Minneapolis 2021 Elections - Mayor, City Council, BET, Park Board

[tedlanda2571]

There is not a path for police reform. The police have zero interest. The mayor has zero interest. They would prefer to payout multimillion dollar settlements every year than change one thing about their rotten department. Too bad for Minneapolis taxpayer, at least the guys who live in Anoka County won't have their feelwings hort.

I wouldn’t put it at zero, but I think you are largely correct.

How incredibly unfortunate that the Amendment 2 drafters and supporters botched this rare chance at reform with such ineptness. A classic case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

[uptownbro]

The CC and the supporters of amendment 2 really did seem to get in there own way. The best example of this is the wording of the question. "It could include police". Why not say it would as it would be required to via state law. There is no reason to say it could other then to turn off some voters. I know there was some talk about needing to include that due to legal reasons which may have been the case but that simple wording I think turned alot of people off who want major reform.
It sounds like 4 Yes will be changing its goals to go after the union which should unite the two sides of this issue

[Anondson]

It will be interesting to see what kind of contract renegotiation can happen when the police performed such an effective work avoidance effort just for a redesign of the org chart.

But come at them with a change to their labor contract, like the Star Tribune Ed Board thinks? Ooof.

[thespeedmccool]

I also think the amendment would have easily passed without people like Nezhad in the race. In conversations, people expressed concern that she would win and push for more cuts than people were comfortable with.

There was also a large disconnect between "police officers" and "policing." When people think danger is high, they like seeing a beat cop out and about even if they know policing and mass incarceration are broken. Lots saw Q2 as an amendment that would cut officers, not reform policing.

[twincitizen]

Question 2 failed by a wide enough margin that different/gentler wording probably wouldn't have saved it in this election. Personally, I would have voted yes had it not included the "if necessary" clause. That was just overconfident foolishness on behalf of the petition gatherers and Council majority that supported it. The City Council sets the final question language and could have removed "if necessary", correct?

I do think that Question 2 provoked such a strong negative response that it indirectly lead to Question 1 passing. Q1 didn't pass by that much, so I don't think it's a huge leap to venture that toning down Q2 (even if it still had failed, but been closer) may have averted Q1 from passing.

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As far as the Council goes, I'm sure I'm not the only one here that wants neither Michael Rainville nor Aisha Chugtai to be in charge of anything. The Council President will hold less power going forward, but committee chairs like Zoning & Planning and Transportation & Public Works will still matter a great deal. Both of those chairs lost last night (Schroeder and Reich, respectively).

Who would you all like to see chairing those committees? Z&P is a huge workload for a Councilmember that doesn't come with any extra compensation, due to needing to attend Planning Commission and PC Committee of the Whole (4 additional meetings per month, on top of other Council committees they may sit on and Council meetings). So you definitely want it to be someone who has a solid base-level understanding of land use stuff and the curiosity to learn more.

[mplsjaromir]

No matter the wording or how watered down a proposal, or what politicians were on the ballot the right wing pro business groups (who have no issue whatsoever with the police) would have fought tooth and nail against.

The only functioning newspaper is owned a partisan Republican who has stated he wants Minnesota to be "more conservative". The public radio media group is now run by his eldest daughter. The entire downtown business and media apparatus coalesced and pulled no punches obfuscating what the amendment's intent.

They got what they wanted, which is a police force more emboldened to do as they please. It is absolutely delusional to think that Frey would ever stand up to the union in any type of confrontation. Those who want a sanitized downtown office park / adult fun zone will now have their shock troops in place. Plans to hear damage done in the community? lol There's boneless wings on special in Andover tonite.

[Didier]

Overall a disappointing night in general. The big question now is, with the dust settled, whether Frey and the new council can get something done with policing.

Reading left-wing Minneapolis Twitter last night there was a lot of sentiment like mplsjaromir's above. And I get it, to some extent. But there's a tendency among progressives to view results like this as "everybody's racist and the world is ending," which is a little much.

Like many, I found the Frey-side politics surrounding the public safety amendment to be pretty cynical and disappointing. I also found the Star Tribune's endorsements to be frustratingly reductive, with the candidate's stance on A2 being the lone criteria. But I can't help but look at the broader situation and have some faith that, with this election now out of the way, there is opportunity for reform. Those Minnesota Poll results pretty clearly show that there's widespread dissatisfaction with Minneapolis policing. The Strib article from the other day about the lone officer who was punished during the riots was damning as well. So I really believe that last night was a vote against a bad plan, not a vote for the status quo.

We'll have to see what happens. Frey and others have claimed they will lead a reform within the system, and I understand why many have no faith this will happen. I'm more optimistic, but not confident. I guess now we see what happens.

[SurlyLHT]

Frey has been declared the winner for Mayor

[alexschief]

My impression of the new council is that the "moderate" block is much stronger. If you assume that Arab prevails in Ward 2 (my best guess, although anything can happen with such a tangled vote), Ellison survives in Ward 5 (not guaranteed), and nothing absolutely wild happens elsewhere, then I'd divide the council like this...

I was right about Ellison but wrong about Arab, so the progressive caucus actually looks a bit stronger than expected, albeit extremely young and inexperienced.

Progressives (5): Worlobah, Payne, Ellison, Chavez, Chughtai
Moderates (4): Vetaw, Osman, [presumed Council President] Jenkins, Johnson
[Relative] Conservatives (4): Rainville, Goodman, Koski, Palmisano,

[dajazz]

Reading left-wing Minneapolis Twitter last night there was a lot of sentiment like mplsjaromir's above. And I get it, to some extent. But there's a tendency among progressives to view results like this as "everybody's racist and the world is ending," which is a little much.

