Minneapolis City Council and Park Board Elections 2017

[EOst]

https://www.facebook.com/notes/susan-ra ... 367790119/

[VAStationDude]

That's...something

[sdho]

She had me at:

When I read the phrase, “Running for his old seat in ward 9,” I heard echoes of “make America great again.”

[EOst]

Apparently some people handed that out at Schiff's kick-off/fundraiser last night. Just saw that BLM Minneapolis shared it with their 56k followers, too.

I don't agree with the author personally (actually, I think some of the piece is pretty outrageous...) but it's amazing to me how directly Schiff walked into the trap. Literally every line in that Strib article about his announcement is a slow pitch over the plate for Cano. I've never met Schiff, and I don't doubt that he was a great councilmember, but again--seriously--"police crackdown"? Hard to imagine an issue that would resonate more viscerally for Cano's supporters than that.

[mattaudio]

Even if this Schiff entry dynamic plays for Cano with some crowds, I still have trouble believing Cano has a shot at another term.

[twincitizen]

I don't see her gaining any new fans, to say the least. Regardless of everything else happening (dragging in national politics, Alondra & friends' insistence on identity politics uber alles), if Gary Schiff was good to his constituents during his 12 years on the council and the long-time residents (who tend to attend DFL conventions) have fond (enough) memories, they're likely to vote him back into office.

[MNdible]

I'd say it could go either way. If any group is willing to ram the ship onto the rocks of identity politics, it's definitely a Powderhorn area DFL caucus.

[EOst]

I doubt the DFL caucus will endorse. Regardless of how the three shake out in terms of support, none of them is likely to have 60% going into the event, and with ranked-choice voting and reasonable fundraising numbers for each there's little reason for any of them to drop out and endorse another. That assumes they can keep their people together for however many hours it takes, but I assume Cano and Farah both could.

Farah's strategy is to organize and mobilize the ward's Somali community. Regardless of whether his goal is to win this time or in four years, why would he want to stop building a voter database in April when he has the money to continue through November, especially at a moment when the Trump administration is activating Somali voters?

Likewise, Cano's play to nationalize the election depends (I assume...) on a November audience. She'll need more money to pull it off than she's been getting, but again, if there's any year in which these voters might be convinced to show up for a city council election, it's this one.

[EOst]

NOC is having a council candidate forum on 2/16 at 6pm, as part of their endorsement process, for Wards 4 and 5. Of note: Barb Johnson has confirmed that she will attend, but Blong Yang has not.

(@ New Creation Church
1922 25th Ave N)

[mattaudio]

I met @BlaisdellGreenway in person at a Ward 8 event on Wednesday. We were griping about the City's land sale to the 12-unit townhouse developer at 33xx Nicollet instead of the 30+ unit developer. That alone is good enough for me to caucus for him in his Park Board quest. Good people.

[EOst]

Interesting endorsement for a couple reasons.

[bivaly]

Ooooooooooooooook very vital

[Tiller]

Who is the person on the left? Cano?

[EOst]

yep

Warsame endorsed Farah in this race, so it's a little interesting to see a split in the Somali community here. Then again, Warsame also endorsed Noor against Omar last year, so...

[fehler]

Annie Young is retiring from the Park Board.

[gpete]

Warsame is on team Brian Rice/Phyllis Kahn/etc, and it seems like there has been tension between Omar and Warsame dating back to Omar's time as a city council staffer: https://www.minnpost.com/politics-polic ... s-comments

[Blaisdell Greenway]

There are 3 at-large Park Board seats, and the two longest serving commissioners in those seats (Young and Irwin) are retiring. The third, who is running again, told me there's too much affordable housing in Minneapolis...

You can have a disproportionate influence on making sure we have a park board that fights for the right people. All 9 seats, district and at-large, will be endorsed at the city convention on July 8th this year (along with mayor of course). If 200 new people who care about people powered parks become delegates on caucus night, that's enough to have influence at the convention.

[twincitizen]

I think it's safe to assume that at least a dozen people reading this are planning on attending caucus and becoming delegates for the city convention. And I'd guess many of us have not made up our minds on Park Board at-large. Do you have a campaign website?

[Blaisdell Greenway]

www.devinforparks.com
facebook.com/devinforparks

I'm running for one of three at large seats, and fortunately there are three good candidates.

[amiller92]

In our Ward 11 precinct, there were more spots for delegates to the ward convention than caucus attendees, so we didn't need to get into the specifics for council support, but I'd give Quincy the edge in the unreliable indicator of buttons/stickers, but Schroeder had a meaningful presence there too.