Hello to a bunch of people looking up this site on their phone from a voting booth! Here are links to (hopefully) all my posts about this year’s races. (If you scroll and don’t find what you want, try a search, but remember, I only write about races that appear on the ballot in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Here is my new post about researching a race from the voting booth, though, if you’re looking at this from elsewhere, and here is a set of Google Docs put together by someone else for school board races statewide — she tells you who’s endorsed by the teacher’s union vs who’s endorsed by the MN Parents Alliance, a hair-raisingly right-wing group.)
MINNEAPOLIS
Minneapolis has a City Council race this year but no school board race. There will be another round of citywide races (for City Council and Mayor) in 2025, when everyone will run for a four-year term.
(No one else will appear on the ballot but there are a couple of write-in candidates campaigning actively enough to make it worth showing up to vote for Robin.)
Saint Paul has a City Council race on the ballot (four-year terms, because our City Council and Mayor aren’t in sync) and a citywide School Board race (choose four).
Pick four (not ranked choice). I am probably voting for Carlo Franco, Zuki Ellis, Chauntyll Allen, and Yusef Carillo, but Erica Valliant is also a strong choice. More info on that race here.
I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, but I get a lot of satisfaction by pointing people at fundraiser that I can then see fund, so if you’d like make a donation to encourage my work, check out check out this first-year art teacher at Lucy Laney in Minneapolis who is raising money to provide easels, drying racks, and art materials for her students, or this music teacher at Washington Technology Magnet in St. Paul, who is raising money to buy guitars so that students don’t have to share 1 guitar between 4 students.
Saint Paul ballots will include the following question:
CITY QUESTION 1 (St. Paul)
1.0% SALES TAX FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO STREETS, BRIDGES, AND PARKS
Should the City of Saint Paul establish a one percent (1%) sales and use tax over the next 20 years to generate $738,000,000 to repair and improve streets and bridges, $246,000,000 to improve parks and recreation facilities, and associated bonding costs? A vote YES means repairs and improvements to streets, bridges, parks, and recreation facilities would be funded through a new one percent (1%) sales and use tax. A vote NO means repairs and improvements to streets, bridges, parks, and recreation facilities would not be funded through a new one percent (1%) sales and use tax.
You can vote yes, or no.
I’m going to vote yes, but I’ll admit I’m doing it kind of grudgingly, despite being a Democrat who is generally happy to pay more money for better services.
There are four open school board seats, and this race is not done with instant runoff, you just vote for four people and the top four vote-getters win.
Sahan Journal did interviews with every candidate. There was a LWV forum that Zuki Ellis, Chauntyll Allen, Yusef Carillo, and Carlo Franco all attended but the others did not; you can also see the screening interview done by SPFE with Yusef, Erica, and Carlo (although I didn’t get very far because FB video is so frustrating to watch for anything long-form — there’s no easy way to skip forward/backward).
Gary is a retired engineer and it took me a while to find his campaign website, so I looked for one on Facebook and found his personal page, which is top to bottom stuff like “[picture of a sad dog] I’m 15 today and I bet I can’t get even ONE SHARE,” shared three times in a row.
He’s endorsed by Republicans, took a strong stance against the Summit Bike trail (he’s at least honest about believing that it doesn’t need the sewer/water lines replaced, either), and says he wants a return to the basics (which he defines as roads, trash collection, and public safety.) He has not filled out any questionnaires and did not show up for the Ward 6 LWV forum. (ETA: the Republican site that recommended him is apparently not official, so I have changed my statement to say that he is endorsed by Republicans, i.e. the people running the site, vs. by the Republicans, i.e. officially by the party.)
Nelsie was elected last time and has been a strong progressive on the St. Paul council. She also showed up for the LWV forum and has filled out all the questionnaires despite not having much in the way of an actual opponent. I would vote for Nelsie.
I have a book coming out this fall, in November! Liberty’s Daughter is near-future SF about a teenage girl on a libertarian seastead. A lot of it was originally published as short fiction in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. You can pre-order it in either book or ebook format from whatever you like.
I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, so if you’d like make a donation to encourage my work, check out this music teacher at Washington Technology Magnet in St. Paul, who is raising money to buy guitars so that students don’t have to share 1 guitar between 4 students.
