Look, it’s a rematch and last time Jason Chavez absolutely crushed Dan Orban so honestly I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this one. Here’s who’s on the ballot:

Jason Chavez (Incumbent, DFL-endorsed)
Dan Orban (Independent)

Dan Orban (Independent)

When I wrote about Dan Orban two years ago, he had no social media and seemed pretty clueless about policy. He’s since gotten social media (Facebook, Bluesky, Twitter) but I still see no indication that he’s served on any city or county advisory committees or worked in policy or done any of the other stuff that is the sort of experience I generally look for when someone is running for an entry-level political office. He says he’s qualified because he lives in the neighborhood, teaches at the U, and has a PhD in Computer Science. And, I mean. That does in fact put him one up over, for example, Becka Thompson in Ward 12.

I’m not sure what happened with the hobby farm he mentioned in 2023 (they had bought “a 20 acre off-grid Amish hobby farm” in Lanesboro). He doesn’t mention it on his website now.

I feel like this editorial that he wrote for Carol Becker’s “Minneapolis Times” website illustrates a bunch of what I dislike about him. It’s titled “Seek the Peace of the City” and it’s about the Bloomington/Lake raid. He starts out saying that he agrees we should protect immigrants and that he supports the separation ordinance. Then he goes on to take some passive-aggressive swipes at Jason Chavez, who was one of the City Council members to go to Lake and Bloomington in person: “Leaders should be accurate and deescalate dangerous situations. Based on the information that was released by the city, the federal law enforcement event on Lake St. and Bloomington was a criminal operation regarding drugs, money laundering, and human trafficking. […] Unfortunately, this message was not initially communicated. Instead the situation escalated under the false assumption that the event was an immigration raid, requiring additional law enforcement presence to help control the growing crowd. Even if this was an immigration raid, a leader’s role should be directed towards peace and deescalation. Stirring up emotional responses can lead to dangerous activity as we saw on Tuesday. Leaders should also take responsibility for the consequences of their words and actions.” He uses the passive voice when he’s talking about how “the message was not initially communicated” — it was not communicated by the FBI or by Mayor Frey’s office. In the portions of the raid conducted in the suburbs, they sent in a bunch of FBI agents in windbreakers to seize the financial records, and had they done that in Minneapolis, there would not have been a massive, furious, risky protest in response. This was a deliberate provocation, something Dan does not acknowledge, nor does he acknowledge that ICE has backed off in some areas when they’ve met a lot of pushback. This is not a normal time! Trump’s government is not a normal government that can be dealt with in a normal way! Orban’s refusal to acknowledge this is not reassuring at all.

He goes on to say, “If we have learned anything over the past 5 years, it is that we should maintain the highest moral and ethical standards for police officers. Even the appearance of excessive use of force ruins the witness of the Minneapolis Police Department’s efforts.” But in his questionnaire response for We Love Mpls, in response to the question, “With regard to public safety do you feel like the city’s more pressing issue currently is police accountability or staffing levels?” he responded with “staffing levels.”

I find the mix of platitudes and handwringing incredibly offputting. Especially in the current political situation. If you want more people who will wring their hands over incivility any time Democrats do anything other than say “please Mr. President sir, would you be so kind as to respect our constitutional rights sir,” Dan Orban’s your guy.

Jason Chavez (Incumbent, DFL-endorsed)

I like that Jason Chavez showed up at Lake and Bloomington during that raid (I am strongly of the opinion that having elected officials at events like this makes them significantly less likely to become violent, and curtails unnecessary violence used by law enforcement, at least some of the time) and I appreciated that he demanded an after-action report. I like most of what he’s done on the City Council. I would vote for Jason Chavez.

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.)