Three New, Yet Familiar Faces Elected to the Council; Incumbents, Hardy Elected to School Board
The results are in and Dana Graham is Northfield's new mayor.
The results are in and Dana Graham is Northfield's new mayor.
Graham received 4,947 votes and defeated Councilor Rhonda Pownell, who received 3,461 votes.
"First of all I want to thank Rhonda for running a very positive campaign and I look forward to working with her on the Council," Graham said when told the results by Northfield Patch. "I'm going to work very hard to show the people that their votes tonight are justified. We're going to do some good things in the next four years."
Graham previously served on the Northfield City Council and was defeated by 13 votes in the 2008 At-Large race.
In the Council races, David Ludescher narrowly defeated Betsey Buckheit on Tuesday night for the At-Large council position. With nearly 7,800 votes cast, Ludescher beat Buckheit by 29 votes. Ludescher had previous served on the Council as well. Because the separation of Lud
Because Ludescher and Buckheit's totals are within one-half of 1 percent of eachother, Buckheit could request a recount. On Tuesday night, however, Buckheit said she didn't believe a recount would gain her at least 30 votes.
David DeLong, who previously served two terms on the City Council, won in the Second Ward, beating Frank Balster 56.30 percent to 43.15 percent.
Incumbent Councilor Erica Zweifel received 1,324 votes compared Jon Denison's 558 votes in the Third Ward race.
Full results are below
In the Northfield School Board race, incumbents Ellen Iverson, Anne Maple and Noel Stratmoen were re-elected, all received more than 21 percent of the vote. Rob Hardy wasn't far behind with 19.37 of the voting, claimed the fourth and final seat. Dan Cupersmith received 13.86 of the vote.
"I'm looking forward to joining the rest of the school board in ensuring that the Northfield schools remain among the best in the state," Hardy told Patch. "It's a tremendous honor and a privilege to serve the youth of this community. I can't wait to get started."
In the Dundas City Council race, Nathan Ryan and Chad Pribyl were the top two vote getters over Tiana Wells.
All winners will be sworn into their respective offices in January.
You can also visit other pages on Northfield Patch to see:
- The Rice County Board of Commissioners, Minnesota House and Minnesota Senate results.
- The presidential, U.S. Senate, U.S. Congressional and the constitutional amendment results.
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* Denotes incumbent
Northfield Mayoral
| Candidate | Number of votes | Percentage of votes |
| Dana Graham |
4,947 | 58.15 |
| Rhonda Pownell | 3,461 | 40.68 |
| Write-in | 100 | 1.18 |
| Candidate/Precinct | 1-1 | 1-2 | 2-1 | 2-2 | 3-1 | 3-2 | 4-1 | 4-2 | Total |
| Dana Graham | 480 | 1,140 | 704 | 682 | 765 | 383 |
612 | 181 | 4,947 |
| Rhonda Pownell | 200 | 696 | 451 | 593 | 587 | 301 | 465 | 168 | 3,461 |
Northfield At-Large
| Candidate | Number of votes | Percentage of votes |
| Betsey Buckheit |
3,875 |
49.53 |
| David Ludescher | 3,904 | 49.90 |
| Write-in | 45 | 0.58 |
| Candidate/Precinct | 1-1 | 1-2 | 2-1 | 2-2 | 3-1 | 3-2 | 4-1 | 4-2 | Total |
| Betsey Buckheit | 391 | 833 | 471 | 527 | 624 | 303 |
573 | 153 | 3,875 |
| David Ludescher | 124 | 938 | 657 | 693 | 642 | 332 | 424 | 94 | 3,904 |
Northfield Second Ward
| Candidate | Number of votes | Percentage of votes |
| Frank Balster |
935 | 43.15 |
| David DeLong | 1,220 | 56.30 |
| Write-in | 12 | 0.55 |
| Candidate/Precinct | 1 | 2 | Total |
| Frank Balster | 387 | 548 | 935 |
| David DeLong | 623 | 597 | 1,220 |
Northfield Third Ward
| Candidate | Number of votes | Percentage of votes |
| Jon Denison | 558 | 29.51 |
| Erica Zweifel* | 1,324 | 70.02 |
| Write-in | 9 | 0.48 |
| Candidate/Precinct | 1 | 2 | Total |
| Jon Denison | 386 | 172 | 558 |
| Erica Zweifel* | 863 | 461 | 1,324 |
Northfield School Board
Precincts reporting: 24/24 | (Four elected)
| Candidate | Number of votes | Percentage of votes |
| Dan Cupersmith |
4,369 | 13.86 |
| Rob Hardy | 6,104 | 19.37 |
| Ellen Iverson* | 7,180 | 22.78 |
| Anne Maple* | 7,045 |
22.35 |
| Noel Stratmoen* | 6,656 | 21.12 |
| Write-in | 166 | 0.53 |
Dundas City Council
(Two elected)
| Candidate | Number of votes | Percentage of votes |
| Chad Pribyl |
419 | 36.03 |
| Nathan Ryan | 410 | 35.25 |
| Tiana Wells | 327 | 28.12 |
| Write-in | 7 | 0.60 |
All results were obtained from the Minnesota Secretary of State's website or City of Northfield website.
A look back
With a historical 2008 election that drove people to the polls in record numbers, Barack Obama won the presidency and more than 9,300 Northfielders voted that year, electing Mary Rossing as their mayor.
That year, Erica Zweifel was elected to represent the Third Ward with 67.32 percent of the vote. She seeks re-election this year against former councilor Jon Denison. Dana Graham, who faces Councilor Rhonda Pownell in the mayoral race, lost by 14 votes in 2008 for the At-Large seat. Betsey Buckheit, who's seeking the At-Large seat this year and faces David Ludescher, won the Second Ward in 2008 with 63.69 percent of the vote.
In 2010, more than 6,100 people voted in the At-Large Council race that saw Pownell collect more than 58 percent of the vote.
In this year's primary, Graham collected 53 percent of the vote and Pownell collected 32 percent of the vote to move on to Election Day. In the At-Large race, Buckheit (43) and Ludescher (37) advanced over Joe Gasior (20).
In the 2008 school board race, Ellen Iverson received the second most votes and Anne Maple received the third most votes to win two of the four four-year terms. Rob Hardy came in fifth out of eight candidates that year. In 2010, Noel Stratmoen ran unopposed for a two-year term.
Dan Cupersmith
5:05 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
I would like to congratulate the Rob, Ellen, Ann, and Noel on their . As muh as I would have liked to win myself, I can't help but feel that the Schools are in good hands. I would alson point out how nice it was to be part of a race that did not get petty or turn into attacking each other. I wish other politicians would look at our model and learn from it.
Corey Butler Jr.
5:09 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Thanks for the comment, Dan. I appreciate you taking the time to do that as well as blogging on Patch and helping folks get to know you better throughout the campaign with our video interview and Q&A.
Do you plan to get involved with the schools or community in any other ways?