Bill Hosko’s hobby is running for office. He is not very good at it. In 2015 he ran for the Ward 2 seat on a “no parking meters” platform. In 2019 he ran for the Ward 2 seat on a “we should spend huge amounts of money to install turnstiles around every light rail station; also, taxes are too high; also, we should spend huge amounts of money holding referendums on literally everything” platform. In 2021 he ran for mayor on a “turnstiles” platform and also on the grounds that Mayor Carter had weeds in his yard, which Bill videotaped. And last year he ran for Ramsey County Board on a platform that went something like, “crime is bad.” Also he still wanted turnstiles. This year, he doesn’t mention turnstiles; his unreadable, inaccessible website (it’s entirely blurry graphics without alt-text) basically says things are bad and taxes are too high. Given his commitment to losing elections very badly, I’m surprised that he apparently hates ranked choice voting (or at least did in 2017) since without it, he’d get even fewer votes than he does already. He’s endorsed by Republicans, because in St. Paul, they’ll take what they can get. (ETA: the site with the recommended candidates for Republicans to vote for is not an official Republican site, so I have changed my statement to say he’s endorsed by Republicans, i.e. the people running that site, vs. the Republicans, i.e. the actual party.) Anyway, for so many reasons, as I noted in 2021, I would not want Bill as a City Council rep or for that matter as a neighbor.
Peter Butler has an even weirder hobby than Bill’s, which is to organize petition drives to put stuff on the ballot in St. Paul, turn in his petition, and when it fails because a bunch of the signatures got declared invalid, he sues the city. (Should you want to fact-check this, pay attention to middle initials: there’s a Peter Butler who’s a drunk driver but it’s a different person.)
He did have one tantalizingly innovative proposal, which was to bring back boarding houses: “Many older residents have spare rooms and can remain in their homes by earning rental income and having someone to help with household chores.” He shows absolutely zero self-awareness of the fact that this idea clashes with his firm commitment to single-family zoning (“Should St. Paul allow at least three units of housing on any residential lot? Why or why not?” “No. I strongly support neighborhood preservation. Entry level homes (pricewise) will be demolished for the lot, removing affordable homes from first-time homebuyers.”) He’s another “absolutely not.”
Noval Noir apparently didn’t fill out the questionnaires for either the East Metro Voter Guide or the MinnPost election guide; she was interviewed and was mostly pretty incoherent. Her main issue is the opioid crisis and she has a list of things she wants to do that are a mix of things that we’re already doing (collecting data, harm reduction, educating people on opiate risks, tracking prescriptions), things that would genuinely be a good idea and have broad support among Democrats (expand treatment facilities), and things that are extremely nonspecific (“Develop a long-term strategy to combat the opioid crisis, recognizing that it is a complex issue that will require sustained effort and resources.”) I guess if I really really hated Rebecca Noecker she’d be my pick. I guess.
Rebecca Noecker is a normal Democrat and I would vote for her if I lived in Ward 2. I feel like possibly I’m damning her with faint praise here, but I am trying to get through the last few races and all you really need to know here is, “she’s fine, and even if she made you mad in the last four years, you probably don’t want to vote for any of her opponents.”
I have a book coming out this fall, in November! Liberty’s Daughter is near-future SF about a teenage girl on a libertarian seastead. A lot of it was originally published as short fiction in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. You can pre-order it in either book or ebook format from whatever you like.
I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, so if you’d like make a donation to encourage my work, check out this music teacher at Washington Technology Magnet in St. Paul, who is raising money to buy guitars so that students don’t have to share 1 guitar between 4 students.
I have a book coming out this fall, in November! Liberty’s Daughter is near-future SF about a teenage girl on a libertarian seastead. A lot of it was originally published as short fiction in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. You can pre-order it in either book or ebook format from whatever you like.
I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, so if you’d like make a donation to encourage my work, check out this music teacher at Washington Technology Magnet in St. Paul, who is raising money to buy guitars so that students don’t have to share 1 guitar between 4 students.
Another open seat, a long list of candidates, but! in this case! four out of the six candidates are wildly unacceptable, sometimes for reasons you would probably not expect!
Kartumu King ran previously in 2019. She is a convicted child abuser (link goes to my post from 2019, which provides some details on what she did.) Back in 2019 she’d also sued people 19 times; she’s added several lawsuits since then. Also, just as a side note, her website says nothing useful about what she wants to do on the City Council, and her campaign Facebook is mostly just links to things like the Ballotpedia page about the city of Saint Paul. I would not rank Kartumu.
Foua-Choua links to a website that doesn’t work and her Facebook (linked above) is about her campaign in 2022 for a completely different job (and when I wrote about her last year, I had a hard time finding information then, too.) I’m not sure she knows she’s running. (OK, that is slightly unfair; she filled out the East Metro Voter Guide questionnaire and I would take her over Kartumu or Alex but there is just not much here.)
Alex also ran in 2019 (but in Ward 6), and I’m going to link to my post about that race because it has many quotes from the Pioneer Press article about his history. To very briefly sum up an extremely convoluted story: you can laugh off the shoe theft, you can laugh off the dognapping-for-profit, but the multiple arrests for violence, including sexual violence, against women he knows: nope, nope, nope. Absolutely not.
