Forgive me if there is already a thread about this or if this is in the wrong place.
Anyway, Minneapolis will hold a mayoral election on November 5th. The city uses Instant Run-off Voting (IRV) so voters can rank as many as 3 different candidates. If their top pick doesn't win, their vote will go to their second pick, etc.
The race is non-partisan but most of the candidates are clearly affiliated with parties.
The local Democratic Party (the Minneapolis DLF) was going to endorse a single Democrat at their convention but delegates couldn't reach the necessary 60% to do so. Incumbent DFL Mayor R.T. Rybak is not seeking re-election.
The candidates are, in order of what the CW says is their chance of winning:
Mark Andrew: Democrat. Former Hennepin County Commissioner. Former State DFL party chairman. Andrew is the establishment Democratic candidate. He won more than 50% of the vote in the last round of the local Democratic convention but he failed to reach the necessary 60% for endorsement after more liberal candidates ganged up to stop him. His main backers are Democratic party insiders and teachers unions. Andrew supports wasting money on building a new football stadium but wants to amend the current agreement between the city, state, and a team owners so that we will be wasting slightly less.
Betsy Hodges: Democrat. City councilwoman. The slightly more liberal Democrat. She came in second at the local convention. She has a lot of backing from the gay community, including fellow City Councilman Gary Shiff, who was himself a candidate for mayor but dropped out and backed Hodges to keep Andrew from getting the Democratic endorsement. She supports building a stadium hypothetically but totally opposes the current agreement. She will probably roll over though.
Dan Cohen: Independent. Wild card. Dan Cohen is old as hell. He was a Republican member of the city council in the 1960s. In 1968, he was the joint Democratic and Republican candidate for mayor against eventually winner Charles Stenvig, a man called "the George Wallace of the North." After losing, Cohen became a GOP political operative. During the 1982 governor's race, Cohen leaked to the media that the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor had been arrested for shoplifting. The media turned this around on him though by reporting the story as the Republicans trying to smear the Democrats and printing his name as proof, even though he had given the information confidentially. He sued Minneapolis' largest newspaper, the Star-Tribune, and won $200,000 for their transgression. That's the money he's using for his campaign. He has little traditional campaign infrastructure and is relying almost entirely on radio ads to build name recognition. Nobody even though he was a serious candidate until a poll (ironically by the Star-Tribune) showed him inexplicably in the lead. Politically, he's an odd bird. Despite being a former Republican, he initially endorsed very liberal gay city councilman Gary Shiff but then announced his own candidacy after Shiff dropped out. He has two main issues 1) He opposes the stadium and 2) he wants to build a casino in downtown Minneapolis.
Don Samuels: Democrat. City councilman. African American candidate. Samuels is making his biggest push among his own African American community but has strangely become the de facto Republican candidate in the race. That's because despite being a generic liberal on most issues, he is a big advocate of right-wing education "reform," which he believes will somehow improve minority test scores. Samuels was not considered a particularly serious candidate until the previous mentioned Star-Tribune poll showed him in a tie for the lead with Cohen. He also supports the stadium.
Cam Winton: Republican. Although he says he's running "as an independent" although everyone is running as an independent because it's a non-partisan race, really he just doesn't want to advertise that he's a Republican in such a Democratic city. He is endorsed by the local Republican Party. Cam Winton opposes the stadium, which is good position, because he opposes government spending money on anything ever, which is a bad position. He could potentially get some young libertarian oriented voters but I think he screwed himself out of that by positioning himself as very anti-bike lane, lots of bike riding hipsters in Minneapolis.
Jackie Cherryhomes: Democrat. City Councilwoman. Might have been a serious candidate had she run 15 years ago, when her star was brighter and when DLC Democrats like herself weren't so out of place. Cherryhomes is socially liberal. She has a Black husband and is attempting to challenge Samuels for the Black vote. However, she is also very economically neo-liberal, favoring both the stadium and additional charter schools.
Stephanie Woodruff: Democrat. Although endorsed by Jesse Ventura's stupid vague Independence Party. Basically Cherryhomes without the city council credentials. Woodruff's main pitch is to improve minority test scores through education privatization.
Bob Fine: Democrat. Parks Commissioner. Another right-wing Democrat. He's running mainly to protest a potential city takeover of electric utilities. He also wants a 5% cut in property taxes.
Here's the Star-Tribune poll:
Cohen 16%
Samuels 16%
Hodges 14%
Andrew 10%
Winton 9%
Cherryhomes 7%
Woodruff 5%
Fine 1%
http://www.startribune.com/newsgraphics/223684811.htmlI'm inclined to predict Hodges will win because she's liberal but not too liberal and that's a good fit for Minneapolis. Although as I indicated above, Andrew is considered the front runner because of his establishment backing and the amount of money he raised.
Personally, Hodges and Cohen will be my top 2, I haven't decided in what order yet. I'll probably leave the third option blank.
