© 2024

For assistance accessing the Online Public File for KAXE or KBXE, please contact: Steve Neu, IT Engineer, at 800-662-5799.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Cook 2024 Election Guide

Erin "Ernie Nurmi" Danielson, Harold Johnston and Daniel Manick are running for Cook mayor.
Ron Bushbaum, Memory Malone, Ivette Reing, Liza Root and Jesse Scofield are running for Cook City Council.

KAXE contacted every candidate twice using contact information submitted to the Secretary of State's Office to invite them to participate in our Election Guide.

Candidate responses have not been edited and are published as submitted.

As necessary, our news team added contextual information clearly marked with an "editor's note" and in italics, though responses have not been uniformly fact-checked. With our small team of three, we are unable to proactively fact check every statement made by candidates. But we will make every effort to make note of inaccuracies if they come to our attention.

Please contact our news team at news@kaxe.org with questions or comments or to report any errors.

KAXE's Election Guide only includes candidates in contested races. Visit our full list of who's running for office in Northern Minnesota to see who else is on the ballot.

Election Guide Homepage


Mayor

Erin "Ernie Nurmi" Danielson

Incumbent: No

KAXE did not receive a response from this candidate.

Harold Johnston

Incumbent: Yes

KAXE did not receive a response from this candidate.

Daniel Manick

Incumbent: No

KAXE did not receive a response from this candidate.

City Council (Elect Two)

Ron Bushbaum

Incumbent: I was appointed to the council on 7/25/24 due to a resignation.
Age on Election Day: 55

Where are you currently employed, and what is your role?
St. Louis County Assessor's Office as a Residential Appraiser

Please share any prior experience that you believe qualifies you for office.
My experience as an educator, business owner, and residential appraiser taught me how to listen to the taxpayers, stick to a budget, and determine the immediate and long term effects of important decisions.

Please describe the roles and responsibilities of the office you are running for.
City Council - I will be responsible for spending taxpayers' moneys to run the City of Cook.

Why are you running for office?
I am running for City Council in an attempt to restore accountability at City Hall and reign in spending.

What are your priorities, if elected? Please describe specific policy goals.
My primary priority is to increase the net tax capacity by encouraging investment in housing and business development. The City of Cook needs to take advantage of every grant opportunity available. City administration and Council need to build and solidify relationships at all levels of government. I will work to bring accountability to City Hall by asking the hard questions, pushing for more development, and doing my part to reign in unnecessary spending.

Across the region, renters and owners are struggling to afford housing. If elected, what would you do to address the issues of availability and affordability for your constituents?
I will work to encourage new investment in the housing sector in Cook. There is a strong need for housing across the socioeconomic spectrum and our recent housing analysis provides direction as to the number and types of units most likely to set up investors and the community for immediate success. There are people willing to make the investment in Cook. City Hall needs to work to bridge the gap between the build-able lots and available water and sewer access to incentivize the investment.

What effective policies will you support that will prepare your city now, next year and in the future to improve resiliency against climate change?
The people in our city are largely low and middle income wage earners. Frankly, climate resiliency is not a priority for them. I'd love to say that I support more solar and nuclear energy projects to offset the warming climate but at this point our taxpayers are more concerned with lowering their property taxes and making sure their kids have clean water and a safe community.

High taxation is a concern for many Northern Minnesotans. Please share any specific opinions you hold related to taxation, and how you plan to ensure tax dollars are used efficiently and effectively.
The bottom line in Cook, Minnesota is that we need to increase our tax capacity. We need more businesses and residential properties to spread out the financial burden associated with running a city. I will push to tighten up the budget and make City Hall accountable to stick to budget. I will work to bridge the gap between investors and the opportunities to build more businesses and houses in Cook. I will push City Hall to write the grants and find the funds that will connect city water and sewer to new homes.

How do you plan to improve transparency and trust in government?
I encourage all concerned taxpayers to attend City Council meetings and press to hold the Council and administration accountable for the spending of taxpayers funds. We work for the taxpayers and with a few exceptions all of what occurs is public information.

Memory Malone

Incumbent: No

KAXE did not receive a response from this candidate.

Ivette Reing

Incumbent: No

KAXE did not receive a response from this candidate.

Liza Root

Liza Root is running for Cook City Council in the 2024 election.
Contributed
/
Liza Root
Liza Root is running for Cook City Council in the 2024 election.

Incumbent: Yes
Age on Election Day: 44

Where are you currently employed, and what is your role?
Root Consulting LLC. I have my own LLC and am a contracted Pubic Health Analyst for several state health departments throughout the country.

