Meet the candidates vying for St. Paul's open Ramsey County Commission seat
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Voters in parts of St. Paul will do something on Election Day that they haven't done in 30 years: choose a new Ramsey County commissioner.
Why it matters: County governments often fly under the radar, but in Minnesota they wield massive power over social safety net programs — everything from homelessness response to food benefits. They also oversee a huge portfolio of infrastructure, transit, public safety and housing programs.
Context: Ramsey County commissioners often serve long tenures, and incumbents are difficult to beat — making Rafael Ortega's retirement from the District 5 seat he's held since 1994 a rare opportunity.
State of play: DFL state Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega is facing St. Paul City Council President Rebecca Noecker on Nov. 3 — and results of the three-way August primary suggest a tight race.
Noecker joined the race because of her "heartbreak" over the cancellation of the Riverview Corridor transit project after years of study. It would've linked downtown St. Paul with MSP Airport.
- Noecker was also "tired of never really seeing our commissioner [Ortega] show up," she tells Axios.
- Top priorities: Better case management in the county's homelessness response; strengthening the county's separation ordinance to protect immigrants and other vulnerable groups; and "mov[ing] with urgency" to redevelop county land.
Pérez-Vega shares Noecker's frustration with the collapse of the Riverview project, which she worked to fund in the Legislature — but disputes Noecker's claim that Ortega was disengaged.
- "She keeps asking, 'Where was the county?' Where was she?" Pérez-Vega tells Axios, criticizing Noecker's responsiveness on homelessness and to a tenant crisis at a downtown apartment tower.
- Top priorities: Downtown redevelopment and constituent engagement, but chiefly preserving safety net benefits facing federal cutbacks: "That's going to impact the families that need their food in their fridge, " she tells Axios.
Zoom out: Three other St. Paul-based county commissioners are also on the ballot, though only one has an opponent.