When Dino ran for mayor in 2021, his criminal conviction was the very first hit. Good news for him: now it’s below his campaign Facebook. Since his was for bad checks rather than (a) child abuse or (b) partner abuse or (c) dognapping, and also it was over two decades ago, I’d probably let the conviction slide. But he’s also a Republican, and that’s a nonstarter.
On some topics, Pa Der seems more progressive than Cheniqua — on the MinnPost questionnaire she’s solidly in favor of allowing triplexes (“Allowing families to turn their current homes into multi-unit housing would open up more housing options for residents and in essence increase the housing availability in our city as well as provide opportunities for families to be landlords and provide housing”), she favors the sales tax, and she’s pro-rent control, with the caveat that she thinks we should do a study on the current policy and whether it’s working the way we thought. But she’s also Dino Guerin’s second choice, which makes me kind of suspicious. She’s also endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce and supported by the SuperPAC “Saint Paul Works” which is apparently funded by a landlord group. This all makes me very wary in a “clearly these people, all of whom I dislike, know something I don’t” kind of way.
Cheniqua Johnson is endorsed by the DFL and seems like basically a normal Democrat. On the MinnPost questionnaire where they asked about triplexes, she gave a long answer that made it sound like she thought triplexes were great without ever actually saying “yes, they should be allowed on any lot. (She finishes with “This could be a step in the right direction.”) This is part of why I took a second look at Pa Der. I wound up watching the LWV forum (it goes a lot faster if you’re skipping over 4 out of 6 candidates), and honestly, Cheniqua and Pa Der both came across as normal Democrats.
I would rank Cheniqua first because the fact that the landlords want Pa Der makes me deeply suspicious. I would rank Pa Der second. I would rank Foua-Choua Khang third, because while she’s barely running and didn’t show up for the candidate forum, as far as I know she hasn’t committed any violent crimes and she’s not a Republican.
ETA: Sustain Saint Paul sent me a link to their questionnaire, which both Pa Der and Cheniqua answered. Again, both of them had really good responses. Pa Der might in fact be better on biking. Cheniqua talked about accessibility. They’re both in favor of mixed-use zoning, improved transit, and slowing traffic on city streets.
I have a book coming out this fall, in November! Liberty’s Daughter is near-future SF about a teenage girl on a libertarian seastead. A lot of it was originally published as short fiction in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. You can pre-order it in either book or ebook format from whatever you like.
I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, so if you’d like make a donation to encourage my work, check out this music teacher at Washington Technology Magnet in St. Paul, who is raising money to buy guitars so that students don’t have to share 1 guitar between 4 students.
Pam downplays this on her site, but she’s a Republican. She’s endorsed by Republicans and although she’s tried to lock down / sanitize her social media (because she clearly knows Saint Paul is deep, deep blue) I did find a comment she left on a news article from 2018 about Trump trash-talking a restaurant for refusing to serve Sarah Huckabee Sanders:
Given her Republican connections I was sort of surprised that she says she supports the rent control ordinance as it currently exists. But fundamentally: I do not trust Republicans at any level, and I don’t trust a Republican running in St. Paul to be honest about their stance on anything. I would not vote for her. (ETA: the site where I found the recommendations for Republican voters is apparently not exactly an official Republican Party site. However, it notes that she was “recommended by HD66B GOP.”)
Nate likes talking about his “servant leader” style, which can be a right-wing Christian dogwhistle, so I did a deep dive into his social media as well and found … an open book with nothing particularly worrying. Although I did also find a post from him from last December where he said he was going to vote for Hwa Jeong Kim, who he’s now running against, which was kind of weird.
He has some public service experience (he served on the board of directors at the North End Neighborhood Organization; he serves on the steering committee for a real-estate coop; and he’s the Vice Chair of the Neighborhood STAR board.) However, his policy ideas are mostly pretty vague (on housing and homelessness, one of his proposals is, “Partner with the City, businesses, and education institutions to find creative housing options.”)
One point that I ran across where he seems to differ significantly from Hwa Jeong was in the LWV Forum, when a question got asked about a proposed “Tobacco-Free Generation ordinance,” which would ban anyone born after January 1st, 2004 from ever buying tobacco in the City of St. Paul. Hwa Jeong was for it; Nate (and all the other candidates) were against it. (I have to say, as much as I loathe tobacco I am not in favor of prohibition and people over the age of 21 have a right to take up harmful habits if they want, so I would not support this. But I also don’t see it as a particularly pressing issue.)
