Three Drop Out of Golden Valley City Council Races, Eleven Candidates Remain

As of the withdrawal deadline of Aug. 15, eleven people remain candidates for the three open Golden Valley City Council seats.

Larry Fonnest, Simon Gottlieb, Bob Hernz, Greg Keivit, Chris Miller, Gillian Uecker Rosenquist, Paul David Schofield, Jacquelyn Smith, and Andy Snope are candidates for the two four-year council seats. Sheri Hixon and David Weeks-Wyne dropped out of the race.

John Giese and Steven Schmidgall are candidates for the special election to fill the two-year seat. Andrew D. Wold withdrew from that race.

The four-year terms of Council members Paula Pentel and DeDe Scanlon expire Dec. 31, 2013. Neither are running for re-election.

The term of Councilmember Schmidgall is up in early November this year. Schmidgall was appointed to the City Council this January to fill the vacancy left by former Councilmember Mike Freiberg. Freiberg left after the Nov. 6, 2012, election to become District 45B State Representative. 

Although the remainder of this City Council term expires Dec. 31, 2015, state law requires the City Council to appoint a replacement for Freiberg until an election is held, at which time a special election must be held to replace or affirm the appointed person if more than two years remain in the unexpired term. That special election can be held at the same time as the city’s next regular election, and the person elected at that time would serve a two-year term until the city’s next election in 2015.

(Information provided by the city of Golden Valley.)