BY ED FELIEN
The city DFL will be holding precinct caucuses on April 4. Anyone who cares about this city and their community should attend. The caucuses will elect delegates who will endorse a candidate to represent their community on the City Council at a ward endorsing convention on either Saturday, April 29, or Saturday, May 6.
The 8th Ward will be holding its convention on April 29. It’s a crowded field contesting for Elizabeth Glidden’s open seat. Glidden was a steady and very serious progressive voice on the City Council. Four years ago she ran for Council president and was supported by other progressive South Minneapolis City Council members, but she was defeated by Barbara Johnson from the Northside Machine with help from John Quincy from the 11th Ward.
Andrea Jenkins has to be considered the early favorite in this race. She’s a nationally recognized transgender spokesperson and writer. She was the aide to Glidden and spent 12 years working for the City Council, so she clearly goes into this race knowing the job requirements.
John Quincy has at least two very strong opponents seeking the DFL endorsement.
Southside Pride has been very critical of John Quincy because he refused to allow citizens to vote on paying for the new Vikings stadium four years ago, and he refused to allow us to vote on two referendums last year to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and to make our police more accountable.
Jeremy Schroeder is currently policy director for the Minnesota Housing Partnership, an organization that advocates for affordable housing. He supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and he told Southside Pride: “I previously served as executive director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. I am the only candidate in Ward 11 who has worked with community members, victims of crime and law enforcement to reform the criminal justice system. I am eager to use that experience to improve relations between our city’s residents and police officers. I will leave it up to Ward 11 voters to decide which candidate is best equipped to help our city heal from the tragic deaths of Mr. Clark and Mr. Franklin, and prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.”
Erica Mauter, from Tangletown, across 35W, is executive director of the Twin Cities Women’s Choir and Twin Cities Girl’s Choir. She supports $15 an hour minimum wage. According to the Southwest Journal, “Mauter also supports policies that were originally part of the Minneapolis Working Families Agenda,” originally proposed by Mayor Hodges.
The 11th Ward DFL Convention will be April 29.
Nothing happening in the 12th Ward. Everyone seems to love Andrew Johnson.
The location of ward conventions will be announced once ward conveners find sites.
Delegates to the ward conventions will automatically be delegates to the city convention on June 24. Delegates will endorse candidates for mayor, park board and the Board of Estimate and Taxation.
There was a brief flurry of excitement when Steve Brandt, the newly retired popular local columnist for the Star Tribune, announced he would be running for the seat on BET that Wheeler was vacating, but then Wheeler decided not to vacate, and Brandt decided not to run, and Brandt’s many fans wept in sorrow.
Steffanie Musich is unchallenged at this point for her District 5 seat on the park board. We asked Commissioner Musich: “Would you support dredging Minnehaha Creek from 28th Avenue to Minnehaha Falls to lower the water table in that area of South Minneapolis?” She did not answer by the time we went to press.
The race for mayor is getting interesting.
Hodges is getting a late start. She’s running way behind Jacob Frey in fundraising. Southside Pride has been critical of Mayor Hodges’ handling of police misconduct in the homicides of Terrance Franklin and Jamar Clark. We believe the police acted in a racist and irresponsible way that resulted in the deaths of two young black men, and the mayor and the chief of police have not held those officers accountable.
Hodges is being challenged by Nekima Levy-Pounds, the former president of NAACP, former law professor at St. Thomas and a leader in Black Lives Matter in Minneapolis.
Hodges is also being challenged by Raymond Dehn, a state representative from North Minneapolis. In December we asked all four candidates if they wanted to write something for this edition. Dehn was the only one who responded:
“I grew up with little opportunity, experienced the justice system from the inside, struggled to find my way—and received an opportunity to chart a new direction for my life. You deserve a mayor who listens and looks you in the eye when it’s not easy or comfortable to do so. This is the mayor I will be for you. Our best days are ahead of us, so long as we work together to build the brighter future that we all deserve. Visit raymonddehn.org to learn more about my values and vision for building a city that works for everyone.”
On Jan. 3 Jacob Frey announced he would be a candidate for mayor. He seems to be a fundraising machine. He’s raised over $200,000 already, according to people close to his campaign. He seems an R T Rybak replica: very photogenic, very slick, and very light on specifics.
People who go to their precinct caucuses April 4 and get elected delegates will have the power to shape the direction of their communities and their city for the next four years.
The more people who show up, the louder the voice, the stronger we all are. The tentative locations for the precinct caucuses will be: Ward 8, Lyndale School; Ward 11, Washburn HS; Ward 12, Roosevelt HS.