If you are intrigued by Nate (or unhappy with Hwa Jeong), Nate seems fine; list him first if you want (but pick a backup candidate because I don’t think most people have heard of him and I don’t think he’s going to win). The nice thing about instant runoff is that you can rank by preference.
David says that his top priority is to “restore the voice of our neighborhoods” but specifically what he means by that is, “to restore the voice of our neighborhoods specifically as relates to historic preservation.” Literally every topic he talks about comes back to historic preservation, and while I sympathize with the people who will die mad about the German School tearing down St. Andrews, I am much less inclined to center historical preservation than he is.
I’m sure no one who’s reading this will be surprised that he’s vehemently against the Summit Avenue trail, and probably will not be surprised that he presents the threat to the trees as being 100% caused by the planned bike lane. (“The city is currently fighting against our neighbors on Summit Ave to put in place a bike lane that will kill up to 950 trees (estimated).” — from his website.) The actual main purpose of the project is to replace the century-old sewer and water lines under Summit Avenue. (Note: the giant sinkhole that opened up on Girard Ave in Minneapolis last year was due to a 120-year-old sewer pipe caving in.) That’s also where the primary risk to the trees comes from: trees tend to put their roots wherever they want, some may have put their roots places where they’ll be damaged by tearing out the road, and we won’t know for sure until we do it, but also, the infrastructure under the road is over a century old and we really do need to replace it, I’m inclined to trust the Public Works director for St. Paul on this.
The SOS (“Save Our Street”) group thinks that Summit Ave should be fixed with mill-and-overlay (rather than rebuilt pavement) and that the pipes should be fixed with trenchless lining. The Public Works director for St. Paul says that trenchless lining doesn’t work as well on water pipes (and is much more expensive) and also it doesn’t work well when the pipes are already in poor condition. The bike lane is being built on the principle that as long as you’re completely rebuilding the road for a bunch of other reasons, you might as well upgrade the bike options, much like, if you had to tear out your main bathroom down to the rough-ins, you might as well put in some tile you like. If David mentioned the century-old sewer-and-water-infrastructure problem anywhere in his complaining about the Summit Ave bike trail, I did not find it.
Anyway — David would definitely not be my first choice.
Hwa Jeong Kim is DFL-endorsed and is also endorsed by a long list of other people and groups. (Nate doesn’t seem to have any endorsements. David is endorsed by a heritage preservation group but doesn’t seem to have much in the way of other endorsements. Pam is endorsed by the Republicans, so not much in the way of endorsements I’d consider a plus.) Hwa Jeong has worked as a legislative aid and served on the St. Paul Planning Commission, she was Trista Matascastillo‘s campaign manager back in 2018 (and was hired by Amy Brendemoen on the strength of her work for Trista, which unseated a long-time Ramsey County Board member who I thought was pretty terrible so good work there), and she’s currently the executive director of a group called Minnesota Voice, which I think coordinates stuff like get-out-the-vote and voter registration efforts among a large coalition of progressive organizations.
Some of her stances I’m not sold on (the Twin Cities Boulevard proposal, which she’s a fan of; the Tobacco-Free Generation ordinance mentioned above) but overall she seems like a committed progressive whose priorities are similar to mine — she’s in favor of housing, density, transit, bike lanes, public safety approaches that include alternatives to police responses, etc. She has a mix of political and policy experience that will serve her well.
I would rank Hwa Jeong first, Nate second, and David third (because at least he’s not a Republican.)
I have a book coming out this fall, in November! Liberty’s Daughter is near-future SF about a teenage girl on a libertarian seastead. A lot of it was originally published as short fiction in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. You can pre-order it in either book or ebook format from whatever you like.
I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, so if you’d like make a donation to encourage my work, check out this music teacher at Washington Technology Magnet in St. Paul, who is raising money to buy guitars so that students don’t have to share 1 guitar between 4 students.
At the suggestion of my husband, I’m going to skip wards 2, 4, and 6 (all of which have incumbents — they all have opponents, but none of them are likely to unseat them regardless of what I think) for now and do wards 3, 5, and 7, all of which are open seats with much more competitive races. I will hopefully get through everything, but the open seats are more important to cover sooner.
Ward 3 has been represented by Chris Tolbert since 2012. He’s now retiring from the job. This is my actual ward, so I have been paying attention since the endorsement phase.
Troy is a current Macalester student who will be graduating in December. He’s opposed to rent control, and deeply clueless about the positive aspects of density. (“As it pertains to the development of West 7th, I would not want to see many apartment complexes erected. The larger the buildings we have in this area translates to greater strain on the environment, which is critical given this area’s proximity to the river.” Dense cities are an environmental net positive.) According to his website: “Though I specialize in writing, my great love is for public speaking. This is something, I believe makes me uniquely qualified to represent Ward 3 on the city council. When Saint Paul is looking for accountability from its government, I will be ready to stand and deliver an earnest message.” This, among other things, makes me think that his sense of what politics involves may have been shaped by things other than engagement with politics. Anyway, he has no endorsements and has raised no money, so I don’t think he’s actually a factor in the race.
