The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Election News

November 8, 2006

Frederick considers accepting Nov. 7 vote

Though on ballot, former councilman was not candidate

By Dan Linehan

MANKATO — Joe Frederick resigned from the City Council in August, saying he needed to spend more time leading his Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants. But after his name remained on the ballot — handily defeating the closest write-in candidate — Frederick is reconsidering his decision to leave the council.

“I got about half the votes out of five people,” Frederick said. “A certain number of people like the way I governed.”

He earned 1,178 votes, while four write-in candidates split 1,351 ballots. Vance Stuehrenberg led that pack with 674 votes, followed by Najwa Massad with 383 and Karen Foreman with 289. Carlton Dildy Jr. collected fewer than 10 votes.

City Attorney Eileen Wells said Frederick’s resignation doesn’t affect his electoral victory.

“He has been duly elected,” Wells said. “He at this point can decide to accept the responsibility and serve,” she said.

Frederick0 said he enjoyed his 31⁄2 years on the council.

“But at the end there were too many political attacks from people who didn’t know what they were talking about,” he said.

He interpreted his victory as an endorsement of his time on the council because he argues most Ward 1 voters knew that he had resigned but chose him regardless.

Stuehrenberg has a different interpretation.

“My read on it is his name was there, it was convenient,” he said. “But, I guess if Joe Frederick takes it, there’s nothing anybody else can do.”

Frederick’s consideration of returning to the council surprised the other candidates. Foreman said residents didn’t talk to her about Frederick’s time on the council but added that “we all re-evaluate.”

Massad said she had no comment.

During his time on the council, Frederick took the smoking-ban issue personally as the owner of two restaurants, one of which was non-smoking by choice.

He resigned in August after writing a letter to the council detailing his business losses under the ban while admonishing the council to be more mindful of the financial impacts of its decisions. He filed for re-election without a challenger but withdrew too late to remove his name from the ballot.

The referendum supporting the ban didn’t change his mind, but he said it would be pointless to bring it up if he were to return to his seat.

“It wasn’t about smoking,” he said. “It was about business people’s rights to operate within the law.”

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