Politics & Government

Terri Bonoff, Democratic Candidate for State Senator in District 44

Terri Bonoff wants to keep her seat and continue to represent Plymouth and northern Minnetonka in the Minnesota State Legislature. Republican candidate David Gaither challenges her.

General Information

Name : Terri Bonoff
Place of residence : Minnetonka, MN

Education

College

Attended college : Yes
College : Clark University
Degree : Bachelors
Year of graduation : 1979

Employment Information

Job titles held : Former business executive

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Political Information

Party affiliation : Democrat
Running for a: State office
Running for position: State Senate
Chamber/district: SD44
Incumbent: Yes
Previous elective offices : NA
Unsuccessful bids for elective offices: NA

Campaign Manager

Name : Conrad Segal
Title : Campaign Manager

Find out what's happening in Minnetonkawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

URLs

Website : http://www.terribonoff.com
Twitter : http://www.twitter.com/terri_bonoff
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/tbonoff
Youtube : http://www.youtube.com/senterribonoff

Other facts

Senator Terri Bonoff currently represents District 43 in the Minnesota Senate, which includes parts of Minnetonka, Plymouth and Medicine Lake. She began her 20-year business career working in the family business of Jackson Graves, a women’s clothing company, before moving on to Tonka Toys as Manager of Promotional Services. She later served as Director of Merchandising for the Computer Products Division of the publicly held and New Hope, MN based Navarre Corporation. Bonoff was promoted to Vice President and General Manager of that division at a time when they were experiencing significant financial difficulty. Bonoff successfully led the division through a financial restructuring without losing either customers or suppliers. Bonoff fulfilled her commitment to stay through that turnaround and then shortly after she retired to be at home with four teenagers. Bonoff threw herself into community volunteering taking on roles such as President of Babe Ruth Baseball, Art Adventure Guide at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and board member for the Hopkins Education Foundation.

After serving on the Minnetonka Planning Commission and co-chairing the Hopkins School District Legislative Action Coalition, Senator Bonoff made her first run for political office in 2005. In 2006 and 2010, she was again successful in a bid for re-election. Senator Bonoff has made education a major focus of her work in the Senate, with particular emphasis on early childhood education, education policy reform and reform of Minnesota’s education finance and administrative structures. She championed alternative teacher licensure legislation in the 2009 and 2010 Legislative Sessions. In the 2010 Session, she passed legislation creating the Commission on Service Innovation, which resulted in the creation of a strategic plan for a structural redesign of the delivery of government services in Minnesota.

In 2011 Bonoff put that to work and together with Rep. Keith Downey passed a law to consolidate IT services under one agency with the goal of cutting costs, enhancing quality and increasing efficiency. In 2012 Bonoff took a leadership role on Education Reform and became an outspoken advocate to transition from a tenure based layoff process to a focus on performance first and hire date second. Bonoff also was Vice Chair of the first Sunset Commission, with the partnership of Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer the Sunset Bill was passed and signed into law in this past session.


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