Four of Washington County's five largest cities -- Woodbury, Oakdale, Forest Lake and Stillwater -- have mayor's races in the upcoming elections.
Two of those contested races, in Stillwater and Oakdale, include incumbents. The other two cities will definitely end up with new mayors because the incumbents are not running.
In Woodbury, six candidates have stepped forward to replace Bill Hargis, who is stepping down after 17 years.
The last time Woodbury had a new mayor, Bill Clinton was a fresh face in the White House, Eastern Europe was still making the final transition from Soviet dominance and the city of nearly 60,000 had just one-third as many people as it does today.
Just as Hargis presided over incredible growth, his six would-be successors -- Mary Giuliani Stephens, Rachel Homuth, Nicholas Kiecker, Eddie Marcus, Art McCloskey and William (Tom) Owens -- have cited building on that success of continued, controlled economic development as a priority.
They're coming after the job from a wide range of backgrounds:
• Giuliani Stephens is an attorney who is stepping down from the City Council to run.
• Homuth is a business consultant with 15 years of experience in business finance.