Three candidates will challenge St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's bid for a third term in November's general election.

The mayoral challengers are Sharon Anderson, a perennial candidate who recently ran for the state Senate as a Republican; Kurt Dornfeld, a city street maintenance worker who used the nickname "Dirty Kurty" in his filing papers; and Tim Holden, a landlord and businessman running as an independent to protest what he considers Coleman's indifference to small business and handling of the downtown ballpark project.

Candidate filings closed Tuesday.

Coleman is a DFLer and former City Council member who won his first two races for mayor, in 2005 and 2009, by landslide margins.

The most competitive St. Paul race will feature seven candidates vying to replace Melvin Carter III, who resigned his First Ward seat last month to take a state job. Former St. Paul NAACP head Nathaniel "Nick" Khaliq was appointed by the City Council to fill the seat until November.

Candidates are Paul Holm­gren, a Republican who wants to make the city more business-friendly; Johnny Howard, a community organizer and landlord who lost to Carter two years ago; Kazoua Kong-Thao, a former school board member and longtime state employee; Debbie Montgomery, a former police commander and assistant state commissioner who served on the council before Carter beat her in 2007; Noel Nix, Carter's former council aide who has labor support; Dai Thao, like Nix a first-time candidate with union backing; and Mark Voerding, a Ramsey County board aide and once aide to former First Ward Council Member Bill Wilson.

Voters also will elect three school board members. The five candidates are incumbents John Brodrick and Jean O'Connell, as well as Chue Vue, Terrance Bushard and Greg Copeland. Brodrick, O'Connell and Vue are DFL endorsed.

Copeland is the chairman of the St. Paul Republican City Committee.

Because St. Paul uses ranked-choice voting, there is no primary election.

Kevin Duchschere and Anthony Lonetree