Mayoral Race

Who wanted to be mayor?
Viktor Vaughn
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby Viktor Vaughn » September 16th, 2013, 2:45 pm

I'm very much undecided. Mark Andrew seems so insincere in person, like he just pretends to care because he's running for office.

Betsy might be closest to me policy-wise, yet somehow she comes across as very elitist and completely uninspired.

I'd totally vote for Cohen, if this wasn't a for-real mayor's race, but rather a best costume contest at a bar on Halloween.

I'm glad that corrupt lobbyist Cherryhomes is running, just so she'll definitively fall flat on her face and accept the fact her political career has been over for more than a decade.

I could never vote for Samuals since he wrote that Strib oped that tried to make himself look like a brave & caring politician for instigating a confrontation with some street youth, who subsequently stole his iphone, without realizing his own words made him look like an elderly gullible man with a chip on his shoulder, as he went on to explain how he used his City Council clout and a night's worth of police resources to recover his phone, which never would have been stolen if he didn't try to pointlessly lecture street hustlers.

My clear choice so far is that guy who promised he "won't go to strip clubs anymore." At least he's smart enough to know that big city mayors order their strippers in. Yet, I can't shake the idea he's just running to make a point about campaign finance and "increase his youtube views" as mndible suggested.

Clearly Captain Jack Sparrow deserves a closer look. I do have a soft spot for Occupy activists and admire the determination of someone willing to legally change their name to make the title of their frivolous lawsuit (against the city they’re running to be mayor of) catchier.

So I guess I’ll have to dig deeper into the 35 candidates who’ve filed. Maybe I can find someone with the right balance of outsider crusader and serious consensus builder that I’m looking for. Until then, I’ll assume everyone is waiting anxiously for Viktor’s endorsements.

lordmoke
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby lordmoke » September 16th, 2013, 2:55 pm

I wish Schiff was still in the race. I really can't find anything in any of these candidates to get all that excited about. A lot of the city council candidates have way more promise.

So I guess I'll take a moment to appreciate our weak mayor system.

twincitizen
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby twincitizen » September 16th, 2013, 6:41 pm

Betsy might be closest to me policy-wise, yet somehow she comes across as very elitist and completely uninspired.
I had the exact same problem with Betsy, but I basically got over it when I realized none of the other candidates would make a better Mayor than her. She definitely has a tone/manner of speech that comes across as patronizing (or similar synonym). I do believe Betsy is genuine and I have little doubt she'll make a better Mayor than most, if not all of the other folks running. She has done some great work as chair of the Ways & Means / Budget Committee. Mark Andrew is beholden to every union boss in the city and the people who opposed pension reform are involved in his campaign. I simply have more confidence in the future direction of the city, especially financially, under Betsy Hodges than Mark Andrew.

If anyone thinks I'm just a shill for the Hodges campaign, I promise you I voted "no endorsement" at the DFL convention (much to the chagrin of my friends) and only came around to my decision to support her somewhat recently.
Last edited by twincitizen on September 16th, 2013, 8:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Nick
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby Nick » September 16th, 2013, 7:07 pm

^I was full of chagrin
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby bermanp7 » September 16th, 2013, 10:49 pm

I'm a shill for the Hodges campaign.

Or at least a donor and volunteer door-knocker/phone-banker. I did my homework and found that Betsy is by far my preferred candidate. On the city budget, I feel that she did as good a job as you could ask for with the extremely tough hand she was dealt (past city mistakes, Pawlenty government/slashed LGA, the Great Recession). She took on quote-unquote special interests on pensions and won. She opposes stadium funding and other types of corporate welfare. She has taken a tough independent stance on negotiating with Xcel for more affordable clean energy. She has smart plans for sustainability (zero-waste goal/organics recycling) and for helping kids (pre-K, out-of-school time). She is respected outside Mpls (fmr pres, League of MN Cities). Granted, I disagree with Betsy on streetcars; I'm skeptical of their ROI. But I note that Mark at least is right there with her on that issue. I'm biased at this point, but "Seems aloof" and "Awkward video ads" sound like petty short-sighted criticisms to me.