Patty ran against Chris last time and is endorsed by Republicans (ETA: I said “by the Republican Party,” this turns out not to be correct. Apparently the site is run by one or more Republicans who watch the debates and pick a candidate based on their take. I think they are absolutely correct that Patty is the most conservative person in the race.) Last time she was basically a single-issue candidate (against organized trash collection, insisting that we could cancel the contracts even after the Minnesota Supreme Court said there was no getting out of it) and this time she’s running against the Summit Avenue bike lane. She also hates density. She’s also a climate change denier. I would absolutely not rank Patty.
I liked Isaac when I met him during endorsement season; he was my first choice at the convention. Part of what swayed me was his extremely compelling biography, which includes a period of homelessness as a child — a friend of mine from Minneapolis said she’d vote for him out of class solidarity, which is a legitimate take but she’d probably rethink that now that he’s campaigning with Luther Ranheim (there was a Tweet about the fundraiser they shared that I now can’t find because Twitter search is so broken these days — frustrating, because there were some other people involved who I also didn’t like and now I can’t remember who it was.)
Also, I’m on his e-mail list and here’s an excerpt from a recent e-mail: “St. Paul’s activist establishment is determined to get Isaac’s opponent elected. Super PACs which backed a failed Minneapolis Question to eliminate the police department have committed to ‘knocking thousands of doors’ this fall. We need the resources to fight back. This seat will determine if the city council takes a pragmatic direction or not.” So a couple of points. (a) Hi, it’s me, someone who backed the “failed Minneapolis Question,” good to know you see me as a threat. (b) The phrase “activist establishment” is hilarious. (c) Oh, woe, your opponent’s supporters have committed to doorknocking and you need money to fight it off, huh? Huh. As a general rule, I’m more excited by people who think they can win through going around the neighborhood talking to people than people who think they can win through raising money to inundate us with ads.
But basically — after doing his best to talk a progressive line during convention season, he’s now aligned himself with the centrists. And calling himself a “pragmatist” which is funny because his opponent is literally a civil engineer.
Saura has the support of the “activist establishment,” which is to say, a bunch of organizations I like (plus some I’m meh on, but whatever), as well as a long list of elected officials ranging from (MN House Rep) Dave Pinto to (Congresswoman) Betty McCollum to (Ramsey County Attorney) John Choi. She’s got a background as a civil engineer. When I got doorknocked for her months back (I think during convention season) I asked her volunteer what drew her to Saura and her volunteer said something like, “I met her and talked to her and she is just so exactly the sort of person we need more of in politics,” and at this point, I’m convinced that’s accurate. She’s a committed progressive who is also deeply knowledgeable about a lot of stuff — specifically, I’ll just note again, civil engineering, which is a legitimately useful thing to have on the City Council in this city where the streets, for real, are falling apart.
I am going to rank Saura Jost first. I’m going to rank Isaac Russell second, because while I think it’ll come down to Saura vs. Isaac, in the (hopefully unlikely) event that it comes down to Isaac vs. Patty I would take him over Patty, and there’s no way it’ll come down to Patty vs. Troy but I might as well vote Troy third just to express my intense opposition to Patty.
I have a book coming out this fall, in November! Liberty’s Daughter is near-future SF about a teenage girl on a libertarian seastead. A lot of it was originally published as short fiction in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. You can pre-order it in either book or ebook format from whatever you like.
I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, so if you’d like make a donation to encourage my work, check out this music teacher at Washington Technology Magnet in St. Paul, who is raising money to buy guitars so that students don’t have to share 1 guitar between 4 students.
Well, I might as well dive into the one that’s going to be the biggest pain in the ass to write about. Ward 1 has no incumbent (Dai Thao has moved on to other things — specifically, he’s moved to Florida) and eight people are running for this seat. That’s actually quite a lot of people. Also, FYI, St. Paulites can rank five candidates, which is also actually quite a lot of people. ETA: APPARENTLY WE CAN RANK SIX.
In researching candidates, I used the candidate websites; the East Metro Voter Guide, which did a questionnaire answered by many candidates; the MinnPost guide, which also did a questionnaire (but, note, they have the candidates for Minneapolis Ward 1 and St. Paul Ward 1 displayed together by default — if you select “St. Paul” from a drop-down the Minneapolis candidates vanish, but since the default shows both, just be aware that neither Elliott Payne nor Edwin Fruit will be on the St. Paul ballot because they are running in an entirely different city); and the LWV forum.
