This is an open seat; Lisa Bender is not running again.
On the ballot:
Alicia Gibson (DFL)
Katie Jones (DFL)
Chris Parsons (DFL)
Aisha Chughtai (DFL)
David Wheeler (DFL)
Ubah Nur (DFL)
No one has the DFL endorsement.
tl;dr — Katie Jones and Aisha Chughtai in some order, 1 and 2.
Continue readingHere’s who’s on the ballot:
Jeremy Schroeder (DFL, Incumbent)
Dillon Gherna (DFL)
Emily Koski (DFL)
Albert Ross (DFL)
Kurt Michael Anderson (Independent)
tl;dr vote for Jeremy Schroeder.
Continue readingJeremiah Ellison is the incumbent, but almost lost to Victor Martinez at the endorsing convention. He beat previous incumbent Blong Yang for the seat in 2017; the Council Rep before Blong Yang was Don Samuels.
On the ballot this year:
Jeremiah Ellison (DFL, incumbent)
Victor Martinez (claims to be DFL)
Cathy Spann (DFL)
Kristel Porter (DFL)
Elijah Norris-Holliday (Independent)
Suleiman Isse (DFL)
James “Jim” Seymour (Witness)
tl;dr vote for Jeremiah Ellison, even if you’re annoyed with something he’s done.
Continue readingFacebook is currently down, and has been down all morning, which I approve of in principle but it makes some candidates harder to research. I feel like I can probably do this one, though:
Phillipe Cunningham (DFL-endorsed; incumbent)
LaTrisha Vetaw (DFL)
Leslie Davis (We the People)
tl;dr vote for Phillipe.
Continue readingMinneapolis’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.
Continue readingThere are four people on the ballot in Ward 3.
Steve Fletcher (DFL, incumbent)
Michael Rainville (DFL)
Merv Moorhead (DFL)
Hope Hennessey (Independent)
tl;dr vote for Steve Fletcher.
Continue readingThere are three candidates on the ballot for Ward 12 City Council.
Nancy Ford (No Political Party or Principle)
Andrew Johnson (DFL)
David Rosenfeld (Socialist Workers Party)
tl;dr vote for Andrew Johnson.
Continue readingGOD DAMMIT I NEED TO GET STARTED ON THIS.
In 2021, both Minneapolis and Saint Paul will hold municipal races.
In Saint Paul, the ballot includes the mayoral race; a school board race (3 full-term seats, 1 partial-term seat vacated by someone moving); and a charter amendment to impose rent control.
In Minneapolis, the ballot includes the mayoral race; the city council seats (all of which will be only 2 years — there will be another city council race in 2023 due to redistricting); Park Board district seats; Park Board At Large seats (3); the Board of Estimate and Taxation; and three charter amendments (one to allow rent control, one to replace the police department with a public safety department, and one to give the mayor more power).
There are 17 candidates for mayor in Minneapolis; there are 8 candidates for mayor in Saint Paul.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE IF YOU WISH TO VOTE BY MAIL: Last year, you were able to request your ballot by filling out an online form. This year you will have to submit a downloadable form — which can still be done online, but you’ll have to download a PDF, fill it in, and e-mail it back, it’s a different and somewhat more complicated process. More here. This isn’t the Secretary of State being difficult: the actual state statute allows for absentee ballot applications to be submitted electronically “for a federal, state, or county election.” If you want “municipal” added to this, talk to your legislator.
In the meantime, I’m going to remind everyone that I had a book released this April, Chaos on CatNet. Signed copies are usually available from Dreamhaven and from the current mail-order-only incarnation of Uncle Hugo’s. Books make great holiday gifts, but should be ordered early this year — supply chain issues are happening all over.
I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, so if you’d like make a donation to encourage my work, I’m going to start by pointing my readers at the school nurse from Olson Middle School, who urgently needs a refrigerator for things like student medications.
Minneapolis is voting on two questions that would amend the city charter. Neither is a question about policing, because the charter commission decided that as an un-elected body they were under no obligation to act in accordance with the wishes of the citizenry and didn’t put any questions about policing on the ballot. I bet that some of the charter commission members read my blog, and so before going onward to talk about the amendments that are on the ballot, I would just like to take this opportunity to say to them: why, hello there, fuck 10 out of the 15 of you.
The questions on the ballot read as follows.
Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to allow ward and park district boundaries to be reestablished in a year ending in 1 and to allow the use of those new boundaries for elections in that same year; to allow ward and park district boundaries to be modified after the legislature has been redistricted to establish City precinct boundaries; to provide that an election for a Council Member office required by Minnesota law in a year ending in 2 or 3 after a redistricting shall be for a single 2-year term; and to clarify that a regular election means a regular general election?
CITY QUESTION 2 (Minneapolis)
Special Municipal Elections
Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to comply with Minnesota election law related to uniform dates for special municipal elections and to provide that a special election be held on a legal election day under Minnesota law that is more than 90 days from a vacancy in the office of Mayor or Council Member?
You can vote yes or no. The two questions are voted on separately (and although they are both about elections, they’re unrelated.)
