Aisha Chughtai, the incumbent, was elected in 2021 and re-elected in 2023. On the ballot:
Aisha Chughtai
Lydia Millard
DeShanneon Grimes
As I did in my Ward 2 post, before I talk about the candidates I’m going to talk about all the the PACs because they have similar names and it’s frankly pretty confusing and also especially relevant here.
- There was We Love Mpls. Presumably called that because so many of them love Minneapolis, but don’t live there. (Obligatory note: neither do I, but at least I live in St. Paul and not, say, Wayzata.) Taylor Dahlin wrote about We Love Minneapolis in June. She noted that it’s chaired by (GOP donor) Andrea Corbin, and run by Joe Radinovich and Nico Woods. (Two of the most conservative people in the Minnesota DFL.) The money overwhelmingly came from landlords with large holdings; progressive PAC Minneapolis for the Many noted that 68% of their money came from landlords responsible for hundreds of property violations.
- There is Thrive Minneapolis. In July, We Love Mpls shut down and Thrive Minneapolis seems to be the replacement. Taylor wrote about this group in July. She noted that it’s chaired by Martha Holton Dimick (the very conservative prosecutor who ran against Mary Moriarty in 2022), and again heavily funded by landlords and developers, many of whom do not live in Minneapolis.
- There is All of Mpls, which is doing endorsements. Legally I am sure they are not actually the Frey campaign wearing a funny hat but if you click on the website you might be forgiven for thinking they basically look like the Frey campaign wearing a funny hat, especially since they have a link to “Thank Mayor Frey” (with a canned, adulatory e-mail). They have endorsed Becka Thompson in Ward 12, which is frankly inexcusable, and if I were Lydia Millard, I’d be pretty annoyed about that. I described them two years ago as “a group aligned with the law-and-order faction of the city government: they love cops, they love landlords, and they love parking spots.” In retrospect I’m not sure that’s harsh enough. What they want is for Mayor Frey, who I consider frankly incompetent even if you like his politics, to have a rubber-stamp City Council.
- On the other side there is the progressive PAC Minneapolis for the Many. I like Minneapolis for the Many! They also do endorsements.
One final note about some of the people involved in Love/Thrive/All Of Mpls. On September 9th there was a Zoom meeting of the DFL Feminist Caucus where the people in charge and their friends engaged in some really gross treatment of trans Democrats who showed up and ran for offices. (There’s an open letter about what happened at that meeting here.) Joe Radinovich was there and voting with the hostile majority. Martha Holton Dimick nominated Latonya Reeves, who was one of the people huffing and eye-rolling over the concept of respecting someone’s pronouns. The people misgendering trans DFLers are out of step with things I consider to be core DFL values. If someone has sought and accepted these endorsements, I do not trust them. (Also, the reason the old guard of the DFL Feminist Caucus closed ranks was to defend the right of their friend to continue to hold party office despite her involvement in a fatal crash that has been charged as vehicular homicide. I’ve seen this sort of “how dare you show up in our clubhouse and make trouble” gatekeeping in other contexts and it’s toxic and awful.) More on all this in a minute.
DeShanneon’s website describes her background as “entrepreneur, mother, and dog lover.” She’s currently a realtor. (From what I could find, she’s been a realtor for a year or two.) She wants red-light cameras and traffic calming; she also thinks infrastructure decisions are being made without enough input from residents and area businesses. I’m not sure she realizes that her desires here (more speed bumps / more attention paid to what businesses want) are probably in conflict.
She doesn’t list any prior civic experience (city/county committees, campaign work for other people, etc.) and she has no endorsements. You can vote for her if you really like her ideas but pick a backup candidate and maybe tell them which of her ideas you particularly like and hope they’ll enact.
Lydia Millard is one of the candidates supported by Love/Thrive/All Of Mpls. Nico Woods (formerly the person running We Love Mpls, along with Joe Rad one of the most conservative DFLers in the area) is her Campaign Manager, and she was present at the disastrous DFL Feminist Caucus meeting. I actually e-mailed her in the wake of it to ask if she was interested in sharing any comments on the rampant misgendering at the meeting and if it concerned her at all while the meeting was happening; she did not reply to my e-mail nor has she commented on the meeting at all, that I’ve seen. She appears to have close ties with the now-chair of the DFL Feminist Caucus, Alicia Gibson, who has been campaigning for her and ironically posted photos of her back in June posing with two people in trans flag t-shirts at the Pride Parade. (Alicia, unlike Lydia, did comment after that meeting: she sent out a wildly bad-faith e-mail.) “Supportive of trans people in the context of photo ops” is not a particularly useful sort of allyship, IMO. I mean, it’s better than Amy Klobuchar but the bar is in hell.
