Cloquet citizens vote for change at City Hall

The Cloquet voters couldn't have spoken more clearly had they marched down Hwy 33 with giant banners. They wanted change.

Challenger and current Ward 3 Councilor Roger Maki swept Mayor Dave Hallback out of office, with 3,331 votes to Hallback's 1,796 (or approximately 65 percent to 35 percent).

In Ward 1, challenger Warren "Bun" Carlson defeated incumbent Jeff Rock 631 votes (61 percent) to 399 (39 percent).

In Ward 2 the race was closer, but longtime Councilor David Bjerkness still lost his seat to first-time candidate Sheila Lamb, with 416 voting for Lamb vs. 377 for Bjerkness, or roughly 52 percent to 47 percent.

Lamb said she worked hard on her campaign.

"I passed out 1,200 flyers," she said. "I walked up and down every street in the ward, and tried to talk to everyone."

She credited Bjerkness for a clean, honest race.

"Dave Bjerkness served us well for 17 years, and I want to thank him for that."

There was no incumbent candidate for Ward 3 or the special election for the at-large seat. There was, however, a candidate with prior experience in the At-Large race.

Lara Wilkinson will return to the At-Large Council seat she lost to Adam Bailey two years ago and which is currently filled by Barb Wyman, another former at-large councilor who was appointed by Mayor Dave Hallback after Bailey moved outside the city limits in the spring and relinquished his spot on the council. Wilkinson defeated Les Riess by 2,881 votes (58 percent) to 2,032 votes (41 percent) for Riess in the special election, which was for the remaining two years of Bailey's term.

Wilkinson said her agenda is simple to start: "First, to rebuild community trust in the City council."

In Ward 3, where two first-time council candidates were running for Maki's seat, Dakota Koski defeated Richard Colsen 461 votes to 364, or 55 percent to 44 percent.

Maki - who spent the evening hours awaiting results at the Cloquet VFW - announced the results to his supporters by microphone as they came in. When it became obvious Maki was going to win with only one precinct left to report, his wife and son grabbed a sign hidden away in the kitchen that read: "Congratulations Mr. Mayor."

Maki told the Pine Knot News he was relieved that his long campaign was over. He declared his candidacy a year ago, and had been campaigning hard for five months.

"[Voters] wanted a change. They weren't happy," he said.

"I think people will notice a different tone at City Hall come January," Maki said, noting that he would like to have a small office space at City Hall so citizens would have a place to come and talk to their mayor. "I ascribe to be more open at meetings and make sure people have an opportunity to be heard. Sometimes with personnel issues you have to close meetings, but I won't abuse that.

"And I won't call any emergency meetings when it's not necessary," he added, referring to the meeting called in March of 2017 by the mayor that resulted in the suspension of the police chief.

With each new vote-tally announcement made by Maki at the VFW Tuesday night, there was applause from the varied supporters gathered there.

Local boxing coach Phil Angell sat at a table filled with family, friends and boxers. He said 21 of them walked for Maki in the Labor Day parade.

"It's dirty out there," Angell said, expressing satisfaction with the results of the election so far.

In contrast to Maki, Ward 3 winner Dakota Koski was home alone on election night, "avoiding everyone."

He was thrilled to learn he had won the race, though.

"I'm so excited, so happy that the people of Cloquet are putting their faith in me," said the Cloquet native. "This will be a new chapter for me and the city."

Regarding his plans for serving, Koski said he will always try to vote in the city's best interest.

"I'm not interested in taking sides with any current or soon-to-be elected officials," he said. "I plan on staying true to myself and the city."

Voters select incumbents for school board

In a race with four candidates for three seats on the Cloquet School Board, voters chose the two incumbent candidates and a third candidate who has served on the board before, but didn't run in the last election.

The top three vote-getters for Cloquet School Board were incumbents Dave Battaglia (3,422 votes) and Ted Lammi (2,934) plus past board member Gary "Hawk" Huard, who garnered 2,886 votes. Newcomer John Babineau got a respectable 1,868 votes.

"There's still a lot of work to do, but this election shows me that people are satisfied with how we've been doing things," Battaglia said.

Turnout relatively high

Although it was a midterm election, voters were waiting in line when the polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday, and Cloquet Human Resources director James Barclay said there were about 25 people waiting in line at the Armory when he stopped by at 6:55 a.m. to make sure everything was ready.

Not to worry, Carlton County and Cloquet have many veteran election judges and the equipment had all been tested before it was distributed to the different polling locations.

Judges at City Hall in Cloquet said there was a steady stream of voters coming in from the moment the doors opened. In fact, it got so busy there around 8:30 a.m. that all six voting booths were filled, as were most of the city council seats, and there were several people waiting to vote.

Head election judge John Cavanaugh expected crowds, so he had moved the new voter registration table out into the hallway. But his prediction of 100 voters by 9:45 a.m. was surpassed, as there were 155 by 9:23 a.m.

County Auditor Paul Gassert said turnout was good, with 16,497 people (out of 20,458 registered) voting in this election vs. 13,970 (19,776 registered) in 2014, the last midterm election. He did not have the number of new registrants Tuesday night, but said it was not significant compared to the presidential election two years ago.