Photo: MnIndy, Chris Steller

Last year about this time Norm Coleman had his sights set on becoming the next chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The post would have required Coleman to spearhead candidate recruitment and fundraising efforts for the organization. But after a grueling electoral defeat, Coleman’s fundraising skills are now being applied to slightly lower-profile political contests. Tonight he hosts a fundraiser for St. Paul school board candidate Pat Igo at O’Gara’s Bar and Grill.

Igo is the GOP-endorsed candidate to fill a two-year spot on the board caused by the resignation of the body’s lone Republican. Admission to the event with “Saint Paul’s greatest mayor” is $25, according to an announcement on Facebook. Igo is up against Democrat Vallay Varro in the general election.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman addresses a union rally in Hastings

It’s election day — although you’d be hard-pressed to find much evidence of that fact. Even Joe Soucheray could be forgiven for failing to remember to vote. Minneapolis has no primary because it’s utilizing instant-runoff voting for the first time. The Minneapolis DFL is holding three events tonight to educate people on the new voting process and will conduct a gubernatorial straw poll.

In St. Paul there’s a primary election, but not much at stake. Mayor Chris Coleman faces three challengers, but only one with any credibility: Republican-backed Eva Ng.

There are also four slots on the school board up for grabs. Incumbents John Brodrick, Tom Goldstein and Elona Street-Stewart are all seeking re-election, and they’re joined by four other challengers. In addition, four candidates — Vallay Moua Varro, Quyen Nguyen, Pat Igo and Lucky Rosenbloom — are seeking to fill out the final two years left on departing board member Tom Conlon’s term.

The Ramsey County suburbs offer a little more drama. White Bear Lake initially had four candidates file for the mayoral contest, but two subsequently dropped out, eliminating the need for a primary. The Ward Four city council contest features three challengers, meaning one will be eliminated after today’s vote.

The most engaging contests are undoubtedly in Maplewood, which is notorious for its fractious politics. The mayoral race features seven challengers, including incumbent Diana Longrie. Also likely to draw some votes: former mayor Bob Cardinal, current council member Will Rossbach and former council member Marvin Koppen. That field will be winnowed down to two today.

There are eleven challengers for two city council posts. Incumbent Kathleen Jeunemann is seeking another term, while former council member Rebecca Cave is looking to return to her post. Four candidates will advance to the general election.

In Hennepin County, only Bloomington and part of St. Louis Park have primary contests. In the latter municipality, three candidates — Thomas Peterson, Julia Ross and Bill Theobald — will vie for two spots on the general election ballot in the Ward Four city council contest. Current council member C. Paul Carver is not seeking re-election.

In Bloomington there are four challengers for an at-large spot on the city council: Ryan Gopaul, John “Stretch” Kjenstad, Karen Nordstrom and Tom Tomlinson. Nordstrom is the incumbent.

Pat Igo, Jamie Denton. Photos courtesy the candidates

When health care reform protesters packed the St. Paul office of U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum Friday, at least two GOP office-seekers were in their midst: Republicans Pat Igo, a candidate for St. Paul school board, and Jamie Delton, who is again seeking the Minnesota House seat in District 65B.

Friday’s event was a fairly rowdy affair, with loud verbal jabs at McCollum (who was absent) and at least one physical poking of her staff.

Igo and Delton were in the thick of it, but in interviews with the Minnesota Independent afterwards, both men showed a soft-spoken side.

Igo is running for the seat left vacant after Tom Conlon, the school board’s lone Republican, resigned July 6 to run an inn in South Carolina. (Indeed, with Conlon gone, neither St. Paul nor Minneapolis has a Republican in elective office.)

Igo didn’t have to go far out of his way to attend the event: A real estate agent in the neighborhood, he lives upstairs in the same building (Selby Avenue’s historic Blair House) that houses McCollum’s congressional office.

Afterwards some people approached Igo to thank him for his speech, though he said it simply came about because McCollum staffer Josh Straka asked for someone to speak for the nearly 100 who had assembled in the close quarters of McCollum’s reception room. He told the Minnesota Independent:

“We’re all citizens of the Fourth Congressional District. We may not get our questions answered but we just want to be heard. … It was handled very well. Granted there was some passion there. … The rep [Straka] did a pretty good job of keeping some control here, but still, nobody’s questions were answered. There were a couple plants in there also. They wanted to argue the points. The guy stood up [and] said, ‘I don’t know why we’re having this meeting. None of you in this room even voted for Betty McCollum.’ … I just thought to myself, what difference does that make? I didn’t vote for her and I’m not going to vote for her again either.”

Delton, who said he learned about the event via a Facebook friend, was less sanguine about Straka as a stand-in for McColleum, who he said “should have sent a more knowledgeable representative” if she couldn’t be there herself.

Delton’s purpose in being there was to tell McCollum to oppose the current health care bill: “She should argue against it in Congress to the American people on our behalf as Minnesotans.”

Asked what he would do about health care, Delton cited the World Health Organization (WHO) as saying the United States should have more hospital beds and cut health care costs by half to be in line with other countries.

“This will be another additional cost that we do not need,” Delton said. “What Obama’s trying to get away with is putting us in debt.”