10:40 p.m., something Carlton County auditor/treasurer Kevin DeVriendt said was a pleasant surprise. "Things went very smoothly - well, as smooth as can be with all new equipment and many people doing a role for the first time," he said. The county had new DS200 ballot scanning machines at the polling pl...
If early voting is any indicator, next week’s primary election may not be a barnburner in Carlton County. Polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9. Kelly Lampel, chief deputy auditor/treasurer for Carlton County, said the office was prepared for a much higher turnout in advance of the primary, but relatively few people have requested absentee ballots. “It’s nothing at all compared to 2020,” she said. “But primary elections often have lower turnout, especially during a non-presidential year.” Still, it’s not too late...
The filing period for local school boards, most city councils and township supervisor positions opened Tuesday and will remain open through Tuesday, Aug. 16. In most cases, one must file in the clerk’s office, whether it’s for a school district, municipality or township. Filing fees are minimal, mostly between $2 and $5. School Board positions Current seat holders’ names are provided in parentheses. Cloquet (Ted Lammi, Gary Huard, Dave Battaglia) Barnum (Paul Coughlin, Beth Schatz, Jessica Unkelhaeuser) Carlton (Ann Gustafson, Susan Karp,...
Cloquet City Council Mayor Roger Maki [email protected] 218-879-4976 Warren “Bun” Carlson Councilor Ward 1 [email protected] 218-879-3347 Sheila Lamb Councilor Ward 2 [email protected] 218-590-5308 Chris Swanson Councilor Ward 3 [email protected] 218-390-2010 Kerry Kolodge Councilor Ward 4 [email protected] 218-481-3862 Lyz Jaakola Councilor Ward 5 [email protected] 218-393-3528 Lara Wilkinson Councilor At-Large [email protected] 218-451-2188 Cloquet School Board Board chair Ted Lammi [email protected] 218...
The time is now for folks who want to make an impact in local politics. The filing period for local school boards, most city councils and many township supervisor positions will be open Tuesday, Aug. 2 through Tuesday, Aug. 16. Filing fees are minimal, mostly between $2 and $5. According to the Minnesota Secretary of State website, all candidates: • must be eligible to vote in Minnesota • must have not filed for another office at the upcoming primary or general election • must be 21 years of age or more upon assuming office. A candidate must al...
The names of two Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidates - John Peura of Moose Lake and Michelle Boyechko of Tamarack - will be on the ballot for Minnesota Senate District 11 in the Aug. 9 primary election. The candidate who receives the highest number of votes will go against Republican incumbent Jason Rarick in the November 9 General Election. Peura grew up in rural Kettle River as a fifth-generation Carlton County resident. His educational background is behavioral sciences in management,...
The Fond du Lac Reservation Business Council will soon welcome two new members. Robert Abramowski will replace Ferdinand Martineau as secretary/treasurer of the tribal council, a position Martineau held for 16 years, and Brad Blacketter is the new District II Sawyer representative to the RBC. Blacketter had 134 votes to Naomi Northrup’s 77; incumbent Sawyer Rep. Bruce Savage took third in the primary election and didn’t advance to the June 14 general election. Abramowski had nearly 54 percent of the votes, or 455 votes to 389 for Mar...
The filing period for state and local offices — only those that could require primary elections in August — ended Tuesday, May 31. While a number of incumbent candidates will face no challengers, the Cloquet mayor’s race will feature incumbent Roger Maki and former Cloquet city councilor David Bjerkness. Another former city councilor and retired police officer, Erik Blesener, is challenging Bun Carlson for the Ward 1 seat. Sheriff Kelly Lake is also facing a challenger: Jason Syrett filed to run for sheriff. It appears only one race in Carlt...
The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will hold a general election June 14 for Reservation Business Council secretary-treasurer and District II positions. Incumbent Ferdinand Martineau and challenger Robert Abramowski are vying for the RBC Secretary-Treasurer position. Two challengers will face off for the RBC District II (Sawyer) seat. Brad “Raff” Blacketter and Naomi Northrup were the top two vote getters in the April 5 primary, edging out incumbent Bruce M. Savage....
The filing period for state and local offices — only those that could require primary elections in August — is open through May 31. Minnesota’s primary election day is Aug. 9. The city of Cloquet has four positions up for election in November, including the mayor and council seats for Wards 1, 2 and 3. Carlton County also has a number of positions up for election this year, including county commissioners for District 2 (Thomson Township area) and District 4 (including the Wrenshall, Carlton and Mahtowa area and parts of Barnum). Count...
Cloquet resident and Esko businessman Pete Radosevich has been officially endorsed as the DFL candidate for House District 11A seat in this year's election, running against Jeff Dotseth, the previously endorsed Republican candidate. Both Radosevich and Senate District 11 candidate John Peura of Moose Lake earned endorsements at the DFL Senate District 11 Convention at Barnum High School Saturday, March 19. Radosevich was not unopposed. Retired economist Ann Markusen of Cromwell announced at the...
With five-time incumbent state representative Mike Sundin announcing that he won't run for re-election, this year's race for the Minnesota House of Representatives District 11A seat is heating up with familiar faces from both parties joining the race. Since the Sundin announcement, only one Democrat has announced intentions to seek the seat that covers all of Carlton County and part of St. Louis and Pine counties. Pete Radosevich, an attorney who lives in Cloquet and is also the publisher of...
It was bitterly cold and blustery on the first Tuesday in February in a big statewide election year as the political party faithful held caucuses here and across the state. Precinct tables for all of the county were set up at the Four Seasons Sports Complex and Event Center in Carlton, where Republican organizers were gleefully surprised by a turnout of about 125 people. They were busy early on setting up new tables for the people who just kept coming into the upstairs room with windows...
