ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) — The president of the Rochester City Council has won re-election — even though he's been dead for four months.
The late Dennis Hanson won 51 percent of the vote Tuesday, defeating a challenger and a write-in candidate.
Hanson filed for re-election in May but died of a brain aneurysm in June. State law prohibited his name from being taken off the ballot. Hanson's supporters say they campaigned on his behalf to give voters a new election with a choice of candidates.
Rochester now will have a special election, likely in early April, to fill Hanson's seat.
John Eckerman, who led the Hanson campaign, tells the Post-Bulletin (http://bit.ly/SBpA8Y) it was never about a "sympathy vote" but was instead about giving voters a choice.
Hanson had been council president since 2008.
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Information from: Post-Bulletin, http://www.postbulletin.com
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
Comments (3)
Add commentdemocrats
Demo(c)rats voting Don't know the truth, or policies or if they are even alive.
Why did this article make me
Why did this article make me think of Mary Koep?
All I can say is I bet all of the people who voted for him must feel pretty silly about now. To find it was the majority is just scary.
By winning with a deceased candidate, there will
be another election with new candidates. Sounds logical to me. I don't know if the Mayoral position is partisan, but there wasn't much time for a write-in campaign or to reprint ballots.
The city council can select a leader until the next election.