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After conceding St. Paul City Council endorsement, Isaac Russell jumps back into Ward 3 race
Frederick Melo, Pioneer Press
Updated 5 min read
On Sunday, standing in front of Democratic-Farmer-Labor delegates from Highland Park and Macalester-Groveland, Isaac Russell said he would abide by their chosen endorsement for the Ward 3 seat on the St. Paul City Council. After the first ballot was cast, with Russell notably behind in votes, he again took the stage, shoulder to shoulder with fellow candidate Saura Jost and encouraged the entire room to endorse her instead of him.
The applause from the room of 300 delegates was long and hard, and even the ward convention chair told the crowd he felt teary-eyed.
On Wednesday, Russell apparently changed his mind.
“Our ranked-choice voting system gives us an inclusive process for voters to hear from a campaign centered on our shared challenges and shared solutions,” said Russell, in a written statement announcing his intent to drop back into the race and run for the Ward 3 seat this November. “My commitment to the democratic principle of ensuring every voice in our community is heard must outweigh my previous intent to abide by the endorsement.”
Some voters said they were aghast, given that Russell had personally motioned for Jost’s endorsement and gained some fans on Sunday for seemingly bowing out gracefully.
“In a decade of being super involved in St Paul politics I have never seen an ego move like this,” said Matt Privratsky, a former City Council legislative aide in Ward 4. “There are electeds I have serious issues with who never pulled anything remotely like this.”
A call to Jost was not immediately returned Wednesday evening. But while the decision to run against a party-backed candidate may have once been widely perceived as political heresy, it’s become increasingly common in DFL circles, especially when candidates who have not been endorsed by the party have the backing of another influential Twin Cities institution, such as a particular labor union or a strong ethnic tie.
As far back as August 2010, Rena Moran defeated Jeremiah Ellis, the DFL-endorsed candidate, to win the political primary for House District 65A in St. Paul with the support of TakeAction Minnesota and the St. Paul Federation of Teachers Local 28. Moran went on to serve 12 years as a state lawmaker before being elected a Ramsey County commissioner last November.
To become Minnesota governors, both Tim Walz and Mark Dayton before him defeated DFL-endorsed candidates in their respective DFL primaries. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, former Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and others did the same.
And while Russell’s about-face may appear sudden, he’s not the only DFL candidate to indicate that the partisan endorsement process isn’t the be-all and end-all in a ranked-choice election intended to facilitate variety.
“I’m not surprised,” said Suz Woehrle, one of two Ward 1 candidates in Saturday’s five-way endorsement race who said they would abide by the party’s decision. “All of the (Ward 1) candidates except for me and Anika (Bowie) said they would run against the DFL candidate. It seems to be the new thing. For a long time, it was considered a major faux pas, and there would be major consequences within the party.”
Still, Woehrle — who serves on the state DFL’s party affairs committee — acknowledged, “this is not a widespread phenomenon, by any means.”
Some participants in the four-way DFL endorsement race in Ward 7, on the lower East Side, have also expressed their intent to continue running, even after the endorsement went to Cheniqua Johnson on Sunday.
“Since it’s rank choice voting, voters will need candidates to choose from, so I’m staying in the race and I encourage others to let voters choose,” said Ward 7 candidate Pa Der Vang on Wednesday evening.
Russell, in his written statement, said that since Sunday he had been approached by friends, neighbors and supporters encouraging him to jump back into the race, given that “we need pragmatic solutions addressing vital issues like housing, funding comprehensive public safety, and improving basic city infrastructure and services.”
The ranked-choice landscape
By design, St. Paul’s version of ranked choice elections eliminates political primaries, allowing any number of candidates to appear on the November ballot. That opens the race to voters citywide, instead of having it largely decided by party insiders earlier in the election season. Some believe weeding out promising candidates through a spring endorsement process undermines the very point.
“I no longer live in Ward 3, but applaud having competitive elections and letting all residents select their next council member,” said Peter Butler, a ranked choice supporter.
And St. Paul’s seven-member City Council is officially a nonpartisan body, leading others to question why party endorsements should matter at all.
In St. Paul, voters on Election Day may select up to three candidates in order of preference, without weakening the party selection in favor of another candidate from a different party. In other words, a Ward 3 resident could vote for both Russell and Jost, in either order, without creating an advantage for a Republican or a member of the Green Party.
If their first-place pick doesn’t win, the resident’s vote would simply transfer from one candidate to their next pick. In that scenario, neither DFLer would serve as a party spoiler.
On Saturday, when five candidates for the Ward 1 seat gathered onstage at Central High School to seek the DFL endorsement, three candidates said they had no intention of abiding by the party’s decision and would run for the seat regardless. The convention, which ran nearly 10 hours, ended with a mass walkout and no endorsement, raising the likelihood that the DFL will schedule another Ward 1 convention this summer.
Some candidates have since said they would prefer a second ward convention not take place at all, given the likelihood of anyone achieving the requisite support of 60% of voting delegates.
“One (ward convention) is enough,” said Omar Syed, a Ward 1 candidate, in an interview Wednesday evening. “We know that nobody will get 60%. I don’t think it’s worth it to do another convention. There were three good candidates, and they all had 33% to 35% of the vote.”
“We need to respect our DFL,” Syed continued. “They put in their time. When you run in the beginning, you ask for the DFL endorsement. But if you don’t get it, it’s your choice. … We’re going to be running.”