I’m going to start with the people you kind of don’t have to worry about.
Lucky Tiger Jack Rosenbloom
He’s a Trumper, a gun nut, and a weirdo. He also has no website. He did respond to the questions from MinnPost, but his answers are incoherent. (“Good policy is not about the pass and/or the present. Good policy is about the future and fighting for the rights of neighbors that have not in the pass, to have standing.”) Don’t vote for him. But also, don’t worry about him.
Travis Helkamp
Travis lists a website in his answers to the East Metro Voter’s Guide questionnaire, but the website doesn’t actually work. He has the Republican endorsement (and unlike some of the people listed on that site, he’s actually officially endorsed by his Senate District group, I think). He didn’t respond to the MinnPost questionnaire, which I find disappointing, because his answer to a question about rent control was “I don’t believe that property rights should be trampled on by city fiat. I would eliminate it entirely” and I was really curious how he would answer MinnPost’s question about single-family zoning (“Should St. Paul allow at least three units of housing on any residential lot? Why or why not?”) because single-family zoning also seems like it’s trampling property rights by city fiat, and yet a lot of Republicans are fans of single-family zoning. However, I’m not curious enough to track down his contact information to ask, given that there are eight people running in this race, he didn’t set up a website, and he’s not going to win.
Jeff Zeitler is a wine/cider maker and real estate agent who was in the news in 2020 because his business (which is on Lake Street in Minneapolis) got looted during the civil unrest. He thinks police officers need to know city government has their back. In the LWV forum, he described himself as a “social liberal, fiscal conservative,” which frequently means “Republican with gay friends.” I did agree with his answer to the walkability question asked during the LWV forum, which was to actually build sidewalks everywhere. (There are so many spots around St. Paul where there’s no sidewalk, and we should be installing sidewalks and making homeowners install sidewalks any time we’re doing work.) He’s also a fan of PILOT funding (PILOT is “Payment In Lieu Of Taxes,” when you encourage, or “encourage,” nonprofits and churches and educational institutions to make a contribution towards a fund that helps to cover all the services they need from the city, like road maintenance, snow plowing, etc.) However, he’s opposed to allowing triplexes on single-family lots, saying “some areas don’t have the infrastructure,” by which I’m guessing he means parking. His focus is on policing, road maintenance, and the business climate; he shows little or no interest in biking infrastructure, transit, affordable housing, etc. He has a website (and signs, even) but no endorsements, so I think he’s a long shot in any case.
Added because I noticed this while writing about the school board race: Jeff’s wife Gita is running for St. Paul school board. I find this a genuinely odd decision — running for office, unless you just completely check out of the race, is time-consuming and demanding. Potential political power couples who do not hate themselves generally try to stagger races so they’re not both running at the same time! It’s odd enough that I immediately wondered if they’re involved in some sort of reality TV show (probably not, but that was the first answer that came to mind to the question, “why would anyone do this to themselves.”)
The remaining candidates have both websites and some endorsements.
Yan Chen got the second-choice nod from Service St. Paul (“a coalition of labor unions, business, and community leaders”) after James Lo, but doesn’t mention it on her website. She says she decided to run because of petty crime in her ward, but has broadened her focus to a broader definition of basics — public safety, roads, snow removal. In her Q&A in the East Metro Voter Guide she also talks about improved frequency on transit routes, and in the MinnPost Q&A she favors allowing triplexes and other changes to increase density. She describes herself as a scientist and talks a lot about data-driven decisions, but I am not sure what sort of science she does (or where). She is not a fan of either the “Twin Cities Boulevard” proposal or the “Reconnect Rondo” land bridge proposal (asked about by MinnPost). During the LWV forum she said that the land bridge was not supported by Rondo residents because they’re worried about gentrification (I have no idea how accurate this is, but avoiding displacing the current residents is definitely something that should be considered, regardless of the plan). She had a pretty brusque attitude toward solving snow removal issues, which I wrote down as “properly fund public works, then blame public works” (I think she said “hold them accountable”). In general, I would describe her as being on the conservative end of the candidates: focused on public safety and resistant to raising taxes. Her housing policy focus is on homeownership, which is potentially helpful to working families struggling to cope with rising rents, but less helpful to the chronically homeless (she acknowledged that, when asked about homelessness, but had no particular solutions to offer to the chronically homeless.)