All in all, I trust Betsy the most by far to make the city more livable and equitable. A lot of corporate funding is going to her opponents, though. If you feel as I do, I urge you to take an active part in her campaign. Thanks for reading.

twincitizen
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby twincitizen » September 17th, 2013, 8:53 am

Check this out: http://naomikritzer.livejournal.com/275312.html

A blogger has compiled all the information she could find on all 35 candidates for Mayor, as well as the Ward 12 race.

EDIT: Oh my god, you could spend a day reading her blog and the comments. This is shockingly informative. Her takedown of Stephanie Woodruff was kind of hilarious.
Last edited by twincitizen on September 17th, 2013, 10:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

fehler
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby fehler » September 17th, 2013, 9:15 am

Naomi is a friend of mine, and she loves researching obscure candidates. She is the number one source of information on those pesky Soil and Water District 4 races.

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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby twincitizen » September 23rd, 2013, 11:07 am

Marlys Harris of MinnPost covered the most recent Mayoral forum: http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy ... al-debates

Silophant
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby Silophant » September 24th, 2013, 7:11 pm

Jackie Cherryhomes on the subject of Dinkytown development: "I supported the Opus project, but the new one is out of scale with the community."
Joey Senkyr
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby Silophant » September 24th, 2013, 7:21 pm

Heh. Now that it's happening, all the mayoral candidates are in support of the Opus project. Well, except Doug Mann, who failed to mention Dinkytown when asked about his opinion on the continued development of Dinkytown.
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby FISHMANPET » September 24th, 2013, 7:59 pm

Was there a forum where they're being asked about Dinkytown, or has it just come up in a few random interviews with candidates?

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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby FISHMANPET » September 24th, 2013, 8:04 pm

Heh. Now that it's happening, all the mayoral candidates are in support of the Opus project. Well, except Doug Mann, who failed to mention Dinkytown when asked about his opinion on the continued development of Dinkytown.
There are still votes to be had by opposing the Opus proposal. I'm sure you'd loose way more votes than you'd gain, but I can think of a few residents that would support a candidate that opposes everything all the time.

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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby PhilmerPhil » September 24th, 2013, 8:13 pm

Can anyone find a video link to that debate that was at the Parkway Theater? Or if anyone was present, could you share what the responses to the Park/Portland bike lanes were? Elizabeth Glidden tweeted that she is disappointed that so many of the candidates were again it, and the article only mentioned Betsy's response, which was supportive.

Silophant
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby Silophant » September 24th, 2013, 10:35 pm

There was a MPIRG-run forum tonight at Coffman, featuring the eight candidates with more than 300 Likes on their Facebook pages. (Cohen has 274, which I suspect is why the threshold was 300.) Attending were Mark Andrew, Jackie Cherryhomes, Bob Fine, Betsy Hodges, Doug Mann, Don Samuels, Cam Winton, and Stephanie Woodruff. A replay is available here.

My phone died midway through, as usual, but the main topics were Development and growth, especially as relating to Dinkytown, energy, focusing on HERC (Everyone is against expansion. Hodges would shut it down, because zero waste Minneapolis, and she also doesn't know how power plants actually work. Most others are fine with it continuing, Andrew and Winton specifically pointing out that they need to wait for the studies to be complete. Winton wants modern landfills, Andrew points out that all landfills leak, and continuing to burn is preferable while we reduce waste through recycling. Samuels pointed out that even if Minneapolis does go zero waste, 2/3 of the garbage comes from the suburbs, because it's the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center), Transit, focusing on Nicollet Streetcar (Andrews, Hodges, Samuels and Mann for, others against, mostly due to cost. Winton said he can get SWLRT to go through Uptown.), Education (everyone agrees that it's a huge issue. Samuels got less than halfway though his answer before time was called. Andrew pointed out that the mayor doesn't have any real control over school system. Winton interrupts him to ask about the teachers' union. Minor fracas ensues).

