Marty Carlson is a regular contributor. He lives in Kenwood.
The results of the November citywide election won’t be news by the time this issue of the Hill & Lake Press reaches your hands. Readers will know that Jacob Frey won a third term as mayor with 50.03% of the final vote, defeating nearest challenger Omar Fateh by nearly six points after other candidates were eliminated in round two of rankedchoice voting.
More locally, in Ward 7, Park Board Commissioner Elizabeth Shaffer defeated incumbent Council Member Katie Cashman by just over six percentage points. In Ward 10, incumbent council vice president Aisha Chughtai cruised to reelection with 58.7%of the vote, defeating nearest challenger Lydia Millard by more than 20 points. In the race for Park Board District 4, the seat vacated by Shaffer, DFL-endorsed candidate Jason Garcia defeated Jeanette Colby, who was recruited to run after another candidate dropped out late in the race, by six points. And in Park Board District 6, which now includes CIDNA in addition to West Bde Maka Ska, incumbent Commissioner Cathy Abene handily defeated her DFL-endorsed challenger, Ira Jourdain, by more than 30 points.
While the final results drew close attention, the underlying numbers tell an interesting story. Turnout was substantially higher than in the 2023 municipal election, when only 31.7% of eligible voters participated. In 2025, turnout jumped to 55% — a shift most observers attribute to the mayor being on the ballot alongside the full City Council.
Locally, turnout in Wards 7 and 10 fell into the midrange. Ward 7 posted 54.9% turnout, ranking seventh of the city’s 13 wards. Ward 10 was lower at 52.1%. Ward 13, won by incumbent Council Member Linea Palmisano, had the highest participation at 67.5% while Ward 5, won by newcomer Pearll Warren, was the lowest at 35.2%.
Despite middling overall turnout in Wards 7 and 10, several precincts stood out. Precinct 2 in Ward 7 (Kenwood) recorded the second-highest voter turnout in the city at 73.4% with Precinct 7 (south and east Bryn Mawr) close behind at 70.9%. Citywide, the top spot went to Precinct 1 of Ward 12, won by incumbent Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, with 74.8% turnout.
In the closely watched Ward 7 race between Cashman and Shaffer, precinct level results followed a pattern similar to 2023 but with key differences. In 2023, Cashman narrowly bested Scott Graham by 177 votes, carrying nine of 12 precincts. In 2025, Cashman still won seven of 12 precincts but lost by double-digit margins in all but one of the five precincts Shaffer carried — all of which had relatively high turnout — giving Shaffer an 800-vote victory.
As in 2023, Cashman performed best in lower-turnout precincts, with a few exceptions, while Shaffer’s strongest precincts were among the highest-turnout areas. Cashman’s top three precincts were Precinct 10 (Stevens Square, 65.3%), Precinct 1 (north and west Bryn Mawr, 59.5%), and Precinct 6 (downtown central, 58.5%). Shaffer’s top precincts were Precinct 2 (Kenwood, 81%), Precinct 4 (CIDNA, 64.9%), and Precinct 7 (south and east Bryn Mawr, 61.7%). Shaffer also won her home precinct of Lowry Hill (Precinct 3) with 53.5% and narrowly edged Cashman in East Isles (Precinct 9) by just 27 votes — essentially reversing Cashman’s narrow 2023 win there.
The story in Ward 10 closely mirrored incumbent Aisha Chughtai’s 2023 reelection. Despite running an energetic campaign that drew some attention from analysts, Millard carried only one of nine precincts. That precinct, Precinct 3 (East Bde Maka Ska), also went for Chughtai’s 2023 opponent, Bruce Dachis, who saw a nearly identical outcome. Overall, Chughtai won 58.7% of first-choice votes, while Millard received 37% — marking Chughtai’s third straight victory.
“The underlying numbers tell a more interesting story than the final results.”
In the race to succeed Shaffer as District 4 Park Board commissioner, Garcia won with 10,142 votes, or 51.5%, compared with Colby’s 8,939 votes, or 45.4%. The third candidate, Andrew Gebo, received 1,641 firstchoice votes, or 8.3%. There were also 6,838 undervotes, where voters left the race blank.
District 4 includes parts of four wards: Ward 3 in Northeast, Ward 6 in Elliot Park and Stevens Square, Ward 7 in the Hill & Lake area, and Ward 10 in Uptown. In Ward 3, Garcia won three precincts while Colby won four. In Ward 6, Garcia swept all three precincts. In Ward 7, Colby’s precinct-level performance largely mirrored Shaffer’s. And in Ward 10, Garcia dominated, winning each precinct by more than a two-to-one margin.
