Author Archives: naomikritzer

Election 2021: Minneapolis City Council, Ward 9

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Minneapolis’s 9th Ward is currently represented by Alondra Cano, who is not running again.

On the ballot:

Jason Chavez (DFL-endorsed)
Mickey Moore (listed as a DFLer on the ballot.)
Al Flowers, Jr. (DFL)
Carmen Means (DFL)
Jon Randall Denison (Social Justice)
Yussuf Haji (DFL)
Brenda Short (DFL)
Ross Tennesson (Republican)

That is a LOT of names, but good news: you only have to worry about a few of them. There’s a candidate forum you can watch on October 7th.

tl;dr vote for Jason Chavez.

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Election 2021: Minneapolis Park Board, District 6

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This has been Brad Bourn’s seat since 2009, but he’s stepping down this year. (His Facebook page has a bunch of pictures of his adorable little baby, so my guess is that he wants to spend more time with his family.)

There are four candidates on the ballot:

Risa Hustad
Bob Fine
Cathy Abene
Barb Schlaefer

(I’ll note that there is an Elizabeth Shaffer running in District 4. The Shaffer/Schlaefer thing has been throwing people. Also, Cathy’s last name is pronounced “uh-Benny.” I will be linking to a voter forum where the moderator mispronounces her name a lot, so I just wanted to let everyone know up front how it’s supposed to be pronounced, so that you can cringe along with me if you watch the forum.)

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Election 2021: Minneapolis Park Board, District 4

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Having not merely gone down a rabbit hole but temporarily moved into a rabbit warren of Park Board meetings while researching District 3, I feel very prepared to just whip through this one. Let’s see how fast I can get it done.

On the ballot:

Jono Cowgill
Elizabeth Shaffer

A note: Elizabeth Shaffer is running for Park Board District 4, and Barb Schlaefer is running for Park Board District 6, and I’ve seen a number of people stumble over the Shaffer/Schlaefer similarity. There are two separate people, and only the last names are particularly similar.

tl;dr vote for Jono.

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Election 2021: Minneapolis Park Board, District 2

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There are three candidates on the ballot:

Eric Moran (DFL-endorsed)
Becka Thompson
Mike Shelton

The incumbent, Kale Severson, is not running for re-election.

tl;dr absolutely positively vote for Eric Moran first; rank Mike Shelton 2nd.

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Election 2021: Minneapolis Park Board, District 1

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Billy Menz is the only person running. He’s endorsed by pretty much everyone, including the guy who beat him for the seat four years ago (Chris Meyer, who decided not to run again). He looks terrific and I expect he’ll be fine. But regardless, he’s the only person on the ballot.

(I went ahead and wrote a post about him because otherwise, as it gets close to the election in November, I will get a lot of confused messages from people wanting to know if I’m going to cover this race.)