Five of Seven Hennepin County Commissioners On the Ballot in November

The Hennepin County Board on Tuesday unanimously approved a final redistricting plan for county commissioner districts that puts five of the seven commissioners up for re-election this fall.

Jan Callison, who represents Hopkins as the 6th District commissioner, is among those up for re-election.

Callison represents all or part of the following cities: Deephaven, Eden Prairie, Edina, Excelsior, Greenwood, Hopkins, Long Lake, Minnetonka, Minnetonka Beach, Orono, Shorewood, Tonka Bay, Wayzata and Woodland. She was elected to the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners in 2008.

Three districts have variations of at least 5 percent—the 1st, 2nd and 7th districts—and require elections next fall. Three of the districts—the 5th, 6th and 7th—were already on the ballot due to expired terms. The 3rd and 4th districts do not require elections until 2014.  

To comply with state term-staggering requirements, the 2nd District term will be for two years. The 1st, 5th, 6th and 7th district terms will be for four years.

All Hennepin County residents will receive a postcard in July showing the new district boundaries for all jurisdictions and designated polling places.

Under the new redistricting plan:

• County commissioner districts must be as nearly equal in population as possible. The ideal population of the seven districts, based on the 2010 census, is now 164,632. Previously it was 160,000.
• The board required that the variation between districts could not be more or less than 5 percent from the ideal population.
• Under state law, the county used precinct boundaries as determined by cities, towns, or the county for an unorganized territory, as the primary unit in creating each district.
• Districts are bounded by town, municipal, ward or precinct lines and, where practical, follow the boundaries of established political subdivisions (for example, not dividing a city or town into more than one district unless necessary to meet population requirements).

A few highlights of the redistricting plan:

• Crystal and New Hope– previously split between the 1st District (Commissioner Mike Opat) and the 2nd District (Commissioner Mark Stenglein) will be entirely within the 1st District.
• The 1st District will no longer include parts of Minneapolis.
• The 3rd District (Commissioner Gail Dorfman) gains downtown Minneapolis.
• The 5th (Commissioner Randy Johnson) and 6th (Commissioner Jan Callison) districts will change very little.
• The 7th District (Commissioner Jeff Johnson) grew the most in population of all the districts.
• The number of precincts countywide has been reduced from 424 to 405. Minneapolis’ precincts went down from 131 to 119. The number of precincts in .

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