Welcome to the 2025 Election Season! I am planning to write about the Minneapolis City Council race, the Minneapolis Park Board race (both at-large and the districts), the Minneapolis BET (Board of Estimation and Taxation) race, and of course the Minneapolis mayoral race. St. Paul just has a mayoral race; I will write about that, too. If I missed anything, like a special school board race please remind me in the comments. (Unless it’s in Roseville. I only write about races that appear on the ballot in Minneapolis or St. Paul.)
I am planning to write about the Minneapolis mayoral race as early as I possibly get a post finished. In fact I want to get everything done early this year, because my October is going to be extremely busy. But where the mayoral race is concerned, I want all the people who “wait to hear what Naomi has to say about [candidate]” to see what I have to say so they can make up their mind and send money to their favorite of Jacob Frey’s opponents and maybe even go out and doorknock, while there’s still time for that to matter. This means that if there’s late breaking news I may have to update my post, but c’est la vie.
First, though, I’m going to warm up with some of the easy ones, where it’s “excellent incumbent vs. weirdo” or for that matter “incumbent I can’t stand but no one reasonable filed to run against her so it’s incumbent I don’t like vs. weirdo” (that would be Ward 13, where it’s Linea Palmisano vs. Bob Again.)
I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi but instead encourage people who want to reward all my hard work to donate to fundraisers. This year I’m fundraising for YouthLink. YouthLink is a Minneapolis nonprofit that helps youth (ages 16-24) who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. (Here’s their website.) I have seen some of the work they do and been really impressed. I set up a fundraiser with a specific goal mainly because “number go up!” is very motivational for me (and having external motivation helps. This is a ton of work and 2025 is a dumpster fire.)
Will Tell Stories For Food 
How powerful is the Board of Estimation and Taxation? When New York City had an elected Board of Estimate, it was quite powerful, despite the obscure name. So “Board of Estimation and Taxation” caught my eye.
Eventually someone brought a lawsuit, pointing out that as constituted, the New York City Board of Estimate was blatantly unconstitutional because it violated the principle of one person, one vote. (Each borough elected one member of the board, and tseveral times as many people live in Brooklyn as in Staten Island.)
I was very put off by Ilhan Omar’s letter about the withdrawn endorsement, and disappointed at the number of progressives who signed it. I’m not persuaded that the party made a good decision, and think it very likely was motivated by a desire to keep Frey in office and keep a lid on the socialists. BUT Ilhan et. al. completely ignored the real issues and facts of the matter—that legitimate votes were not counted, and a serious candidate was wrongly excluded from the 2nd round. Their reaction reminds me of Trump: refuse to deal with facts, declare yourself the victim, have a tantrum. Sheesh. I’m disappointed, and embarrassed. And because of that debacle, (and some lingering doubts about Fateh’s ethics) I’m ranking Davis first. I also think he has a better chance of winning against Frey. This is not New York.
Thanks for writing this blog. I seek it out for your well-reasoned and thoughtful analysis every time I am preparing for filling out my ballot. It’s such a great resource to have for local elections. Thank you for your time and research putting this together!
You provide a great public service! If you have time for it, I’d love your take on the referendum on the St. Paul school district’s requested $37M/year operating levy. The people need your insight!