Aaron Landry

The upcoming election on November 3rd is under many radars in Minneapolis for a few reasons: it’s an off-year, mayor R.T. Rybak doesn’t have a viable challenger for reelection and many campaigns have simply not been aggressive about getting people to the polls. What this means for you is that your vote is even louder when it comes down to our city council, park board and major decision about who controls our tax levies.

The first thing to point out is that this is our first election using Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) and despite some people’s confusion over how it works, from a voter’s perspective it is dead easy: just rank who you want in office in your order of preference. There’s more about RCV at voteminneapolis.org.

If you are not sure where to vote, use the City of Minneapolis Voting Precinct Finder.

Below are my choices if I could vote in every park district and ward in the city:

Mayor: R.T. Rybak

Ward 1: Kevin Reich

I disagree with the Star Tribune’s endorsement here. This video, for me, sums up why I can’t vote for Hanna. Reich is a solid for Northeast.

Ward 2: Cam Gordon
Ward 3: Diane Hofstede
Ward 4: Barb Johnson
Ward 5: Don Samuels
Ward 6: Robert Lilligren
Ward 7: Lisa Goodman
Ward 8: Elizabeth Glidden
Ward 9: Gary Schiff

Gary Schiff is actually my favorite CM in the city. In fact, for any issue I go to a CM with I talk with his office instead of my actual CM in Ward 12. Hey, being three blocks away from Ward 9 is close enough, right? He unfortunately has one of the tougher races in the city against activist Dave Bicking.

Ward 10: Meg Tuthill
Ward 11: John Quincy
Ward 12:

Ward 12 is where I live and I’m in a tight situation. There’s four candidates running. Rick Nyhlen is a Ron Paul Republican and Brent Perry is a young Socialist with almost no grasp for city issues. The two Democrats running are Charley Underwood, who has not been traditionally campaigning after he lost the DFL endorsement to incumbent Sandy Colvin Roy. Neither have active websites as far as I’m aware. I haven’t agreed with Sandy Colvin Roy on a number of issues and my experience has been that I’ve been only able to get through to her when she’s running for re-election. Charley Underwood and I talk now and then and while we had very opposite positions regarding the recent U.S. Senate race and a few other political subjects, out of the four he’s the guy I feel like I can level with and really debate the issues with. That doesn’t necessarily translate to effectiveness on the City Council, however. In a recent email, Underwood stated “if I get elected, I am going to scream every time I hear about another subsidy for fat-cats at public expense. If I get elected, I am going to network like crazy to support the neighborhood sustainability programs that can deliver, the sorts of things I have been studying quite intensely for the past year.” So I’m in Ward 12 with a Libertarian-lite Republican, a young Socialist, a deep-left progressive ideologue and a politically-savvy center-left incumbent. All of whom I respect, none of whom I’m terribly excited about sending to city hall.

Ward 13: Betsy Hodges

Minnesota Independent has had a fantastic overview of the City Council races starting here.

Park Board At-Large:
John Erwin
Tom Nordyke

John Erwin is far and away my number one choice for Park Board. He’s endorsed by almost everyone under the sky, he’s a horticulture professor at the University of Minnesota and also has solid experience with being on a Park Board — because he was one. I also support Tom Nordyke. Mary Merrill Anderson and Annie Young are vying for the third seat, in my opinion. Mary’s the DFL-endorsed incumbent and Annie Young is also an incumbent endorsed by the Green Party.

Park District 1: Liz Wielinski
Park District 2: Michael Guest
Park District 3: Scott Vreeland
Park District 4: Anita Tabb
Park District 5: Jason Stone

This is actually an interesting race, not for reasons I terribly like. Carol Kummer is the incumbent and did not seek re-election. Kummer and the majority if not all of her strong supporters backed Marty Demgen. Demgen dropped out of the race not long after the Minneapolis DFL Convention where the endorsement procedure for this seat got so out of hand it had to be adjourned with no endorsement. After Demgen dropped out, Carol Kummer decided at the last minute to run for re-election again and many of those Demgen supporters followed. Jason Stone, in my strong opinion, should have won the DFL endorsement in the first place. He’s one of the most sincere and solid people in city politics and should have been in office when he ran for this seat four years ago. He’s in this for the right reasons — fighting for our park system.

Park District 6: Brad Bourn

Board of Estimate and Taxation: David Wheeler
Charter Amendment #168 : Vote Yes

The Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) is an obscure 130-year-old, six-person board with a member of the park board, the Mayor, two city council members and two elected officials (who are paid only $35 a meeting) that decides our tax levies, issue bonds and receive audit reports. I strongly favor having our elected City Council be held responsible and accountable for these things, like almost every other major city in the country. This is what this charter amendment does and I’m supporting it. A six-person board with two bottom-of-the-ballot candidates should not be deciding our maximum tax levies. The “Save the BET” group, which is essentially run by the same people as BET reelection candidate Carol Becker’s campaign, have been aggressively pushing messaging that implies voting “no” would not only remove the BET but effectively ruin the independent Park Board, be a “consolidation of power” or actually cause less accountability. With all the “Save the BET” and Carol Becker’s claims, in my strong opinion, the opposite is true. Let’s hold our City Council accountable like every other modern city. The current president of the BET, Jill Schwimmer, who was formally Becker’s running mate, wrote a solid editorial encouraging people to vote “yes.” It’s a must-read. From my understanding, most of the current BET supports its removal too.

BET frontrunner Carol Becker’s running mate and neighbor DeWayne Townsend entered the race “because [Becker] asked me to run” after it was feared people would run for the seat seeking to abolish its existence. I am not voting for either of them. Even though David Wheeler is voting “no” to the charter amendment, I see him by far the strongest candidate for the Board of Estimate and Taxation if it were to continue to exist. I generally agree with the Star Tribune editorial board’s thoughts on this race.

Unfortunately, I don’t get to vote on every single race in the city. Also check out my neighbor and friend Brian Moen’s picks; almost all I agree with.

Have fun at the polls on Tuesday! Do you have different choices? Different thoughts on the race? Please share your thoughts in the comments.