The Local Scene -- Game Theory

We have a municipal election in New Brighton and voting is already underway. The general contours of the election are pretty clear.

Mayor: The incumbent is Val Johnson, who snuck in last time in a three-way battle. From what I can tell, her mayoral priorities are (a) giving Dean Lotter, the city manager, whatever he wants; and (b) virtue signaling. It's not a promising combination. Her challenger is Sharon Doffing, a former city council member who would be far more likely to challenge the comfy status quo at City Hall.

City Council: Two seats are up for a vote. One incumbent, lefty Brian Strub, decided not to run. The other, Gina Bauman, has a target on her back. Gina has fought the powers that be for over a decade. She views her role as a watchdog for the taxpayer and because she's never been afraid of being in the minority on a vote, she's not particularly popular with Johnson and the rest of the council, who like spending money and taking bows for their generosity with other people's money.

Challengers: Two candidates are essentially running together for the council seats -- Emily Dunsworth, a cookie-cutter liberal lawyer closely connected to the DFL; and Graeme Allen, who is a less affable version of Strub. Running as a more conservative candidate is Susan Erickson, who would work well with Bauman. Former mayor Dave Jacobsen is also running for a council seat, but from what I can tell he's mostly phoning it in. There is also a libertarian candidate named Peter Berthelsen in the race, but he's not really making much headway.

So the choices are fairly simple. If you like the status quo, which means higher taxes with a bien pensant veneer, you ought to choose Johnson, Dunsworth, and Allen. If you'd actually like to change the direction New Brighton is going and bring some fiscal responsibility to City Hall, Doffing, Bauman, and Erickson are the way to go.

There's more to say about this race -- a lot more, actually, and we'll return to the topic in the coming days.