The first school board members to be elected to district seats from north and southwest Minneapolis will get a free ride after no one else filed by Tuesday's filing deadline.
DFL endorsees Tracine Asberry, 42, of Kingfield, and Kim Ellison, 47, of the Near North neighborhood, are running unopposed in southwest and north Minneapolis respectively.
But two last-minute candidates emerged for the other district seat, which stretches from downtown to the Lake of the Isles area. Josh Reimnitz, 26, of Elliot Park neighborhood, who filed in advance, was joined by William Lange, 23, of Lowry Hill, and Patricia Wycoff, 43, of Bryn Mawr. Wycoff, a neighborhood association coordinator, said she watches board meetings on cable. Lange couldn't be reached.
Reimnitz helps direct a nonprofit and worked for the Teach for America program. Darrell Washington, who received the DFL endorsement, dropped out of the race Monday due to federal restrictions on his partisan activity as a city employee.
In the lone citywide race, Carla Bates, 50, of the Seward neighborhood, is seeking a second term with DFL backing. Her best-known challenger is Doug Mann, 55, of the Folwell neighborhood, who is making his eighth run for the board after getting 2 to 10 percent of the vote previously. Also in the running is Willis G. Trueblood, 71, of the Regina neighborhood, who decades ago ran unsuccessfully for Congress and City Council and once tried to recruit mercenaries for the Angolan civil war. Janice Mae Harmon, 39, of the Hawthorne neighborhood, filed to enter the race within a day of the deadline but could not be reached for comment.
This election will complete the board's transition to three citywide and six district seats from an all-citywide body. The primary election is Aug. 14.
STEVE BRANDT
