St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman plans to file for a third term Tuesday morning, joining several other DFL candidates in a trek to the county elections office on the first day of filing for the November city election.
Lest he appear over-eager, the mayor is scheduled to file at 8:30 a.m. The office opens at 8 a.m.
Should he win, and all early indications are that it will be another Coleman victory, at the end of the next term he'll have 12 years under his belt. He'll be getting close to the city mayoral consecutive-years longevity record. George Latimer served for nearly 14 years in the 1970s and 80s. (Robert A. Smith was mayor off and on for 15 years: 1887-1892, 1894-1896 and 1900-1908.)
Joining Coleman at the elections office on Plato Boulevard, across the river from downtown, will be the DFL-endorsed candidates for school board: incumbents Jean O’Connell and John Brodrick, and newcomer Chue Vue. Incumbent Elona Street-Stewart is not seeking re-election.
Before filings close Aug. 13, many candidates for the open 1st Ward council seat in St. Paul are expected to plunk down the $250 filing fee. With no primary election and the city's use of ranked-choice voting in November, it's likely to be a wide-open race.
Melvin Carter III stepped down this summer to take a state education job, and Nathaniel Khaliq was appointed to an interim job on the council, but he won't run in November, when voters will select a council member to fill the final two years of Carter's term.
Many others, though, have expressed interest, and two candidates lasted to the end of Saturday's DFL endorsing convention, which went six ballots but did not produce an endorsement.
At the last count, Dai Thao had 45 percent and Noel Nix had 35 percent of the delegates, with 18 percent voting for no endorsement. An endorsement would have required 60 percent.