Maplewood government headed in new direction — for now

Will Rossbach and Diana Longrie

This biggest electoral shakeup of 2009′s quiet campaign season occurred in Maplewood. Voters ousted Mayor Diana Longrie after four combustible years in office, replacing her with city council member Will Rossbach.

The decision of city council member Eric Hjelle not to seek a second term also ensured that there would be at least one new face on the body. James Llanas, who ran as an ally of Rossbach, claimed that seat. Incumbent Kathleen Juenemann also won another term on the council.

The upshot: Maplewood’s municipal government will have a fundamentally different course over the next four years.

Longrie’s tenure was marked by epic city council meetings that often dragged on into the early morning hours, personnel upheavals and numerous lawsuits. The city churned through four city managers during her four-year term. In just the first year of her term the burgeoning suburb northeast of St. Paul also lost its human resources director, city attorney, finance director, assistant city manager, deputy police chief, deputy fire chief, and parks and recreation director. Litigation costs grew so severe that the League of Minnesota Cities threatened to kick Maplewood off its insurance rolls.

Rossbach says he frequently heard from residents during the campaign that they were embarrassed to live in Maplewood because of all the drama. “That was part of what I campaigned on, returning that kind of respect to the city,” he says. “That goes well outside the borders of Maplewood.”

Longrie blames her defeat on spending by outside groups, particularly AFSCME Council 5, which backed the three victorious candidates. She believes the union retaliated against her for voting against a new labor pact for AFSCME members earlier this year.

“Unfortunately my demonstrated commitment to transparency and the preservation of our neighborhood preserves and being an advocate of the citizens was no match for the deep pockets of the special interest groups that supported my opponent,” Longrie says.

However, Rossbach notes that Longrie also sought the endorsement of AFSCME. “We have a situation where you put yourself out in front of different groups and they decide which candidates best represent their views, and she didn’t prevail in those,” he says. “I’m sure if roles were reversed you wouldn’t hear her talking about that.”

Longrie also believes that the write-in campaign of Ken Smart hurt her prospects for re-election. Almost 10 percent of the votes cast in the mayoral contest were write-ins.

“It was well known that any promotion of the write-in campaign of Ken Smart would definitely hurt me,” she says, noting that he ran on a fiscally conservative platform not unlike her own. “There was certainly a concerted effort to promote that.”

Maplewood has also been notorious in recent years for its bare-knuckle politics, and this campaign season had its share of electoral sparring. Most notoriously, anonymous fliers were distributed highlighting the fact that Llanas is Hispanic and gay.

While the scurrilous mailings didn’t derail Llanas’ campaign, he believes it did have some negative impact on his vote totals. Llanas edged out his closest rival by just 153 votes — a slimmer margin than in the primary election. He says that some residents who had expressed support for his candidacy subsequently withdrew their backing.

“They wouldn’t exactly share why, but I couldn’t think of another reason,” he says. “I thought the margins that we displayed in the primary would be somewhat reflective of the general.”

Maplewood residents won’t have to wait long for the next campaign. Because Rossbach has two years left on his city council term, there will now be a special election to fill that slot. Exactly when it will be held is unknown, but it’s likely to occur before May. Given Maplewood’s history, it’s also likely that there will be a deep field of contenders. Longrie, for one, certainly isn’t ruling out another run.

“I am going to leave that up to speculation,” she says of a potential candidacy. “But I think anybody who knows me knows that I certainly am not a person to be down and out, to be pessimistic, and to be without opportunity.”