WILLMAR -- A primary election will be held on Sept. 9 to narrow the field of three candidates to two in the race for the Ward 2 seat on the Willmar City Council. The top two vote-getters will advance to the Nov. 4 general election.
The four-year terms of council members Denis Anderson of Ward 1, Steve Gardner of Ward 2, Cindy Swenson of Ward 3 and Jim Dokken of Ward 4 will expire at the end of 2008.
The three Ward 2 candidates who filed by the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline are Gardner, who is seeking his second four-year term and is owner of Steve's Vac Shack, and challengers Tim Johnson and Robert "Bob" Skor.
Johnson is a lawyer and has been chief public defender for the Eighth Judicial District since 1992. Johnson graduated from Willmar High School in 1964. He received a degree in political science and a minor in math from Hamline University in St. Paul in 1969. He worked for five years in the department of finance, extension of credit and collections receivable for Honeywell in Minneapolis.
Honeywell sent Johnson to law school, and he received his law degree from William Mitchell College of Law of St. Paul in 1974. He moved to Willmar in December 1974 and joined the Bernard Law Office where he worked until he began working full time for the state in 1992.
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Skor, a native of Willmar, graduated from Willmar High School. He is a welder for Relco LLC of Willmar and enjoys outdoor activities.
No primaries are slated for council seats in Wards 1, 3 and 4, according to a city spokesman.
Ward 1 council member Denis Anderson filed for re-election and has served on the council since 1998. He is manager of live growing services for Jennie-O Turkey Store. No one else filed, and Anderson will be unopposed in the general election.
Swenson did not file for re-election to the Ward 3 seat. She has served on the council since 2004 and is a member of the council's Community Development Committee and Labor Relations Committee.
She is employed at the Meridian Disc Institute and manages some properties.
However, former council member Steve Ahmann filed Tuesday for the Ward 3 seat. No one else filed, and he will be unopposed in the general election. Ahmann is owner of Ahmann Construction, established in 1986. He served on the City Council from 1986 to 1994.
He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a charter member and past president of the West Central Builders Association, and is a member of Calvary Lutheran Church.
Dokken, who has served on the council since 1998, has filed for re-election in Ward 4. He is a retired Air Force senior master sergeant.
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He will face challenger Susana M. Hunnicutt in the general election. Hunnicutt moved from Indiana to Willmar in December 1989. She will complete her second four-year term in January 2009 on the board of directors of the Willmar Housing and Redevelopment Authority.
She is a member of First Covenant Church of Willmar and is known for her video presentations called Sue's Sewing Corner on WRAC 8.
