Duluth mayor’s girlfriend and campaign manager is involved in city business, emails show

DULUTH — The campaign manager and girlfriend of Mayor Roger Reinert has been directly involved in city business, from coordinating Reinert’s involvement with President Joe Biden’s January visit to asking a city staffer to complete research for Reinert, public records show.

Emails beginning at the start of the year when Reinert first took office detail Amber Gurske’s requests to the city’s public information officer and Reinert’s former assistant. The emails, obtained through a data practices request, were first reported by a Duluth online news site.

Gurske, a business development and marketing manager for Superior, Wis.-based Amsoil, offered a city staffer ideas and copy for social media topics to be covered by Reinert, coordinated a potential mayoral proclamation, reviewed a press release and asked his assistant the nature of a meeting Reinert was taking when asking to be added to his schedule. Gurske was on a panel that interviewed a candidate for a senior adviser role for Reinert’s office, and also acted as his staff at a local elementary school where he read to students, emails show.

Neither Reinert nor Gurske responded to interview requests.

As his campaign manager and not city staff, Gurske’s involvement in city operations is unethical, and potentially illegal, said David Schultz, a political science and legal studies professor at Hamline University.

“She doesn’t have the authority to direct staff,” he said, and Reinert could face conflict of interest and accountability accusations.

Gurske asking a city employee to conduct work is likely misappropriation of public dollars, Schultz said, especially if she is directing work for campaign-related social media accounts. Reinert frequently posts about city business on an Instagram account that is labeled as a campaign page.

“Can you please research/chat with folks in the next few days to get an update on Brighton Beach?” Gurske wrote to Kelli Latuska, the public information officer. “Folks have been talking about it and Roger wants to on perhaps Thursday do a post and maybe a video about where we are at, but we don’t know.”