Mayoral Race

[mplsjaromir]

I think everyone is forgetting about Dan Cohen's most nuanced position of "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs".

[twincitizen]

Have any current councilmembers, besides Schiff and Quincy, publicly announced support for Betsy Hodges? Anyone for Don Samuels? I'm fairly certain none of them are backing Mark Andrew...not publicly anyways

[twincitizen]

Strib report: Half of money in Mayoral race coming from outside Minneapolis (with awesome infographic!)

[mattaudio]

fyi... this evening...

The Minneapolis Arts Commission and The Arts & Cultural Policy Study Group are partnering to host the first Minneapolis Mayoral Candidate Forum on Placemaking, to be held Thursday, September 12th from 6:00-8:00 PM.
The Minneapolis Mayoral Candidate Forum, moderated by MPR News Arts Reporter Marianne Combs, will be held at MacPhail Center for Music, Antonello Hall, located at 501 South 2nd Street in downtown Minneapolis.
A Q&A session will follow the Candidate Forum and will take place from 7:00-8:00 PM.

Follow the conversation on Twitter at #mplsmayor.

Please contact Sarah Sampedro at [email protected] for further details.
WHEN
September 12, 2013 at 6pm - 8pm
WHERE
MacPhail Center for Music, Antonello Hall
501 S 2nd St

[twincitizen]

Your move, Cam Winton. The bar has been raised.

[mattaudio]

Best campaign slogan ever?

[MNdible]

As much as I enjoyed that, it's a bad sign that it's so easy to run for mayor that people do it just as a way to boost their YouTube views.

[seanrichardryan]

http://m.startribune.com/news/?id=223776701&c=y

Interesting

[Silophant]

Though the difference between 16%, 14%, and 10% is barely anything, especially two months out, it's concerning that Cohen appears to be in the lead.

[twincitizen]

This is huge: One factor that could sway the race is an endorsement from Rybak, who leaves office popular with city voters. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they “somewhat approve” or “strongly approve” of Rybak’s performance as mayor — with 40 percent feeling strongly. Only 20 percent disapproved. The mayor has yet to say if or when he’ll make an endorsement.

Rybak is unsure if he will make an endorsement, but he does have a legacy to protect and I believe that he will make his leanings more clear in the coming weeks, if not a full throated endorsement. Rybak does not want Mark Andrew to be the next mayor; I think that much is certain. What's up in the air is if he goes for Hodges, Samuels, or decides to keep it quiet. Perhaps he will issue a ranking...

[FISHMANPET]

He tweeted that he was glad Samuels did well in the most recent poll.

[David Greene]

He tweeted that he was glad Samuels did well in the most recent poll.

I know quite a few people in Harrison that do not want Samuels as mayor. They were glad when he left the city council. He was completely unwilling to take any leadership to get neighborhood issues addressed.

[twincitizen]

There's a MinnPost interview with Mayor Rybak today, focusing mostly on schools and what the next Mayor's role will be:
http://www.minnpost.com/learning-curve/ ... ak-says-qa
(Caution: stunning baby blues ahead...you've been warned)

It contains favorable statements about Samuels and Hodges, and quite the smackdown on Mark Andrew. It's definitely worth a skim.

[FISHMANPET]

I still have no idea who any of these candidates are.

It pains me to say this, but I think we need some negative campaigning. In R vs D elections it's not needed because I can tell the differences. But when you get 10 people that all have pretty similar views, they need to set themselves apart. I need to candidate X to tell me why they would be a better mayor than candidate Y. And I don't think there's a way to do that without dragging the opponent through some mud.

I don't need people digging out sex scandals from 20 years ago or stuff like that, but someone's gotta tell me why they're better than the other guy.

[gpete]

Rybak has been pretty complimentary of Samuels, and Rybak's mom endorsed Samuels. It seems that Rybak is tacitly endorsing him...

[FISHMANPET]

Is there any reason I should care what RT's mom says about a mayoral race, other than that she birthed the current mayor?

[gpete]

No, of course not. She's irrelevant. I'm just saying it seemed like a "wink, wink" Rybak endorsement. Samuels campaign put out a press release about it.

[twincitizen]

Additional thoughts (going back to that Strib article and poll): If Betsy Hodges is letting Dan Cohen beat her on capturing the "anti-stadium" vote, then her campaign has some serious messaging work to do. Either that or she has chosen to distance herself from anti-stadium rhetoric, since A. it's clearly happening whether anyone likes it or not, and B. some people do like it (or have reached acceptance) and you don't want to needlessly throw away their votes either

My gut tells me this: despite Ranked-Choice Voting and 35 candidates, the results in November are going to be very similar to the DFL Convention in June. Mark Andrew and Betsy Hodges are going to be very competitive for first place, while Don Samuels and Jackie Cherryhomes split the lower turnout Northside. Cam Winton is a wild card and could very well slide into Gary Schiff's 3rd place slot from the convention. MAYBE Dan Cohen's campaign could surprise people, but to think he's going to finish better than 5th place on the strength of billboards and radio ads alone is as crazy as he is. He has no ground campaign whatsoever (I assume), so that means no door knocking, no phone banking, no nothing. This poll is an abberation. At best, his performance will be a test case in how easily someone can ad buy their way into a Mayoral race vs. actual campaigns that are out there fundraising and putting boots on the ground.

Personal aside: I'm voting Hodges first, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed in the campaign so far. While I haven't received mailings or phone calls from Mark Andrew or any other candidates since the DFL convention in June, the Andrew lawn signs are really starting to crop up all over town.

What exactly are any of the campaigns doing right now? Cam Winton continues to destroy the competition in getting the media's attention, and he hasn't really fallen on his face yet for someone so eager to get in front of a camera. It seems that outside of the now-weekly mayoral forums/events, the campaigns are staying relatively quiet before making that final month push when Joe Plumber is finally paying attention.

[mplsjaromir]

Mayor Rybak's twitter involvement begs the question, are RT's RTs endorsements?

[woofner]

she has chosen to distance herself from anti-stadium rhetoric, since A. it's clearly happening whether anyone likes it or not, and B. some people do like it (or have reached acceptance) and you don't want to needlessly throw away their votes either

or C. she is still trying to get Rybak's endorsement (or avoid his un-endorsement).