Mayoral Race

[mullen]

dan cohen is an embarrassment. this election can't come soon enough so he can remove his ads and billboards. no idea why this person was actually appointed as the county rep on the planning commission. hope he enjoys flushing his money down the toilet with all of his ad buys.

betsy hodges fancies herself a policy wonk. exactly the wrong type of attribute in mayor of minneapolis. the mayor of mpls needs to be good at sales, PR, big idea, vision. we're a weak mayor system. she should have just stayed on the council. personally would have liked lisa goodman to run over the three on the council who are ran.

[John]

^^^Lisa Goodman is supporting Mark Andrew. As I listen to these candidates, he appears more and more the viable choice. He's liberal, but has the pragmatism learned from his business experience. He knows how to get along well with diverse interests and groups. He has a great depth of knowledge in how governement works. He has the makings of a good mayor.

[twincitizen]

And he's supported by every union boss and lobbyist in the City. There's a reason that Brian Rice (union lobbyist) and the Fire Dept union boss don't wan't Hodges as Mayor, and why they ditched Schiff when he supported Betsy at the convention: Betsy Hodges is willing to take on tough negotiations over pensions, union contracts, etc. to keep property taxes down and keep our priorities in line. Every single one of these union cronies has Mark Andrew on speed dial.

Look, I like Mark Andrew. He's quite personable and I was an early supporter before the race really got going. He bought me a beer once...that was pretty cool. After I did my homework, I found that the risk for back room deals and a return to the go-go freespending days of the 90s is simply too frightening. I cannot support Mark Andrew and I will not be ranking him 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

Again, read Naomi Kritzer's summary of the candidates here, especially her reasons why not to vote for each of the leading candidates. No one is spared from her wit, but the Mark Andrew takedown is spectacular:

The people who says he's a corporate shill are 100% correct. He runs a greenwashing company, he's friends with all the wrong people, and he'll dodge any question he doesn't like (he never replied to my e-mail, never replied to my question on his Facebook page, and you'll find an unnerving lack of depth if you dig at all on his website). Creepy, but affable. You know who he really, really reminds me of? Norm Coleman, except that Norm Coleman was so slimy he left a trail behind him like a snail; Mark Andrew is a lot more personable than Norm Coleman ever was, but similarly willing to say whatever he thinks will get him into a position of power.

[John]

^^^Um, Your not voting for him I gather? Betsy Hodges is actually my second choice. I like her too, but she's just a tad too goody two shoes liberal and politically "correct" on every issue. It seems a bit contrived and smug. Despite that, she does seem very capable and I would be happy with her as Mayor too. I just think Andrew is a bit more seasoned and pragmatic and a better choice for this era in our city.

[MNdible]

I feel the same way as twincitizen. Even though he says almost all of the right things, the baggage that Mark brings to the table is just too much. I'd rather vote for a candidate like Hodges, who I actually disagree fairly sharply with on a few key points, than vote for Mark and end up with the very worst kind of insider.

I think people forget, after 12 years of Rybak (who was a DFLer, but always operated somewhat on the outside of the party), what having a real party hack in that position can be like. Bad news.

[Viktor Vaughn]

Naomi, Twincitizen, & MNdible stated my concerns about Mark Andrew perfectly. He embodies everything wrong with the DFL establishment.

I'm leaning towards Betsy for my first choice. It's going to be tough to come up with second and third choices.

[Nick]

Idea: If we accidentally elect Cam Winton, does anyone else feel like our stock would go waaaaay up in the suburbs/outstate/at the legislature?

[Viktor Vaughn]

It's a thought...but no, I don't think so. They'll still be just as adverse to our interests. And on some issues, they'll have an allie in City Hall.

[mplsjaromir]

Idea: If we accidentally elect Cam Winton, does anyone else feel like our stock would go waaaaay up in the suburbs/outstate/at the legislature?

Is his plan to kick out brown people? Cause the presence of brown people is why suburban and out state people have Minneapolis stock valued low.

