Election 2015: Keith Hardy

So the last candidate of the bunch is Keith Hardy.

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In my Facebook-based live-blogging about the endorsing convention last spring, I wrote, "We're tired of our children falling through the cracks!" says a Keith Hardy supporter who just reminded us he's running for a 3rd term.

Yeah. People are really tired of it. I think that might be the source of the entire throw-the-bums-out approach this year. Because chaotic classrooms, badly planned rollouts (either of technology or new policies), and teachers so miserable that you lose nine in one month from one school: that hurts all the kids. The privileged families are going to be loudest about it, because they have that sort of bone-deep middle class entitlement that tells them that their voices matter. But what they're complaining about isn't, "we're getting a smaller slice of the pie." They're saying, "this pie is ENTIRELY FUCKED." They're saying, "GUYS, we want there to be a pie, and instead you threw a bunch of things into a pie plate and shoved it into the oven for a while. Now I have a crescent wrench and a handful of Lego bricks on my plate, and putting a scoop of ice cream on top DID NOT TURN THOSE THINGS INTO FOOD." Inedible metaphorical pie doesn't feed anyone, but it is 10x worse to get inedible metaphorical pie if you don't have parents with the skills and equipment to bake you nourishing metaphorical pies at home.

Anyway. I am strongly inclined to vote for the four DFL-endorsed candidates this year.

Election 2015: St. Paul City Council, Ward Five

I have no council race in my own ward -- Chris Tolbert, who pronounces his last name toll-bert and not like Stephen Colbert's last name but with a T, is running unopposed. Given the complete and utter mess that was this summer's road construction projects, I find that a little surprising. Possibly it was such a hassle to get out of our neighborhood that possible opponents couldn't get down to City Hall to file?

Anyway, there are other wards that have interesting races in various ways and let me see if I can get through any of them before election day, which is Tuesday of this coming week.

Ward 5 has the following candidates:

Amy Brendmoen (incumbent)
David Glass
David Sullivan-Nightengale (endorsed by the Independence Party)

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If you really loathe Amy Brendmoen, I guess you can pick between the resentful failed businessman and the slightly paranoid safety engineer for your 1st and 2nd choice. (St. Paul has ranked-choice voting, so you can order them by preference, you don't have to pick just one.)

Otherwise, vote for Amy.

Election 2015: St. Paul City Council, Ward One

The Ward One candidates are:

Trahern Crews (Green Party)
Dai Thao (Incumbent, DFL Party)

Dai Thao's website starts out with the statement, "My whole life has prepared me for the position of Councilmember for Ward 1. I was born in Laos and escaped the communist regime there as a youth. I survived refugee camps in Thailand and came to Minneapolis, where I grew up in a housing project." That made me blink and think that this may be an excessive level of preparation for the St. Paul City Council. He also calls out some of his top accomplishments (he was elected for the first time two years ago -- I think maybe someone resigned mid-term, since terms are normally four years long): "We approved Paid Parental Leave, secured pool vouchers for low-income youth and supported the Women's Economic Security Act, ensuring all women contractors are paid the same as men."

Before taking office he worked as a community organizer for Take Action MN (working against the evil constitutional amendments of 2012) and ISAIAH (organizing to help people in poverty, basically). You really could not ask for a candidate more committed to racial and economic justice and progressive issues.

Trahern Crews is Green Party endorsed. He starts off by saying he wants to end government tax breaks to Wal-Mart (does the City of St. Paul even give tax breaks to Wal-Mart? I mean, I suppose it's possible?) and then says he wants to implement rent control. Rent control is a terrible idea. (Though I'm not super surprised that a Green-endorsed candidate would disagree with me on that issue.)

His website looks fully functional but if you click the donations link it says "Online donations coming soon!" and then suggests you set up a meeting with Trahern to give him a donation in person. Since the election is on Tuesday, I'm thinking that online donations are not coming soon.

And that's fine with me, because Dai Thao is absolutely the person I would vote for if I were a resident of Ward 1.