Gay Candidates Win Council Seats in Duluth, Moorhead

Two openly gay candidates were winners in Tuesday's local elections. Jeff Anderson won a seat on the Duluth City Council and Greg Lemke retained his seat on the Moorhead City Council. While Minneapolis has seen a number of openly gay or lesbian City Council members over the years -- it currently has three -- gay and lesbian candidates winning elections outside the progressive core of the Twin Cities is rare. As Tuesday showed, that is starting to change.

Jeff Anderson was interviewed by Minnesota Monitor in September as he battled it out in the primaries for the at-large seat on the Duluth City Council. "I think it's refreshing that voters in Duluth can make decisions based on your positions on issues and policy and look at the experience of candidates, rather than resorting to personal attacks," he said. Despite a few rogue bloggers, "Duluth has become a much more tolerant community over the past decade, and I truly believe that this will be one of the major factors to our long-term success and future growth as a city."

In Moorhead, Lt. Greg Lemke of the Fargo Police Department won re-election to the City Council with 66 percent of the vote. Lemke was appointed to the council in 2001 and was first elected in 2003. Lemke's journey in becoming an openly gay police officer and council member was chronicled in the Fargo Forum in 2005.

Republican state Sen. Paul Koering is the only other openly gay elected official in the state outside the Twin Cities. According to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, 31 openly gay or lesbian candidates were elected to offices across the country on Tuesday.