.jpg)
Omerza unopposed, five in race for three city council positions
One race is uncontested while another pits longtime officials against political newcomers.
That’s the backdrop this fall when Ely voters go to the polls to elect four of seven positions up for grabs in the general election.
First-term mayor Heidi Omerza is unopposed, while the city council race has five candidates for three positions.
Incumbents Jerome Debeltz and Paul Kess will be challenged by John Lahtonen, Frederica Musgrave and Emily Roose.
A third incumbent, Ryan Callen, did not file for re-election.
A two-week filing period closed Tuesday, and there aren’t enough contenders in either race to require an August primary.
Instead it’s on to the general election for all of the candidates for city office.
Omerza has her sights set on a second term in office after winning election in 2022 over Kess.
A kindergarten teacher at Washington Elementary School, Omerza had served on the council since 2006 before winning the mayoral position.
The council election includes two other City Hall veterans.
Debeltz is Ely’s longest- running city council member. He has served continuously since first winning office in 1993.
Kess has spent the bulk of the last 25 years in office, first joining the council in the mid-1990s, losing a re-election bid in 2004 and returning to office eight years later.
They’ll be joined on the ballot by three challengers who all have connections to city politics and government.
Lahtonen is a retired Ely police chief who mounted a last-minute and ultimately unsuccessful write-in campaign for a council seat in 2022.
Roose is on the ballot for elected office in Ely for the first time, but she is part of both the planning and zoning and projects committees.
Musgrave, meanwhile, frequently attends and records city council meetings and some city committee sessions and has taken council members to task on some occasions, pressing members to take action on a code of ethics and to improve transparency.
