2013 Minneapolis Municipal Election

[mattaudio]

Incumbent Sandy Colvin Roy has apparently withdrawn from the Ward 12 council race.

[twincitizen]

Seriously? Probably for the best. Andrew Johnson is really tall and there's almost no way he would have lost.

Jokes aside, I think he's going to be a great councilperson. I believe there is a Green and (maybe?) another DFLer in the race, so he still has to make an effort. But he has a far easier path to victory now and can focus on talking to neighbors and getting up to speed on all of the issues rather than fundraising/doorknocking/phonebanking.

[fehler]

Actually, this makes it much harder for Johnson. He no longer has a Dragon to fight, he'll have to come up with actual issues and proposals, rather then the canard of "openness" and "good government" preaching. A lot of people in this ward want their potholes filled, their police calls answered, and their garbage taken care of. There's plenty of time for a "do-something" candidate to get in the race, with no endorsement, and not be saddled with an unpopular (but legal and necessary) stadium vote.

[Viktor Vaughn]

Last I heard, the vocal urbanmsp political analyst seemed to agree the stadium vote had little to no influence on these city council races. Yet, I see a stadium-vote undercurrent helping along the shake-up we're seeing this year. Do you disagree?

Also, do municipal election ballots list the candidates party? Could I run against Reich in Ward 1 under my own "Schools not stadiums" party and run a low budget campaign? I wouldn't do anything fancy like mailers, but maybe just door knock the ward. Not that I'm a one issue guy, I'm pretty much obsessed with policy across the board. It just happens this stadium corruption begs a challenge.

Stupid idea, right? I already know my wife would hate it...

[mattaudio]

Won't we all run under the UrbanMSP banner?

[gpete]

I guess I was one of those "vocal urbanmsp political analysts" who claimed that.

I made a comment that it seemed like Tuthill and Hofstede were having difficulties primarily for other reasons (personality issues, and engaged youth in both wards that want younger, more progressive leadership). As I said, I don't know much about Colvin Roy. I've heard people complain about her slow constituent services, but people always complain about stuff like that. The stadium probably played a role in the discontent among her constituents, but I really think we've failed to see the stadium play a major role across the city.

Of the other pro-stadium voters running for re-election, one would think that first termers Kevin Reich and John Quincy would have been very vulnerable in their efforts to get endorsed by the DFL. John Quincy faced no opposition at his convention and was endorsed. And Kevin Reich had two challengers, but he got over 55% of the first ballot at his ward convention and was endorsed on the second ballot.

Gary Schiff was the MOST vocal anti-stadium voice on the city council, and his mayoral campaign appears to be fizzling.

I remain unconvinced that the stadium is playing a large role in this year's election.

[lordmoke]

I have a somewhat odd question about a technicality.

If my neighborhood changed wards during redistricting, do I have a new council member effective immediately, or does that wait until after the upcoming election to go into effect?

[twincitizen]

The latter. The Ward and precinct boundaries changed in 2012 (they had to be approved ahead of the federal/state elections) but you are still represented by your current councilperson until January 2014. Just one more unnecessary wrinkle caused by our odd-year elections.

http://www.minnpost.com/two-cities/2013 ... seats-play

It is now likely that we will have 7 new councilmembers (assuming CMs Tuthill,Hofstede, and Lilligren lose to the DFL-endorsed candidates). Some rookies will probably chair important committees, just out of necessity. Second termers Reich and Quincy will probably see their status/power elevated. Cam Gordon and Elizabeth Glidden are both going into their 3rd term I believe. Who will chair Public Works, Zoning & Planning, Ways & Means/Budget, or Public Safety?

[MNdible]

I think that at this point, it's presumptuous to assume that Lilligren will lose. If I were betting today, I'd put my money on him over Warsame. I'd bet against Tuthill and Hofstede, but still wouldn't be shocked if they pulled out a victory.

[mattaudio]

New site explaining RCV, and will feature sample ballots after the filing period ends:
http://vote.minneapolismn.gov/index.htm

[twincitizen]

SOS site of filings, updated frequently: http://candidates.sos.state.mn.us/Candi ... didateid=0

Let me know if that link doesn't properly display. It should link directly to all Minneapolis candidates.