Suz is distinctive for being one of two people in the race who’s been vehemently and consistently in favor of the Summit Avenue bike lane reconstruction (the other is Syed) (Anika Bowie has also said she favors it; I’ll get to her response on this later, because she’s been less vehement and less consistent). Suz has a lot of endorsements from people I like (Bill Lindeke, Ian Buck) but none that I saw from organizations. Her East Metro Voter Guide responses emphasize affordable housing. Her MinnPost responses say that her top priority is “making our streets safer for pedestrians, cyclists and people who use wheelchairs.” She’s a supporter of the “Twin Cities Boulevard” proposal (which would replace I-94 between the two downtowns with a slower street), saying “just getting rid of 94 would be hugely beneficial and transformative” and citing Vancouver as an example of a city that doesn’t have a highway passing through it. After looking this up, I contacted Suz because Vancouver has the Trans-Canada Highway/BC1 running right through it. She clarified that Vancouver does not have a highway running through downtown. I looked up the big road that runs into Vancouver’s downtown, 1A, on Google Street View, and it’s divided with many lanes but not a highway — it kind of reminds me of Chicago’s Lakeshore Drive:
Suz was also one of the only candidates to support both the 1% sales tax for roads (on the ballot this year) and the additional property tax levy for early childhood education (proposed for next year — I think she was the only one of the eight candidates who supported this.) (Worth noting: it’ll be on the ballot, it’ll be up to the people voting, but if you want it to pass, you probably want City Council reps who are going to campaign for it. The city has done almost nothing to campaign for the 1% sales tax other than to basically say, “hey, if you want us to do anything about the potholes, better vote for this!”)
During the LWV forum, she got some laughs when she pointed out that the phrase “unexpected snowfall” (the city’s excuse for last year’s plowing) should literally never be uttered in St. Paul. She pushed for PILOT (“Payment In Lieu Of Taxes,” when you encourage, or “encourage,” nonprofits and churches and educational institutions to make a contribution towards a fund that helps to cover all the services they need from the city, like road maintenance, snow plowing, etc.) Overall she was probably the leftiest lefty of the progressives running.
James Lo has a bunch of union endorsements, the Chamber of Commerce endorsement (I’m kind of wary of that one), and a historical preservation PAC. He’s also endorsed by (new Florida resident, former City Council member) Dai Thao, (former School Board rep) Keith Hardy, and (ripped, shirtless, professional kickboxer) Kou Lee.
He’s a school counselor at Harding. On the MinnPost questionnaire, he says his top priority is “to ensure efficient and high-quality core functions of the city, providing excellent services to our residents. This means prioritizing essential services such as public safety, infrastructure maintenance, and effective administration.” He’s a supporter of the land bridge but not the boulevard (because people will just opt for other routes through the city and create congestion on in-town streets) (this is also why I’m skeptical of the boulevard proposal).
At the LWV forum, he came across as notably warm and comfortable in front of a group (the other candidate who struck me as good at that particular thing was Anika Bowie). He supported the 1% sales tax back when MinnPost asked about it (“While I don’t want to burden our residents with additional taxes, it is essential to consider the long-term benefits. By spreading the responsibility to non-St. Paul residents who utilize our roads, we can ensure a fair and equitable funding mechanism.”) He must have changed his mind, because he said at the LWV forum that he opposed the 1% sales tax (because it will hurt the most vulnerable, and small businesses) and gives sort of a mixed response on his website (“I believe we are putting our city at risk for even more shopping being done outside this city. It would have been wiser to have been more cautious in spending. This decision is on the ballot and will be decided by the voters. As a new city council person, I will make that decision work.”)
His answer to the question about homelessness at the forum focused on jobs, although he also supports building more multifamily housing. His stance on rent control was, “We need to revisit this issue in every aspect.” I did appreciate the fact that his public safety stance (on his website) talks about snow removal (because if you’re falling down crossing the street you are UNSAFE, thank you for noticing!)
Omar Syed has worked on the planning commission and the zoning board, which is the sort of experience I really value in candidates. He’s endorsed by Jane Prince (who’s not my favorite). His central issue is affordable housing — he’s approved a lot of housing on the planning commission, and he talked about housing more than any other candidate (and more than he talked about any other issue).
He is also much more supportive of rent control than some of his opponents (although I think he’s in favor of tweaking the current policy) and he’s also very into transit, including bike infrastructure. He strongly supports, and in fact voted for (on the planning commission) the Summit Avenue trail, and when asked about city walkability he talked about bike lanes. On the snow question, he mentioned that he has a cousin who drives a plow who has mentioned how helpful GPS equipment would be on snowplows (I’ve heard this other places, I’m for it).
(You know, I swear I remember Jane Prince being terrible on bike infrastructure, so it’s very funny that she’s backing Omar, but a lot of the endorsements in this race don’t really make a ton of sense to me. James Lo is against the property tax increase to fund early childhood education, but he’s endorsed by the teacher’s union.)