This. Saw some people in particular throwing out tweets like that soon as results started coming in.

Personally I’m not thrilled about Rainville, but after having worked with Fletcher I couldn’t vote for him again.

[phop]

Sad to see more of the competent progressives go down and the more grandstanding wing step in. My expectations for productivity during the next term are pretty low, hopefully they prove me wrong.

My opinion is that Q2 ended up leading as a classic wedge issue, and a lot of people lost who didn't necessarily have to if the question was not on the ballot.

[Silophant]

Yep. Ward 2, in particular, dumped an incumbent that, despite being an old white guy, got a ton of meaningful progressive policy pushed through in favor of someone who, based on her website, doesn't seem to have a single clue about what the city government actually can and can't do.

[John21]

I also think the amendment would have easily passed without people like Nezhad in the race. In conversations, people expressed concern that she would win and push for more cuts than people were comfortable with.

There was also a large disconnect between "police officers" and "policing." When people think danger is high, they like seeing a beat cop out and about even if they know policing and mass incarceration are broken. Lots saw Q2 as an amendment that would cut officers, not reform policing.

I don’t think Nezhad affected question 2 that much. It was the messaging after George Floyd that sunk it. The opposition used it to their advantage. I’m sure a large percentage of no voters went that way because they thought there would literally be no law enforcement if they voted yes.

[Carlos]

Overall a disappointing night in general. The big question now is, with the dust settled, whether Frey and the new council can get something done with policing.

Reading left-wing Minneapolis Twitter last night there was a lot of sentiment like mplsjaromir's above. And I get it, to some extent. But there's a tendency among progressives to view results like this as "everybody's racist and the world is ending," which is a little much.

Like many, I found the Frey-side politics surrounding the public safety amendment to be pretty cynical and disappointing. I also found the Star Tribune's endorsements to be frustratingly reductive, with the candidate's stance on A2 being the lone criteria. But I can't help but look at the broader situation and have some faith that, with this election now out of the way, there is opportunity for reform. Those Minnesota Poll results pretty clearly show that there's widespread dissatisfaction with Minneapolis policing. The Strib article from the other day about the lone officer who was punished during the riots was damning as well. So I really believe that last night was a vote against a bad plan, not a vote for the status quo.

We'll have to see what happens. Frey and others have claimed they will lead a reform within the system, and I understand why many have no faith this will happen. I'm more optimistic, but not confident. I guess now we see what happens.

So it looks like this may be a rough grouping of reforms of what the mayor and the council could consider next year. Obviously this is just a MOA between MPD and some community members so I am sure a lot of this could disappear or be watered down but there are some good reforms in this (along with a dose of grandstanding and reforms that have already passed). https://twitter.com/ninamoini/status/14 ... 62/photo/1

[amiller92]

Question 2 failed by a wide enough margin that different/gentler wording probably wouldn't have saved it in this election. Personally, I would have voted yes had it not included the "if necessary" clause.

Really??? I mean, "could?" means the same thing, right?

[amiller92]

Overall a disappointing night in general. The big question now is, with the dust settled, whether Frey and the new council can get something done with policing.

Frey is a coward who just wants to get along with the rich and powerful. There will be words, but there will be no leadership. Honestly, I'm not sure he could accomplish anything without Bender leading for him.

Will there be a new counsel president who can pull things along? I don't know.

So I really believe that last night was a vote against a bad plan, not a vote for the status quo.[/quote

Man, I wish I shared your optimism, but it's hard to conclude that the plan was "bad" when it was literally just a reorganization of city departments.

[Blaisdell Greenway]

I don’t think Nezhad affected question 2 that much. It was the messaging after George Floyd that sunk it. The opposition used it to their advantage. I’m sure a large percentage of no voters went that way because they thought there would literally be no law enforcement if they voted yes.

100% The election outcome was decided in June and July 2020 ("defund the police" and "go home Jacob" respectively). Same type of backlash happened in Austin, Portland and Seattle (Austin is already swinging back in the progressive direction).

Because of these fundamentals, the big money and lies probably didn't have a material effect on races except on Question 2, where it sufficiently muddied the waters enough to turn it into a culture war instead of the benign and esoteric Good Government referendum it was.

Maggie Koerth, who writes for 538 and lives in North Minneapolis summed it up perfectly for her article:
"Minneapolis Question 2 is a "defund the police" measure that doesn't. It's a movement towards reform that may not do that, either, depending on outcome of other races. And some people say they are voting for it for the same reasons others are voting no."

[MNdible]

I don't know the DSA candidates that won particularly well, but I'm curious if we're going to see an anti-gentrification / anti-development sentiment from them.

[alexschief]

Something I'm struck by is that in previous years, a really common prior occupation for newly elected councilmembers was "Council Aide" or "Mayoral Aide." People like Phillipe Cunningham hit the ground running because they already had a lot of familiarity with how the city worked, and that smoothed some of the challenges that would've otherwise come from so much turnover.

But here, after a third straight wave election, almost none of the newcomers have any experience within city government. Adding to that, they only have a two-year term to figure it out, and after the passage of the strong mayor amendment, their job has changed in ways that nobody really understands fully.

Even if the council was in accord ideologically, which of course they are not, they'd struggle to get things done. But I think when you add up all of these factors, it's really a recipe for a council that talks a lot and does very little.

[Blaisdell Greenway]

Lisa Bender is very good at her job as Council President. She both kept things together and kept things moving.

The DSA council candidates do have significant political experience with labor unions and at the state and federal level. I understand that these are quite different than municipalities, but the DSA CM's are going to be starting off very seasoned in the dynamics of legislating and negotiating power.