Results of Stearns County Commissioner District 4 Special Election

(KNSI) — A special primary election to decide who will run to fill the Stearns County Commissioner District 4 seat was held Tuesday, with six candidates competing to be on the final ballot.

The final results with 100% of precincts reporting are:

Amin Ali: 528 votes (36.31%)
Shawn Blackburn: 53 votes (3.65%)
Darrell Bruestle: 13 votes (0.89%)
Mike Conway: 277 votes (19.05%)
Frank B. Imholte: 97 votes (6.67%)
Bob Johnson: 486 votes (33.43%)

The results were posted on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website as of 11:37 p.m. Tuesday, August 12th.

Ali is a 39-year-old community organizer who has not held elected office before. Johnson is a 76-year-old retired CentraCare executive who also served as Executive Director for the Paramount Center for the Arts. He is a former St. Cloud City Council member. Among his other public experience, he was a member of the Human Rights Commission, Area Planning Organization, Stearns County Housing Trust Board, and Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

Ali and Johnson will now go head-to-head on November 4th to fill the seat left vacant by the abrupt resignation and retirement of Leigh Lenzmeier in April after questions were raised about his mental capacity and residency. His wife, Alice, filed for and received emergency guardianship over her husband due to a dementia diagnosis and rapidly declining condition. She claimed the board was manipulating him and taking advantage of his condition to get him to vote the way they wanted on key issues. It was also revealed that Commissioner Lenzmeier was living in Buffalo, Minnesota, in Wright County at a memory care facility and had not resided in his district for more than a year.

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