[Nick]

Well I was thinking more along the lines of "blah blah blah $50,000 water fountains blah blah blah".

[mplsjaromir]

The dog whistles will not be silent during a Winton administration.

[Nick]

Well thaaaat seems like a bit much.

[MNdible]

I assume that he means these dog whistles.

[woofner]

...a return to the go-go freespending days of the 90s is simply too frightening.

Yes, I shudder to imagine a return to those days when major projects actually happened in Minneapolis. The Downtown riverfront? Target HQ? Downtown Target store? You can take them back, spendthrift Sayles-Belton. I also prefer people like Betsy Hodges, who has deep experience with attacking inequality by making sure that retired cops get less money, and who is a passionate support of bike and transit projects (unless they happen to be in her ward).

It's disappointing to be proven right in my curmudgeonly insistence that Minneapolis is only pretend progressive. Clearly the tone of this race is being set by the right-wing candidate, but the "progressive" candidates are doing absolutely nothing to try to tow it the left. Sorry, Betsy, but the equity issue here is caused by the same thing as everywhere else: money. And the only thing that will fix it is money. I'd be impressed if the money Betsy took from retired cops was being put into Northside job centers or something, but I haven't heard her say a single word about where the money went, just gloating about how she was able to take it.

[mplsjaromir]

Our political future: a snakepit of insane facists on one side, & on the other, a Wall Street party that's culturally liberal & nothing more

[MNdible]

I'd be impressed if the money Betsy took from retired cops...

Yes, what will the poor cops do without anymore Brian Rice negotiated 13th checks?

[woofner]

Hey, I'd be psyched if the money she took from the elderly went to pre-K in impacted neighborhoods, or job training for the unemployed, or god forbid some kind of welfare mechanism that of course doesn't exist in Minneapolis (I suppose we could be magnanimous and contribute to the County's welfare efforts), but from what I can tell that money went to property tax relief. I don't have the stats, but I highly doubt that the typical retiree is better off than the typical homeowner, so in all likelihood cutting pensions in order to reduce property taxes is a regressive action.

[MNdible]

If we're concerned about helping the poor, surely there are better and more equitable ways of doing so than through a grossly mismanaged pension system that occasionally dollops out largesse to a lucky few. Maybe the progressives should just hire the poor a better connected lobbyist.

I know you don't like Hodges, and you raise some good issues -- she's not my ideal candidate either. But the logic you're using to attack her work on the pensions seems tortured, and apparently involves some sort of purity test on progressivism that forces one to turn a blind eye to bad fiscal management. Usually I appreciate your thoughts even when I disagree with them, but I can't follow you on this.

[woofner]

Eh, I don't dislike Hodges, I just don't think she has anything to run on. But neither does anyone else in this race really, with the exception of Mark Andrew, and he has been justly characterized as something of a fink.

Similarly, I'm not a big pension defender, although I think we often forget that there are actual humans receiving these pensions, many of whom accepted relatively low pay in order to have a more secure retirement, and none of whom did so maliciously. Regardless, I think it's fairly objective to say that pension reform that involves substantial benefit cuts aligns more with a neoliberal ideology than with progressive ideology. I'd follow that to its logical conclusion that anyone who runs as a progressive but points to pension cuts as her primary achievement should take the savings and put them into progressive initiatives, not neoliberal ones like cutting taxes.

[MNdible]

Regardless, I think it's fairly objective to say that pension reform that involves substantial benefit cuts...

Not sure what deal you think that the cuthroats at City Hall negotiated, but:

With the two funds in deep financial trouble and the city on the hook for making up deficits, the Legislature approved a rescue plan this summer that merges the two local pensions plans with the state plan at year's end. The deal boosts pensions sharply for those involved...

The city and police board are negotiating over settling a lawsuit between them over the proper compensation on which to base pensions. Pension representatives want the city to drop its claim to recoup amounts that a judge ruled were overpaid to police retirees.

From the Strib, emphasis mine.