We Need Stenvig
1971
The 39th Mayor of the City of Lakes, Charles A. Stenvig grew up in South Minneapolis. He went Roosevelt High School where he found fame by winning a Minnesota state high school boys’ golf championship in the 1940′s. Stenvig got a degree in sociology at Augsburg College joined the Minneapolis Police Department after graduation. He worked his way up to the rank of detective in the burglary squad before he got involved with Minneapolis politics.In 1969, Stenvig entered the mayoral election as an independent candidate. Mayor Arthur Naftalin had declined to run for a fifth term as mayor and the race for the open seat attracted several candidates. Stenvig ran an unconventional campaign that relied on volunteer labor. After winning a three-way primary election, forcing out the DFL endorsed candidate Gerard Hegstrom, he went on to defeat the Republican candidate, 7th Ward alderman and Council President Dan Cohen with 62 percent of the vote in the general election. Stenvig is the only Independent to ever hold the office. Stenvig was re-elected in 1971 when he defeated DFL candidate W. Harry Davis by a wide margin. In the 1973 election, Stenvig lost to DFL candidate Albert Hofstede. Stenvig won back the mayor’s office in a 1975 rematch with Hofstede. He then lost to Hofstede again in 1977. In 1978, he lost the Republican primary for Minnesota secretary of state. In 1979, Stenvig ran again for mayor and lost to Donald M. Fraser. In 1981, Stenvig and members of his family appeared on an episode of the game show, the Family Feud, where they faced the Tuck family. The Stenvig family lost 422–0 In 1982, Stenvig ran for Hennepin County Sheriff and lost. After retiring from the police department, Stenvig moved to Arizona. He passed away there on February 22, 2010.