Omar’s website emphasizes affordable housing (including rent control, he’s much more supportive of rent control than some of his opponents) and transit (including bike infrastructure). During the LWV debate, I appreciated that he provided really specific answers to most of the questions, rather than platitudes or generalities.
Anika ran four years ago. She was my second choice at the time — I was not blown away by her website, which had a lot of platitudes rather than actual policy proposals. Once again, she has far and away the most impressive endorsements: Take Action MN, Erin Murphy, Melvin Carter (and many more). (No one got the DFL endorsement. At the convention, it was pretty close to an even split between Anika, Omar, and James, and ended the day with a messy walk-out.)
So, OK. This time, her website offers a lot more specifics about policy, but she also gives a lot of genuinely confusing answers. And I feel like her stance on the Summit Avenue bike lane illustrates what I mean! At the LWV forum (on September 28th), the moderator asked (near the very end), “Do you support the Summit Avenue regional trail plan, as passed by the St. Paul city council?” Anika went last and answered simply, “No.”
On October 4th, MinnPost ran an article about candidates’ stances on this and quoted her comments as being kind of waffly: “Bowie said she supports repairing the current road surface on Summit, and ‘was 100% — and still am — on board with ensuring we have more safer measures on our bike trails.'” I would not read that as an unambiguous stance for the plan with the trail! The anti-bike-lane crowd is in favor of repairing the current road surface rather than excavating and rebuilding the road (and the extensive century-old infrastructure underneath — the primary risk to the trees is actually not from the bike trail but from the work on stuff like the very old sewer lines under there, some of which may have tree roots intertwined with them, it’s really hard to know until we’re under there.) And “I’m on board with ensuring we have more safety measures on our bike trails” is not “we should build the trail, as planned,” that could mean a wide range of things, from bollards to Yan Chen’s proposal to just widen the Summit bike lane by 10 inches or so in a couple of spots where it gets really narrow.
On October 5th, Anika tweeted, “I want to make it abundantly clear that my position remains unchanged, and I am fully in favor of the Summit Avenue trail plan that prioritizes the greater good, improved accessibility, and safety for all.” She said that she’d found the question confusing and had made the mistake of not asking for it to be repeated. Which is fair. But her response to MinnPost was also pretty weird.
And this sort of confusing inconsistency is something I found other places, like on her website where she talks about snow removal. She advocates there for an ordinance that would provide, among other things, “Clear Responsibility: The city should have the primary responsibility for snow and ice removal from sidewalks, particularly in high-traffic areas like schools, public transportation stops, and commercial districts. Property owners should also be held responsible for snow and ice removal from sidewalks adjacent to their property.” …so hold up, whose responsibility is it? What are you actually saying here should happen?
But: she also provides a lot of less-mystifying progressive policy proposals on her website, including providing city support for worker cooperatives, implementing fines and fees that are based on ability to pay rather than being the same $30 parking ticket whether you’re a lawyer or a barista, and a long list of other stuff. I find it kind of funny that when (at the LWV forum) she got asked about the land bridge proposal vs. the Twin Cities Boulevard proposal vs. leaving the road as it is, she said that she’s a Rondo resident, that she has asthma, that we need experts in the room when we decide what to do, and as far as I caught she didn’t actually answer the question, when in the MinnPost questionnaire she says she supports the idea of a land bridge.
So — OK. If I were casting a ballot in Ward 1, I would list Omar Syed first and Anika Bowie second. I like them both, but I really like Omar’s focus on affordable housing, his experience on the planning commission, and the specificity of a lot of his ideas. I also like Anika’s energy and she has a really impressive set of endorsements; I think a lot of people could look at those two and come down with Anika first. I would list Suz Woehrle third. Since St. Paul lets you pick five, I would go ahead and list James Lo fourth and Yan Chen fifth. I actually think it’s likely to be a contest between Omar, Anika, and James, and probably if Omar or Anika doesn’t get it, James would win without my help, but you might as well list five. ETA: Six! Turns out it’s six! For my sixth candidate, I would list Jeff, because I would definitely take him over either the actual endorsed Republican, or the gun nut.
If you are sold on the Twin Cities Boulevard idea, you probably want to list Suz first. On the other hand, if you hate the Summit Avenue bike trail, you might want to go with James.
I have a book coming out this fall, in November! Liberty’s Daughter is near-future SF about a teenage girl on a libertarian seastead. A lot of it was originally published as short fiction in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. You can pre-order it in either book or ebook format from whatever you like.
I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, so if you’d like make a donation to encourage my work, check out this music teacher at Washington Technology Magnet in St. Paul, who is raising money to buy guitars so that students don’t have to share 1 guitar between 4 students.
Will Tell Stories For Food 