Please share any prior experience that you believe qualifies you for office.
As a councilor for the past two years, I have spent countless hours researching and finding opportunities for our city. It has been my honor to listen and work alongside fellow residents to address our community's needs. I'm proud to have taken action on several key initiatives, including: coordinated city-wide clean-ups, secured housing needs assessment grants that saved city funds, Increased accessibility to council meetings so more residents can attend, and helped lead flood relief efforts in partnership with state and local agencies.

I'm committed to promoting greater transparency in our budgeting and ordinances. I remain committed to ensuring our community thrives and look forward to continuing this work together.

Please describe the roles and responsibilities of the office you are running for.
I am running to fill the seat of Cook city councilor. I'm also the chair of the housing committee, safety committee, cannabis committee and the city wide clean up day committee. I also sit on the cemetery committee representing Cook. I remain committed to being fiscally responsible in all of the projects I work on. It is important to that I work to obtain funding resources that are not a cost to the city. I have spent countless hours attending trainings, conducting research and gaining knowledge from experts so that I can show up for Cook educated and informed. I also believe it is my responsibility to listen and work alongside fellow residents to address our communities needs. I'm honored to be your city councilor.

Why are you running for office?
I am running for the City of Cook Council seat because I want to continue to support our community. We have been through a lot and are still recovering from a natural disaster. I want to be part of the recovery, change and future development as we work to rebuild the City of Cook. There will be a lot of opportunities and resources available to the city and I want to make sure we don't leave any opportunity behind. I'm honored to be a Councilor who represents the voice of our community and would be honored to continue to fill this role as we work for change, transparency and a safe and healthy future.

What are your priorities, if elected? Please describe specific policy goals.
In the next four years there will be opportunities to improve the following: housing, disaster response and mitigation, business growth and improved infrastructure. I want to make sure that we as a city do not miss out on any funding opportunities or other areas for growth. We are in a unique situation where we have an opportunity to rebuild. I want to make sure we do it in a way that supports our long-term sustainability and has the best interests of our community at heart. Remember to vote!

Across the region, renters and owners are struggling to afford housing. If elected, what would you do to address the issues of availability and affordability for your constituents?
I am currently the chair of our City Housing Committee. When I was elected to office it quickly came to my attention that in order to work toward improving housing accessibility for our community we had to first update our housing needs assessment. The last assessment was conducted in 1996 and was out of date. In the past two years I worked to first obtain grant funds to support the cost of a comprehensive housing needs assessment. After securing these funds, I worked with a private contractor to conduct a needs assessment. The study cost the city nothing while I spent countless hours researching and assisting our contractor to complete the final Housing Assessment. The Housing Committee will be meeting this week to finalize the document and move forward on the next stage of housing development. If re-elected we will begin the work on meeting the housing needs of our community. The housing study identified a demand for nearly 275 new housing units by 2035 with a focus of 2/3rds of that housing be allocated to senior housing. There are funding resources available for this work and I'm excited to continue to work toward utilizing these resources and meeting the needs of our community.

What effective policies will you support that will prepare your city now, next year and in the future to improve resiliency against climate change?
This week I assisted the city of Cook in sending a letter to the Army of Corps of Engineers to begin a mitigation study for community. Once the study is complete there will be funding opportunities available to help the city rebuild and create an infrastructure that is in line with current modeling on disaster preparedness, mitigation and response to meet our changing climate. We are in a unique situation where we have an opportunity to rebuild. I want to make sure we do it in a way that supports our long-term sustainability and has the best interests of our community at heart.

High taxation is a concern for many Northern Minnesotans. Please share any specific opinions you hold related to taxation, and how you plan to ensure tax dollars are used efficiently and effectively.
The city council is currently working on our budget for 2025 and I would like to see a 0% tax levy increase. Our community has been hit hard this year by a natural disaster and I want to do everything I can to support lower taxation. I continue to remain committed to ensuring that our tax dollars are used efficiently and effectively.

How do you plan to improve transparency and trust in government?
There is a lot of work that needs to be done from the city to the council regarding transparency. As a councilor I worked hard to change the time of our council meetings so that more residents could attend. But the work is not done. I want to continue to improve chains of communication.I would like to see an updated website, and better processes for disseminating information to our residents. I am looking forward to being part of that change.

Jesse Scofield

Incumbent: No

KAXE did not receive a response from this candidate.


Return to Election Guide

Still have questions for the candidates? Contact information for all those who've filed to run for office can be found at candidates.sos.state.mn.us.