Here's Minneapolis' website with filings. They say it will be updated daily, but we'll see. http://vote.minneapolismn.gov/candidate/filing

[FISHMANPET]

I'm glad perennial candidate Ole Savior is in on this one.

[Silophant]

I'm glad perennial candidate Ole Savior is in on this one.

Both a hotmail address AND a yahoo address? He's so contactable, how could he lose?

[twincitizen]

'JOBS DOWNTOWN CASINO' political party listed for Dick Cohen. I'm surprised he didn't squeeze FUK_STRIB in there

[twincitizen]

Candidate filings update: http://vote.minneapolismn.gov/candidate/filing

No one has filed to challenge either Lisa Goodman (7) or Elizabeth Glidden (8). I guess I could see Glidden being very well liked and her ward having fewer crazy people that just want to see their name on the ballot. I find it shocking that no one in Ward 7 thinks they can do a better job than Lisa Goodman. Plenty of wealthy people over there that could self-finance, despite Goodman's supposed campaign war chest.

Robert Lilligren now has 3 Somali challengers in Ward 6, potentially easing the way for a Lilligren victory.

Ward 9 has the most candidates, including 4 DFL'ers of various ethnicities, giving Socialist Ty Moore a good chance under Ranked Choice Voting.

[Viktor Vaughn]

I see Captain Jack Sparrow is running for mayor...

And somebody filed in Ward 1 to register discontent with Reich's stadium vote. Since I kicked around that idea myself, I'm glad someone followed through (even without an actual campaign). Well, Mark Fox has my vote anyway.

http://2013.electmarkfox.us/

[Nick]

Posted this today:

https://streets.mn/2013/09/11/morning-in-minneapolis/

[MNdible]

A great read, Nick.

I'd like to pick on this point, which really doesn't have anything to do with your larger argument:

Across the city, we have candidates who understand and are willing to talk about more nuanced issues, like how we have a city built for 500,000 people (our 1950s peak) but only 390,000 people paying to keep the lights on.

You're certainly not the first to make this case (Rybak and the Strib have made essentially the very same argument in the last week). So let’s walk through it.

The reason that we have so many fewer people isn’t because we’ve abandoned vast swaths of the city and let it return to nature. Yes, there was some land (and houses) lost to freeways and urban redevelopment, but the 70’s also saw the construction of some high-rise apartments that weren’t there previously. There’s probably also an element of an artificial 1950 peak, when a post-WW2 housing crunch had people living in substandard units and unsustainable conditions that soon had them fleeing to the suburbs.

I’ll argue (and the stats largely will back me up) that the huge bulk of our population loss was due to a decrease in the size of the average household. That’s because there were more childless households (both younger and older), and households with children had fewer of them.

So, a smaller population mostly because there are fewer kids. You know what kids don’t do? Pay taxes. You know what kids do do? Use up services, like schools, and playgrounds, and social services, and policing. Kids are freeloaders.

This is not an argument against kids, nor is it an argument against increasing our density so that we can get our population back on the upswing towards a half million. Just an observation that the connection between taxes and density and population may not be as direct as you might initially think. In terms of households per acre, I wouldn’t be surprised if Minneapolis weren’t already denser than it’s ever been. Increasing density further should allow the city to deliver services more efficiently – but my sense is that the reasons that taxes spiked so much over the last decade really aren’t related to Minneapolis being too sparse.

[mulad]

I would like to see a history of the over-18 population of the core cities over the last several decades at some point. Not sure how difficult it is to dig up that data.

I remember woofner posting something about this on his blog a few years back -- I've always wondered if the mix of 1-, 2-, 3-, and more bedroom units has changed as well, or if people really were as cramped as the data implies. I've only seen unit occupation data going back to 1940. Was it tracked at all before then?

Also, there should be some international context to the figures. I mean, there is something great about the whole American Dream thing, but there are aspects to it where we've gone overboard.

[Nick]

After taking the state fair bus a couple weeks ago, I'm all about arguments against kids...no worries there.

Good point though, MNdible, hadn't really thought about that. Makes a lot of sense.