Then, four more topics were brought up, these ones condensed down from questions asked by students attending Voterpalooza earlier today. The first was about crime, esp. on campus (everyone agreed that more cooperation between MPD and UMPD is needed, then started talking about education again). The candidates were then asked to list their corporate donors, which was a bit of a misstep by MPIRG, since the candidates each just pointed out that they cannot legally receive corporate donations in a Minneapolis city race, then talked about how bad PACs are. Woodruff said that, while the rest of the table had spent nearly $1 million, she's spent less than $2000, which was a good way to spin that she's raised about 2% of what the frontrunners have. Next was a question about a time when each candidate fought for something that was politically dangerous, and finally each candidate's was asked about their plan to create jobs. (Winton gave the standard Republican answer, the other seven gave the standard Democratic answer.)
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby MNdible » September 27th, 2013, 10:55 am

Here's the Strib write-up of the AIA MPLS/ULI MN mayoral forum, which focused on issues of urban design and policy.

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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby twincitizen » October 10th, 2013, 1:19 pm

MinnPost on how this year's campaign strategies are different (Hint: RCV really does cut down on negative campaigning, as promised. Also, social media is the newest thing ever and all the cool kids are using it #whatsanewspaper)

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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby twincitizen » October 14th, 2013, 11:35 am

Betsy Hodges is participating in a "The Theater of Public Policy" (aka T2P2) event at HUGE Improv Theather (3037 Lyndale) on Monday, Oct. 21st.

I'll definitely attend. I love HUGE theater, I'm probably voting for Hodges with my 1st or 2nd choice, and I can walk there. Oh and it's only 5 bucks!

http://www.hugetheater.com/shows/theate ... -policy-2/

Additionally, there's one with Mayor Rybak on Nov. 11th, looking back on his 12 years as Mayor. That one should be fantastic.

twincitizen
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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby twincitizen » October 15th, 2013, 9:42 am

Strib is doing a 5-part series this week on the Mayoral candidates they have deemed serious enough:

Mark Andrew: http://www.startribune.com/politics/sta ... 07721.html
Dan Cohen: http://www.startribune.com/politics/sta ... 51651.html
Don Samuels: Wednesday
Betsy Hodges: Thursday
Cam Winton: Friday



It's very notable that Jackie Cherryhomes, Bob Fine, and Stephanie Woodruff were left out, but Dan Cohen was included, given the history. Of those three left out, I wonder how they will finish in the election...I'd wager at least one of them gets more votes than Cohen. Cherryhomes and Woodruff have certainly participated in more of the debates, but don't have the campaign funds that Cohen does.

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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby MNdible » October 15th, 2013, 9:46 am

Yeah, that strikes me as very strange.

Typically, every forum has invited the "Big 8" -- I have no idea why the Strib wouldn't take the time to run three extra stories.

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Re: Mayoral Race

Postby twincitizen » October 15th, 2013, 9:57 pm

Cont'd from previous page:

5-part series this week on the Mayoral candidates they have deemed serious enough:

Mark Andrew: http://www.startribune.com/politics/sta ... 07721.html
Dan Cohen: http://www.startribune.com/politics/sta ... 51651.html
Betsy Hodges: http://www.startribune.com/local/west/227934211.html (link could change, seems to be in wrong section)
Don Samuels: Thursday
Cam Winton: Friday



It's very notable that Jackie Cherryhomes, Bob Fine, and Stephanie Woodruff were left out, but Dan Cohen was included, given the history. Of those three left out, I wonder how they will finish in the election...I'd wager at least one of them gets more votes than Cohen. Cherryhomes and Woodruff have certainly participated in more of the debates, but don't have the campaign funds that Cohen does.


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