urbanMSP

well betsy hodges is from plymouth so of course her rhetoric will lean heavily on property taxes.

I would love to see no endorsement win on the first ballot.

Are you going to show up and vote that way? I'm getting a lot of pressure to go (cough...Nick...) since I am signed up as a delegate. If I do show up though, I will either vote no endorsement or not vote at all. I kinda want to be there for the first couple rounds of voting.

well betsy hodges is from plymouth so of course her rhetoric will lean heavily on property taxes.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that. Property taxes on homeowners (and renters, via rent increases) in Minneapolis cannot go up any higher. With the increase in LGA funding, development boom, and Target Center deal, the property tax rate had better go DOWN in the next couple of years.

Question: has anyone ever actually based their vote on which candidate was endorsed by x caucus? I mean, as someone touched on earlier, if someone is endorsed by the sierra club, or Emily's list, etc, does it actually make a difference with anyone, do you think?

I have to think not really

Case in point:
http://www.minnpost.com/two-cities/2013 ... dorsements

Whoop whoop who wants to party?

http://www.startribune.com/politics/sta ... 98671.html

The race for Minneapolis mayor remains wide open, thanks in part to a pizza party that helped deadlock the DFL endorsing convention Saturday.

Former Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Andrew took the early lead but could never muster enough votes to cross the 60 percent threshold needed for endorsement. His only remaining opponent at the end of the night was City Council Member Betsy Hodges, who had formed a hasty alliance with fellow Council Member Gary Schiff in hopes of denying Andrew the victory.

[...]

Well, that was an experience yesterday. Good seeing lots of fellow posters and it was cool finding a couple lurkers.

nice to see the cowardice of hodges and schiff on full display. way to pick up your toys and leave. bush league. blocking an endorsement everyone knew was coming is just pathetic and undemocratic. i'm sure they had this was the strategy before the convention started. they knew they didn't have the numbers.

so they're thinking the city as a whole will just rush to choose them 1 and 2 on their ballots. good luck with that. i hope gary schiff realizes he will not be the next mayor. the city can breathe easier.

i'll work even harder to make sure neither of these two classless individuals is not elected mayor.

While you may be right as to their individual motivations, the no endorsement is certainly the more democratic result. Let's have the city decide its mayor, not the 1,400 delegates.

oh i'm sure that there was their little plan going in. what is the point of that silly convention anyway. it's been disfunctional for decades.

Less-than-encouraging news for Schiff:
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2013 ... sement.php

How can anyone read the firefighter union guy's comments and want to support the same candidate he does?

Not that I'm anti-union (like barely, a healthy skepticism if you will), but shit like that pushes me towards a candidate like Betsy Hodges. And no, I'm not committed to her either. I voted no endorsement all day! I may have been seen with a Hodges button on in the wee hours, but that was strictly pizza-related business.

It's a bird, it's a plane, no...it's a Dan Cohen for Mayor commercial on WCCO advocating for a downtown casino?

Schiff is out?!?

Not surprised, when his campaign manager walked after the endorsement convention.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Schiff for Mayor only sounded like a good idea when he was the only guy in the race. I like Gary and wish he had opted to stay on the council as Z&P Chair. His focus on code reform, specifically to benefit small business, will be missed. It sounds like Andrew Johnson is interested in taking on that role now, assuming he wins, but Schiff will still be missed. This is all assuming he supports the Dinkytown Opus project. If he votes against that, well, don't let the door hit ya!

Wow, didn't expect that he would drop out *completely*.

Also, he is not seeking re-election to 9th ward either

I only have two data points on Gary's view of the Opus Dinkytown project:
First, he was quoted as being worried about the loss of small business to redevelopment in a Daily article. Second, he was in the Save Dinkytown video. He wasn't speaking or anything, but there were a couple of seconds of him sitting at Loring Pasta Bar talking to a 4 or 5 people. I'm not sure why you would walk into Loring Pasta Bar and just happen to see Gary Schiff talking to some people at a table and just happen to properly setup the shot to capture the moment, so I think it's far more likely that he is involved in the movement (or at least is as involved as his position allows him). Based on what I read earlier about council members not really able to make statements about their views on these issues, I'm guessing this is the most we'll hear of him on the issue until he votes, and I think that he supports the Save Dinkytown group.

nice to see the cowardice of hodges and schiff on full display. way to pick up your toys and leave. bush league. blocking an endorsement everyone knew was coming is just pathetic and undemocratic.

It's much more complicated than this. First, I disagree with your assertion than an Andrew endorsement was a foregone conclusion. Everyone I talked to before the convention expected no endorsement.

Here's a good take from a Hodges supporter:

http://thuginpastels.com/2013/06/17/abo ... ck-a-mayor

The actions of Rick Stafford certainly do seem suspect. At the very least an endorsing convention should not be chaired by a supporter of any candidate in the race.

I think Javier makes an important point about the endorsement process and how it discourages participation. We've known for a long time that endorsements come from a sliver of the population and recently haven't meant a hill of beans in the election.

"A Mayor’s race should not be determined by a torturous war of attrition."

Amen.

The actions of Stafford and company have really turned me off to the Andrew campaign.

Thank God we elect candidates, and not their campaigns.

Thank God we elect candidates, and not their campaigns.

The campaign is a direct reflection of the candidate's values. The Andrew campaign had plenty of opportunity to put the kibosh on the shenanigans but supporters didn't seem to have a problem with what transpired. At the very least the campaign should disavow the actions of Stafford.