She also has some genuinely odd ideas like building a data center in Ward 10. She showed up at the vigil for the Hortmans with staffers in campaign t-shirts (the family had explicitly requested no campaigning, a request that was honored by other candidates who came.) And she referred to the old police chief Arradondo as a racist and a bigot — Carin Mrotz, the person who had this conversation with her, thought she probably was thinking of former police union boss Bob Kroll, but tried to clarify and Lydia reiterated she meant Arradondo. (She probably honestly DID mean Kroll, but it’s a weird mistake.)
In Lydia’s favor: she is Board Chair of the Partnership In Property Commercial Land Trust and she has a lot more detailed knowledge around housing than a lot of people running. I disagree with a bunch of the stances she gave on her Neighbors for More Neighbors questionnaire but unlike most of the Thrive/Love/All of Mpls candidates, she had detailed analytical explanations for her stances. (For example, her opposition to Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Laws: “Converting rental properties to community or resident ownership in Minneapolis is complex. The process can take over a year, and many renters don’t qualify for financing. Rising taxes and underfunded HOAs leave residents unprepared for major repairs. The Sky Without Limits co-op, supported by short-term city and LISC funding, still hasn’t secured ownership after seven years. PPL also dissolved resident-owned co-ops due to building deterioration. Before expanding efforts like TOPA, the city must address the financial and structural issues that have undermined past attempts.” That is actually a bunch of valid points and a much better response than “I believe that property owners should be able to sell their property to whom they choose to sell it to,” which is what Pearll in Ward 5 said.)
ETA: Asked about transit modes at a forum, Lydia characterized investment in infrastructure for bikers, walkers, and transit users as “penalizing people who drive.”
Most years, I would hold off on posting this, because there’s a LWV forum scheduled on October 7th. But I have travel planned in October and really want to get these done before I go. If I have time, I will watch & edit later. I am hoping that the candidates get asked some questions about biking infrastructure and bus lanes, because Lydia has a “climate resilience” section that briefly mentions transit, doesn’t mention bikes, and mostly talks about trees. (I love trees, to be clear, but I’m pretty sure so does Aisha, and I would like to hear more about Lydia’s stance on bus lanes, given the controversy over Hennepin Ave.
Anyway — overall I think she’s far more qualified and makes a much better case for her positions than the centrist who ran last time but has the same circle of friends and I distrust anyone who would hire Nico Woods.
I like Aisha Chughtai. I deeply appreciated the fact that she showed up at the Lake/Bloomington raid. She’s been solid on transit and affordable housing; in her accomplishments list on public safety she mentions hiring additional investigators for MPD and expanding the behavioral crisis response team.
Looking on social media for commentary about her I ran into massive amounts of pearl clutching over her saying “fuck Jacob Frey” a few months back (the full quote: “We’re gonna transform this city because fuck Jacob Frey, fuck fascism, and fuck Donald Trump!”) I really don’t fucking care about this. (I strongly doubt that most of the pearl-clutchers actually give a shit about it, either.)
Anyway: I would vote for Aisha Chughtai. FYI, the October 7th forum should be livestreamed here (and if that link doesn’t work, try the LWV Candidate Forums page.)
I have a new book coming out next June! This one is not YA; it’s a near-future thriller about an obstetrician who gets kidnapped by a cult because they want someone on site to deliver babies. You can pre-order it right now if you want.
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. (An early donor to the fundraiser added a comment: “YouthLink was incredible instrumental in my assistance of a friend to escape a bad family situation in Florida with little more than a computer and a state ID. Thanks to YouthLink and their knowledge of resources my friend was able to get a mailing address (which was essential in getting a debit card and formal identification documents), healthcare, hot meals, an internship at a local company, and even furniture for their new apartment.” — That is exactly the sort of thing I’m talking about!)
I set up a fundraiser with a specific goal mainly because seeing the money raised helps motivate me. (Having external motivation helps! This is a lot of work.)
Will Tell Stories For Food 