On Wednesday, St. Paul City Council member Dan Bostrom surprised colleagues by announcing he won’t seek re-election after serving 22 consecutive years in office.

The decision not only clears a path for declared candidates for his Ward 6 seat — there are three already — but underscores the degree to which 2019 will deliver lively, potentially bruising off-year election contests for the city council.

All seven council seats will be on the city’s November 2019 ballot, which will be decided by ranked-choice.

As a result, there will be no political primary, and virtually any resident who pays a filing fee will be eligible to run through Election Day.

Thursday morning council member Dai Thao picked up his first challenger.

Liz De La Torre, a former staffer to U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, announced her campaign for the Ward 1 seat representing Frogtown, the Midway and Summit-University.

De La Torre, a former community organizer advocating for Complete Streets legislation, is legal services coordinator for St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health’s Sexual Violence Services, where she works directly with victims of sex assault and steers them to legal resources.

In Ward 6, Nelsie Yang, Terri Thao and Alex Bourne had publicly declared their intent to run for the East Side seat held by Bostrom even before he announced Wednesday that he would retire from the council on Dec. 31.

The relief of not having to run against a long-established incumbent may be short-lived. With Bostrom — the council’s eldest and most conservative voice — gone from the seat, the three candidates may now have to run more intently against each other.

Council members Jane Prince, Amy Brendmoen and Rebecca Noecker all have held re-election-themed events, kickoffs or fundraisers.

Brendmoen, the council president, faces a political challenge from North End resident Lynn Connolly.

More candidates are expected to drop in or out of the running for council seats by the mid-2019 election filing period.

Despite being nonpartisan seats, council elections tend to pique the interest of the DFL and other political parties, as well as political action committees, business advocates, unions and social justice coalitions.

There’s been no shortage of high-profile issues for the city council to consider over the past four years, from a citywide minimum wage and organized trash collection to fundamental questions about housing density or affordability, poverty and immigrant rights. And, of course, property taxes.