Do we always know who we are voting for?

We often don’t hear about who runs for or gets elected to the position of supervisor for Ramsey County Soil and Water Conservation District. Nobody knows what they do or who is running or why we should be voting for them.

Four years ago, a very qualified Marj Ebensteiner was unseated, likely because so many new voters brought in by DFL registration efforts connected her somehow to the state GOP’s leader whose name was Eibensteiner and/or were swayed by the Scandinavian name of the victor. The fact that Ms. Ebensteiner had very clear and historic DFL identification evaded them.

This year the recently-deposed Maplewood City Manager Greg Copeland sought the position. I voted for him because I thought he could make the District visible and maybe even interesting. But he lost. It wasn’t even especially close and I have not seen a precinct-by-precinct breakdown, but it would be interesting to know how much he carried/lost Maplewood by.

And this year’s winner was named “Humphrey.”

Interesting?